Before I give my thoughts I?d like to remind everyone that any name calling ridiculing or basic rude behavior will result your being banned from the site. This is truly an important issue as we witness the destruction of another one of our inshore fisheries so please let?s be civil.
With that out of the way . . .
The true killer of blackfish is the tens of thousands of pots that target them annually. This fishery was in great shape before potting was introduced, and that simply can?t be denied.
Tog were predominantly a recreational fish with 80% of the fishery being taken by recreational anglers up until the late 80?s early 90?s. At that time commercial pin hooking on open and charter boats was perfectly legal and had limited restrictions, lobstermen were keeping a small by-catch and the hook and line commercials were also fishing. And in spite of this, the fishery thrived. Now we have severe restrictions on commercial hook and line, commercial and recreational bag limits, limited seasons, size minimum increases, and yet the fishery still heads into decline.
Fishery?s managers need to stop the targeting of live blackfish by pots before we ever see any restoration of this once great bottom fishery. I honestly believe that as long as blackfish are targeted by hook and line they will be fine. When you set a trap inside their environment, an environment that they seek for shelter, and then you throw a female in there as an added attraction during the spawn, you have a combination for disaster.
A few years back, while President of the New York Chapter of the CCA, I was involved in blackfish legislation that restricted commercial possession limits from 50 fish to 25 fish, and the bill outlawed the practice of storing fish in a pot for future use. Unfortunately commercial pin-hookers, one of the traditional users of the fishery, caught the brunt of this law, but it was necessary. While working on that bill we tried hard to get the number of blackfish pots restricted but there was a number of obstacles so they decided to first get a count of them, which has still yet to be done! It has been reported that a few individuals have thousands of these pots
This is not a commercial/recreational issue; this is fish pots against everyone. The devastation on the population caused by this fishery has left recreational anglers looking at a one-fish bag limit, the possibility of lobstermen not being able to keep their traditional catch, and hook and line fishermen facing a serious reduction. Yet fish potters will probably see little reduction if any at all as we don?t even know how many of them there are, or how many fish they?re killing!
So please try not to fight amongst ourselves, because until we address the fish pot issue the blackfish has little if any chance at all of recovery.
Respectfully,
George R. Scocca
Publisher, Nor'east Saltwater
With that out of the way . . .
The true killer of blackfish is the tens of thousands of pots that target them annually. This fishery was in great shape before potting was introduced, and that simply can?t be denied.
Tog were predominantly a recreational fish with 80% of the fishery being taken by recreational anglers up until the late 80?s early 90?s. At that time commercial pin hooking on open and charter boats was perfectly legal and had limited restrictions, lobstermen were keeping a small by-catch and the hook and line commercials were also fishing. And in spite of this, the fishery thrived. Now we have severe restrictions on commercial hook and line, commercial and recreational bag limits, limited seasons, size minimum increases, and yet the fishery still heads into decline.
Fishery?s managers need to stop the targeting of live blackfish by pots before we ever see any restoration of this once great bottom fishery. I honestly believe that as long as blackfish are targeted by hook and line they will be fine. When you set a trap inside their environment, an environment that they seek for shelter, and then you throw a female in there as an added attraction during the spawn, you have a combination for disaster.
A few years back, while President of the New York Chapter of the CCA, I was involved in blackfish legislation that restricted commercial possession limits from 50 fish to 25 fish, and the bill outlawed the practice of storing fish in a pot for future use. Unfortunately commercial pin-hookers, one of the traditional users of the fishery, caught the brunt of this law, but it was necessary. While working on that bill we tried hard to get the number of blackfish pots restricted but there was a number of obstacles so they decided to first get a count of them, which has still yet to be done! It has been reported that a few individuals have thousands of these pots
This is not a commercial/recreational issue; this is fish pots against everyone. The devastation on the population caused by this fishery has left recreational anglers looking at a one-fish bag limit, the possibility of lobstermen not being able to keep their traditional catch, and hook and line fishermen facing a serious reduction. Yet fish potters will probably see little reduction if any at all as we don?t even know how many of them there are, or how many fish they?re killing!
So please try not to fight amongst ourselves, because until we address the fish pot issue the blackfish has little if any chance at all of recovery.
Respectfully,
George R. Scocca
Publisher, Nor'east Saltwater
