Moody Gardens accused of over-collecting fish at popular Florida diving spot

Moody Gardens, a popular Galveston aquarium and tourist destination, is being accused of legally over-collecting fish at a popular Florida diving spot, raising questions about marine conservation and sustainability.

Jim Abernethy, a marine wildlife preservationist and owner of a scuba diving business, recently posted a petition calling for an end to the removal of marine life from Blue Heron Bridge, a frequented diving site close to West Palm Beach.

In the petition, Abernethy accused staff working on behalf of Moody Gardens, Texas A&M's Department of Marine Biology and the Smithsonian Marine Station of Ft. Pierce, of going on a week-long job at the diving spot to extract marine life.

Abernethy said the collection of fish at the diving site was completely legal, done so with a permit issued by the Florida Department of Fish & Wildlife, a fact the agency confirmed with Chron.com.

The permit gave Moody Gardens permission to collect fish from multiple counties, but Abernethy said Moody Gardens staff gathered the wildlife from only one location— a claim Moody Gardens has rejected

In a statement, Florida Fish and Wildlife said Moody Gardens was properly permitted to collect fish from the diving site and said no "no violations were observed."

Despite committing no legal wrongdoings, Florida Fish and Wildlife ultimately amended the aquarium's permit, barring Moody Gardens from continuing to collect fish from the area. In addition, the amended permit stipulated that species gathered by Moody Gardens "must be collected across multiple sites so that no single location is disproportionately impacted."

In an interview, Abernethy said he received a call over the weekend alerting him of Moody Garden's presence at the diving site. When he arrived, he said he spotted three men wearing Moody Gardens wetsuits.

"I saw this enormous rental truck where they were putting the fish," Abernethy said. "They were in the water for more than two hours, when they finally came out the sun was setting."

Abernethy said he confronted the men, who produced a permit and told him they had been collecting fish at the area for a week.

Another curious diver who was present, Abernethy said, was allowed onto the rental truck and relayed what he saw to Abernethy.

"He said 'I saw everything I've ever seen in the [Blue Heron] Bridge, hundreds of fish,'" Abernethy said.

In a statement, Moody Gardens flatly rejected the accusations, calling them false and based off incorrect information.

"Claims that Moody Gardens has collected thousands of fish from the Blue Heron Bridge dive site in Florida are misinformed and untrue," said Moody Gardens CEO John Zendt. "We collected a total of 50 fish and 12 invertebrates over a seven-day period and were well below what the permits allowed."

Moody Gardens also addressed calls to return the fish to their original habitat.

"This would be environmentally irresponsible as the specimens were housed in common water systems with other animals that could pose risks for introducing novel pathogens," said Moody Gardens Animal Husbandry Manager Greg Whittaker. "It would also be impossible to determine which of the fish and invertebrates were sourced at Blue Heron Bridge versus the other collection sites."

"We applaud the environmental protectionism that these local advocates are showing as it aligns squarely with our mission," he said.

Moody Gardens said it had gathered fish from three sites, Blue Heron Bridge, the Blue Heron Bridge Snorkel Trail and the Fort Pierce Marina Dock— a dock found some 60 miles north of the Blue Heron Bridge.

The Texas A&M Department of Marine Biology did not comment on the story and said Moody Gardens would be handling press questions over the incident.

Fernando Ramirez covers Texas news and politics. Read him on our breaking news site and on our subscriber site. | Fernando.ramirez@chron.com | @fernramirez93

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