City council member proposes fishing ban on Naples Pier

Fisherman James Cummings grew up going to the Naples Pier.

“To do a little bit of fishing there — was a staple of this community for decades,” Cummings said.

A Naples City Council member suggested banning fishing off the pier.

“Shutting it down doesn’t make any sense to me,” Cummings said.

Councilwoman Linda Penniman said she wanted to protect pelicans from fishing hooks.

It’s a big problem, according to the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.

“There are issues with birds being injured at the pier that is not up for debate, we have the numbers,” said Joanna Fitzgerald, of Von Arx Wildlife Hospital.

The conservancy said it took in half the amount of injured birds as usual, after Hurricane Irma damaged the pier, and the city closed it for fishing.

Gene Luciano is an angler who supports a ban.

“It’s always been a problem with the pelicans getting hooked the people don’t have enough respect for the birds,” Luciano said.

A lot of people who heard about the idea called Penniman to complain. She says she’s reeling it in, and casting a net on education instead.

That’s something most people I talked to can get behind.

“There’s ways around all this stuff instead of shutting it down for the hundreds of thousands of people who visit the pier each year and cutting that out for everybody,” Cummings said.

Penniman is asking the conservancy to put volunteers on the pier to educate fisherman, but the conservancy said it would be better to have city employees on the job.

Update: Council members have since decided not to discuss the issue in their upcoming meeting.