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Cod Tossed Back in the eye of NMFS

850 views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  Capt. Marc 
#1 ·
100% of the codfish tossed back from Partyboat or Charter boats (discarded on NMFS trip report) are considered DEAD in the eyes of the NMFS and count against any quota or statistic.

This is totally wrong.

They want to put a bag limit of 15 codfish on party boats and charter boats like what is being proposed now. They want to raise the size limit to 23" from 21". More fish will end up being tossed back to get to the 15 fish limit right. This increase in fish tossed back will only say that more fish were killed and in the eyes of NMFS, The recreational take (catch = lbs kept + lbs discarded) will increase when in reality it would decrease because less fish will be kept.

Does this happen with other fish? Does a 14" fluke count as only dead when tossed back from a partyboat? Do all those fluke tossed back get subtracted from NY and other states quota?

Do you see a big problem here!

Capt. Marc
 
#2 ·
read this

Funny you say this? being good friends with Joe huck I was just sent this info. I'll post it here for all to see.
the NMFS are clueless that is the problem with the control of all fisheries! the post is there but hard to read. the site limits the dpi and size if you want to read it just right click on it save the image and open it in a program capable of reading jpeg's.
 

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#5 ·
DoctorFish,

Yes they do. Lbs landed and lbs discarded on the Trip report. The difference is that each cod a rec throws back has a much better chance of living then what is squashed in the back of a trawl for 2-3 hrs at 2.5 kts.

I watched a video the other day of a trawl going along the bottom fishing for cod. The cod see the net coming and stay between the two doors which send up a wall of sand and mud they don't want to swim thru. With the net behind them they maintain the same speed of the net and as they tire, only then do they fall further and further back into the net. While falling back into the net they stay in the center of the net (tunnel) away from the mesh. When they are compleatly exausted, only then do they end up in the cod end. By then it is usually too late for them to escape thru the mesh which may be big enough for them to squeeze thru. The smaller fish usually end up in the back of the net first because it takes more energy for them to maintain the boat speed (smaller tails beat faster then larger ones). The biggest fish can actually maintain the boat speed for a long time.

So you think larger mesh helps (not really).

Capt. Marc
 
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