Bruiser
Old Mossy Horns
It's getting nasty downeast. Should be an interesting documentary.
http://www.wral.com/wral-documentary-net-effect-/14929877/
http://www.wral.com/wral-documentary-net-effect-/14929877/
Gillnets...like hunting with dogs.
Gillnets...like hunting with dogs.
I wasn't aware people sold deer meat to make a living.
People will sell anything that someone will buy. Deer, fish, shrimp...if you want it, someone will sell it.
Something needs to be done somehow to get the fishing back closer to what it used to be. My family enjoys fishing, but we don't make the trip to the coast any longer to sit and catch a few little sharks or skates. When I was in my early teens, which is only about 15 years ago, we fished at least every other weekend and could boat some decent catches. In the past five years, I don't think we have pulled in more than 2 keeper fish on any outing.
I dont know if the nets are the cause, but something has changed.
I agree the issues facing our fishery are complex but milliions of pounds of dead bycatch in shrimp trawls annually can't be doing the fishery any favors. Not to mention a majority of that bycatch is three very important rec sepcies of spot, gray trout, and croaker.
I agree the issues facing our fishery are complex but milliions of pounds of dead bycatch in shrimp trawls annually can't be doing the fishery any favors. Not to mention a majority of that bycatch is three very important rec sepcies of spot, gray trout, and croaker.
Before anybody uses that last sentence to jump on the commercial guys, more fish are caught/killed annually by sport fishermen than commercial fishermen.
If anything gill net usage has gone down since then, as more and more commercial guys go part-time or leave the industry altogether. Nets aren't the boogeyman. Loss of habitat, particularly in the salt marshes along the Atlantic coast and in the gulf is huge. Overfishing in general is also a major issue for the majority of our fisheries. Before anybody uses that last sentence to jump on the commercial guys, more fish are caught/killed annually by sport fishermen than commercial fishermen. The problems facing our fisheries are complex. They can't be magically solved by the creation of a boogeyman like the anti-netters seem to think.
Chemical run off....hmmmn, I'm in the "chemical" business. I'm curious as to what chemicals you are referring to that are killing all the fish. I'd really like to see some links. I'm going to search around and see what I can find as well. What I'm looking for is a source that has been documented that found a specific chemical in dead fish.
If you find one please share...this has peaked my interest as well.
Here, I'm probably not as educated as you scientist and chemical salesmen but even I can google.
http://water.epa.gov/type/oceb/nep/challenges.cfm
Funny how a local still can go out and still get a limit many days and really, sometimes they're actually just not biting. BTW....we have guides down here for you folks who are challenged...
Wow, guess no rec ever gut-hooked a short. If you want to see fish like you use to just declare a moratorium on all of it, rec and commercial inshore...for about 5 years. Then, when you find that you can't really blame it all on those two, you can find the real culprits of chemical run-off and marsh/wetland encroachment.