Diver Miglini, not your typical angler, is 2008 Boatman of Year
BY PHIL REYNOLDS SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

2008 Boatman of the Year MICHAEL MIGLINI

Michael Miglini might not strike some as a candidate for the Port Aransas Boatmen Inc. Boatman of the Year. That's because they may know Miglini as a SCUBA diving angler instead of a traditional rod-and-reel fisherman.

That ignores Miglini's role in the organization, his work toward more equitable fishing quotas for recreational anglers and his job as a charter boat owner, however.

"I first came to Port Aransas as a boat captain," Miglini recalled. "I saw the dock (where Port Aransas Boatmen Inc. members moor their boats), heard about the organization, and got to know some people through their interest in the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and fishing permits and moratoriums."

He related how, when he first applied for a permit, the NMFS lost a certified letter from him.

"Somewhere in the process (of trying to straighten that out), I met (Mike) Nugent and (Mike) Firestone and other Boatmen," he said. Nugent and Firestone are longtime and core members of Port Aransas Boatmen Inc.

"I originally just wanted a slip at the Boatmen's dock," Miglini laughed, "but by the time I joined, it was because I liked the people in Port Aransas."

Miglini said he's done civic work since he was a youngster. He's volunteered with youth organizations, church groups and college societies.

"I've always wanted to do something with the community," he said. "I've never seen a group of people with the quality and integrity of Port Aransas Boatmen Inc."

"It's so ingrained in Port Aransas," he said of the organization. "I got involved because I really wanted to be involved in the community."

After trying with limited success to find a boat to take him into the Gulf of Mexico spear fishing, Miglini said he decided to have a charter boat of his own to take divers to oil rigs off the coast, and to hire a knowledgeable crew to man it.

"I'm a Texas boy, and I don't want to leave Texas," Miglini said. "I've been from Texas- Louisiana (border) to Texas-Mexico (border), and I stayed in every little town and talked to the people. I picked Port Aransas as the absolute best place on the Texas Gulf Coast."

Then, Miglini noticed that federal authorities were changing fishing laws and cutting seasons for anglers.

"I wasn't seeing a reason for the punishment," he said.

That's when he began working to monitor federal involvement and to argue recreational anglers' cases before such groups as the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Council and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Virtually every hearing held in Texas will find Miglini there, either taking notes or making a presentation - or both.

Though he's a diver, Miglini's favorite angling trip was one as a boat owner - a brandnew boat owner.

"I finally got my boat up and going. Some people who knew me chartered a trip, and as I was leaving the dock with my first group of customers, I was scared spitless that I was going to screw it up," he recalled.

"We caught our limit of red snapper on the Liberty ships (obsolete vessels sunk offshore as artificial reefs) within a couple of hours of leaving port. Coming in, we trolled and caught even more fish. They had booked an eight-hour trip, and I gave them 10 hours, I was so happy."

Miglini's also had his share of not-so-happy trips. Take, for instance, the one where he was out with anglers in a 60-knot wind with hail hitting him in the face. Or the one where a diver ran out of air and nearly drowned, until a rescue helicopter picked him off the boat and took him to a hospital.

But the absolute worst trip Miglini remembers is the one "a couple of years ago" when his clients wanted to catch fish on an oil rig in federal waters, and "all we could catch was red snapper," he said. "They wanted grouper, and we were catching snapper hand over fist - and I had to tell them, 'Sorry, the federal government says they're endangered and we can't keep them.' That was a low point."

Miglini is grim about the future of recreational angling if things continue on their present path, "Knowing this year we're looking at rising fuel prices, and knowing we're getting knives put in our back (by the federal government) for speaking our minds."

Still, he's both optimistic and happy to be a member of Port Aransas Boatmen, Inc. - especially when he thinks of the group's scholarship efforts.

"It's so important, the effect Boatmen have on the community," he said. "Those students will carry their appreciation with them the rest of their lives."