Response to PTTS mom from island resident

Dear Brenda Barton of “The Villages?”

I too am a wife and mother of fishing guides, third and fourth generation Boca Grande guides to be precise. I have supported this island’s businesses and it’s community for 40 years. Unfortunately, you can say all you want, my dear, but it doesn’t make what you say true.

Uncalled for attack? Excuse me, but we have let your offspring take over a 100-year-old fishery and decimate it of its large breeding female tarpon.

Revenue dollars??? That is a stretch.

There are extreme measures taken in the handling of the tarpon while gaffing, dragging, weighing and lifting them out of the water for a photo op. I agree, that is extreme.

Respectfully handling the (bumper) boats? What Pass are you in? The pounding of the tarpon by these boats as soon as they rise to take air into their rudimentary lung is nothing short of an assault.

I cannot go any further. Your letter is an insult to my intelligence.

Very sincerely,

Kathy Y. Futch

Boca Grande