Hey guys thought I would post this for you all to read very carefully!
This can be for all areas in the future so don't take it so lightly!
The next section of recreational proposals will deal
with enforcement and other things discussed at last
weeks meeting in Portsmouth. Remember these are
only proposals by a group trying to come up with
solutions and some of them won't make it to the
final proposal that will be presented as another plan
sometime next Fall or Winter. I will add my usual 2
cents after each proposal and remember that I am
looking at it as a WIIFM (What's in it for me?).
ENFORCEMENT: Charter/party boat captain/owner
shall be held responsible for any possesion
violations. Violators shall have their licenses
surrendered for one year and the vessel shall be
fined $1,000 per violation.(I or my other captains or
crew have no law enforcement training at all. It is a
sure bet that this will bring on big trouble if this were
made the law, for all people involved)
Any recreational angler caught selling, bartering or
trading an edibally recreationally caught fish, shall
receive a fine of not less than $,1000 per incident(
Okay by me, this should be the law for all
rec/charter/party anglers. The people that are
breaking the law and in possesion of the fish should
be responsible for their own actions).
REPORTING: Charter/party boats shall report to NMFS
on a monthly basis with reports being received within
2 weeks of the close of the proceeding month, a
dailly weight of harvest by species. This may require
a revision of the current vessel trip report forms( We
do this already on charter/party boats)
Private recreational fishers shall contact a toll free
reporting center with a daily harvest, by
number,weight and species. This report shall be
made within seven calendar days of harvest.
Presently this data is collected by the MRFSSsurveys.
There are recognized and acknowledged problems
with this information. The proposed call in system
should be no less accurate, and probably no more
reliable( I think they are telling us they want to do
something that they know will not work. There are
ways to find out what private boats are catching and
we will get into it on this site sometime soon.)
FUTURE PROVISIONS: Could be considered comedy
or tragic
Any jig used in the recreational sector shall contain a
single harvest hook. No treble hooks may be used (
A commercial guy can strech nets all over the ocean
and kill 12,000 pounds to keep 400 pounds and
there worried about a frigging treble hook).
Cicle hooks are required for all bait fishing for gulf of
maine cod( We have been using circle hooks,11/0
and 12/0, for 3 years.
Consideration of recreational S/W Fishing permit for
recreational fisheries, with proceeds for permits to
defray costs of permitting and enforcement.
Charter/party boats shall be assesed a fee of $3.00
per patron per day for each patron fishing aboard a
charter/party vessel, with fees to be used to defray
coats of monitoring and enforcement. ( This is why
people that don't know what they are talking about
get other people in trouble. People have been
recreational fishing off the New England Coast for
almost 500 years! Now everyone needs a license
right away because it's the right thing to do.
BULL****! They offered to give everyone a license so
they could call in their catch and now they want
people that go out on charter/party boats to pay
three dollars each for nothing? Charter/party boats
already have trip reports and a license for the boat!
What gives with that provision?)
Freeze the issuance of charter/party boat permits to
reduce the efforts in future fishing. (In other words if
you have been a private fisherman in your own boat
and have had it in the back of your mind that
someday after you retire or need to have an extra
income and a charter boat was in your dream, forget
about it! Home Depot is hiring. Your name will be put
on a list and when someone sells out of the business
you move up a notch. Then the people watching the
waiting list will give the permit to his son in law.
Personally, it would make a fish permit for my boat
worth money to sell to someone, but then I am in
this up to my neck because my son wants to stay in
the industry).
This is only a rough draft that was given to me by our
rep at the meeting. He said it was a good experience
to see how the process worked, but he really didn't
have much say as to the proposals. But, I am
warning everyone reading this, if you like to fish in
the Gulf of Maine we are going to have to fight to
keep this rite the way we want it to be. Remember, it
is a mid term election and we have to make fishing a
real big deal this time!
