National Marine Fisheries Service screws us again!
Capt. Charlie Walker
Bulletin, Dec. 20, 1999, No change is made in the commercial gill net
king mackerel quota for fishing year 2000, only an opening date change
so the season does not include a federal holiday as it did in 1999.
After the first week there are weekend closures for commercial gill
netting if king mackerel (as it the gill-netters care!). In 1999 there
was a quota of 1.8 million pounds of king mackerel. It was exceeded by
more than 2 million pounds according to most estimates. Not only did
the season close with an 800,000 pound overage that was reported to
the feds, but netters were seen landing hundreds of thousands of
pounds of fish two weeks after the season closed. The main problem is,
THERE IS NO ENFORCEMENT and National Marine Fisheries Service appears
to be in the pocket of the commercial industry. One measure for 2000
that is ridiculous, is that they are not allowing the captain or crew
on charter vessels to keep their two fish limit of king mackerel, but
no change is made in the netters quota!
The 1999 king mackerel run on the west coast of Florida was the worst
that we have seen since 1978 when even the NMFS admitted that the
netters had collapsed the stocks of king mackerel. We have written to
NMFS and attended hearings regarding this matter, all to no avail.
They continue to allow gill netting of king mackerel in Florida Bay
every winter. If you are not familiar with king mackerel netting, the
nets have a stretched mesh opening of 4 3/4 inches. This allows fish
from approximately 8 to 15 pounds to be gilled. All other mackerel
larger than that will simply push against the net (they have no
reverse gear) until they die and fall to the bottom. This constitutes
the majority of the schools of fish in Florida Bay dead and rotting on
the bottom. These netted fish are not food-quality fish. They remain
in the nets in 80 plus degree water for hours and are brought aboard
the boats by hydraulic roller rigs that smash the fish as they roll
over it and then lay in a pile on the back of the boat for even
longer, un-iced. No one in their right mind would eat this product
after it is mis-handled in this manner.
On the other hand, the hook and line commercial king mackerel
fishermen supply a quality product to the market and can supply all
the fish that the market can bear. Gill netting is not needed for the
food fish market. There are only a handful of these netters left that
NMFS is protecting. We need to have our legislators demand that NMFS
buy back these few licenses and stop the wholesale slaughter and waste
of this precious resource.
Capt.charlie Walker
Offshore Fishing on the West Coast of Florida
Southern Charm Charters
http://www.flfish.com/fl
capt...@flfish.com
TimeR...@lvcm.com
Capt Walker, I can sympathize with your plight. Same situation in the
Great Lakes. It is a discouraging situation. Some people even resort
to vigilantism, and vandalism. It must be stopped before it begins,
as often do more damage to the fish populations. Case in point:
Cutting the floats off of a gill net accomplish only one thing....It
allows the net to "fish" all by itself for the life of the net. When
a fish decays, it usually bloats and floats. As the netted fish
floats, it aids in holding up part of the net. This allows the net to
catch more fish. This cycle can repeat until the net itself decays.
Time to light a fire under your legislators!
--
When a person delegates their responsibilities to another, that person loses the right to complain about the misuse of those responsibilities.
CasaCass
years or so. Mostly little "snakes" in the 3 to 5 pound class, even the
spanish populations are dropping. The NMFS consistantly sides with the
commercial fishing interests and penalizes the recreational quota side. If you
want to help stocks recover, all segments of the fishery should chip in
equally! The new rules for Gag grouper are another example, stick it to the
recreationals without doing much if anything to the commercials. Just more
graft and influence peddling going on with little or no scientific study done
to actually fix the problems, or when the science is there with the actual
facts, the NMFS blatently ignores it!
>National Marine Fisheries Service screws us again! Southeast Fishery
>Bulletin, Dec. 20, 1999, No change is made in the commercial gill net
>king mackerel quota for fishing year 2000, only an opening date change
>so the season does not include a federal holiday as it did in 1999.
Captain Dave Cassidy
Naples, Florida
Casa...@AOL.com
(941)352-7292
mike
americans do you want to force out of a job. The newest regulations
made an impact, as planned. The marine resources have rebounded! Any
complaining now it seems is by the activists, or by people who have a
vested interest, such as guides like yourself. The regulations have
specific goals and rules. If you have a problem with the regulations
not being enforced, you do not need regulation you need to report the
illegal harvesting and kills.
--
Mike..
A true fisherman approaches the first day of fishing
much as a child approaches Christmas, with the eager
anticipation, sleepless nights, making of lists,
and the anticipating of pleasure.
TimeR...@lvcm.com
wrote:
>Wasn't the last gill fishing net ban enough? How many more hard working
>americans do you want to force out of a job. The newest regulations
>made an impact, as planned. The marine resources have rebounded! Any
>complaining now it seems is by the activists, or by people who have a
>vested interest, such as guides like yourself. The regulations have
>specific goals and rules. If you have a problem with the regulations
>not being enforced, you do not need regulation you need to report the
>illegal harvesting and kills.
Mike, I admit that I am not familiar with the current plight in
Florida, but is there not another way to harvest these fish? Gill
nets are NOT prejudice in what they take, and virtually all fish taken
are killed, weather or not they are the targeted species.
CasaCass
constitutional admendment vote by the citizens of Florida. Why? Because
groups like the NMFS turned a blind eye to what was happening and protected the
commercial fishing interests, at the expense of the recreational side of the
fishery. The NMFS was established to promote and help commercial fishing in
the US with little thought about the recreational aspects. Once the state of
Florida found that commercial gill netting brought in $1.3 billion in revenue
to an estimated 2500 full time netters and recreational fishing associated with
just tourism ( not including resident spending ) was responsible for $9 billion
annually and over 2 million jobs, the citizens voted to protect an asset that
keeps us with no state income tax here in Florida. Kind of a no brainer, huh.
The NMFS is now proceeding to screw the interests of a majority of its citizens
at finacial interests of about 25 large scale commercial harvest operations.
There is no enforcement for the current laws, so now they are making new regs
that the commercials will still ignore and abuse as well. Meanwhile the
recreational interests who do get checked frequently by the Florida Marine
Patrol, loose out!