For those of you who are interested: The Rhode Island Marine Fisheries Council has on its New Business agenda this evening a "Discussion on density of fish pots in near-shore areas".

This is an issue I brought up in a past thread. As many of you know some of our surf fishing areas have recently become innundated with an influx of pot buoys. Newport, Narragansett and Watch Hill areas have been affected.

I will be at the meeting tonight to address the council - anyone else with a stake in this matter is encouraged to attend. The meeting will be held at 6pm at the Corless Auditorium of the URI Narragansett Bay Campus in Narragansett. This is your chance to help clear surf fishing areas from problem pot buoys.

Hope to see you there.

DZ

:ss:

This is your chance to help clear surf fishing areas from problem pot buoys.

Break out the Canal jigging rod and 65lb PP.

You can clear pots NP.
Just duck when they start shooting. :hidin:

Dennis...

As usual, I applaude you in your efforts to help the surf-fishermen. There are few that put so many hours in..for the sake of so many. I'm sure many feel like I do...and from all of us, I say THANK YOU. Your efforts are ALWAYS appreciated.

Side-note: I'm assuming that when you state your addressing the council, that your going well equipped with valuable data to present to them in your presentation. Point being: I cannot make it, but if a head-count helps our efforts, maybe others who may be intimidated by open speech could still attend to show support. Just a thought -

and again, MANY THANKS TO YOU! :kewl:
Bloo

One thing you're gonna have to research is how many of them are comm's.
Because they make decisions FOR the comm's before the rec's.

Dennis,
I thought you handled that whoe thing very well last night. Its going to take a while to resolve itself but I think you made a start at least with those two lobsetrmen that were in the audience.

Overview of last nights meeting:
Council member George Allen introduced the issue and then let me speak my part. I gave the council an overview of the issue - surf fishing areas innundated with pot bouys where very few buoys existed in the past essentially closing them off to surf fishing. I went into possible reasons, one reason could be the emerging popularity of "fish pots" but said I couldn't differentiate between lobster and fish pot buoys. I told the council we were not looking to regulate (at this point) the pot setting but looking to broker some kind of agreement with local lobstermen/fish potters on where they set pots so there is no conflict. As luck would have it two of the local potters were at the meeting - I kind of expected they might be because I passed the word to a few local lobsterman I know that we wanted some pots moved off the cliff walk, I guess word passed around the docks pretty fast. Well, word got out to these guys. Well they said the normal commercial spiel, trying to make a living, can't set out where the trawls are, the lobsters are close, my dad was a lobsterman and always set his pots there, etc.
Rather than dispute everything he said I gave him my phone number and told him I wanted to talk about the areas in question and see if we can get him to move certain pots. He told me he would call me soon.
The council also said they would help broker an agreement and get all the sides together.
I also mentioned other areas where there are pot conflicts such as Narragansett and Watch Hill - these areas will have to come up when surf fishermen that fish those places send a letter to the council.
At this point I'm waiting for the local lobsterman to contact me - I'll keep everyone advised. If he doesn't want to come to an agreement we'll push the issue and try and regulate the fishery out of the problem areas.

Thank you to RIRockhound and Crafty Angler for being there!
DZ

This year I decided to put in 10 lobster pots. I will put them out of casting range and away from main boat traffic. I know your frustration. :exp:

I have to say that some of my favorite fishing spots both from shore and boat have been littered with pots. One spot off Quicks hole had so many pots I could not drift thru without getting hung up. I spoke to a few lobsterman about this last fall. Why so many pots? They claim that lobstering in non-Maine waters is pretty poor and in order for them to make a living they need more pots. :doh: I usually rolled my eyes and said...does that seem like the right fix to this problem? More pots because the fishing is poor? It is the commercial mentality. I do not think you will have much success, the reason is they think like this: " I am doing this for a living, it is important to me. You are surf fishing for recreation, you should not impact what I do for a living." This is their thinking and while you may get them to move a few pots for a spell I can bet they are on the dock laughing at the thought of changing their fishing habbits for you.

Nice work DZ u get more bee's wit honey.lets see how it works out.could just be a stahling tactic.

Well, I've got to say I walked out of the RIMFC meeting last night shaking my head and woke up early this morning with a sizable bug up my arse.

DZ did the right thing trying to work out an amicable agreement with the guys who are setting their pots and traps in that area rather than get DEM involved from the git-go. The fisheries boards, both state and federal, are well-known for applying the same commercial mentality Mr. Sandman describes regarding what is supposed to be a "shared" resource - that view being that their rights supercede ours.

And if there was ever any doubt about it last night, the Chairman of the Council, who is XO of RI DEM - in response to DZ's letter and comments from George Allen - said, and I quote, "We can't tell these guys what kind of gear they can use or where they can put it."

I beg your ******** pardon? :huh::confused::huh:

I said to RIROCKHOUND, isn't that precisely what they do with fish traps and gill nets? Steve Medeiros, RISAA's president and a Council member, said the same thing from his position on the board.

At this point, I hope Dennis will be successful in working out a gentlemen's agreement to resolve the situation before it gets tangled in the bias of the regulatory agencies.

We'll see, I suppose.

Chuck;
we've fought traps in the past, but I think they are regulated differently than all other types of gear; I'm not arguing for the commercial guys but I think that Mark is concerned that it would set a dangerous precedent if they started doing that..

Do any other states deal with this issue? (Mass/Maine?)

I said to RIROCKHOUND, isn't that precisely what they do with fish traps and gill nets? Steve Medeiros, RISAA's president and a Council member, said the same thing from his position on the board.

Most of the time the only reason they'll move gear is if its deemed a hazard to navigation, even then, they kick and scream while they move it.

Then again up in downeast maine you can navigate by the damn trawls.

IMO, its slippery road to try to pass a law to get lobstermen to not place pots close to shore... If you look at the flipside, this is just like the proposal to limit shore fishing around fishtraps. We all went ballistic when we heard that, and some of us even said that the fish trap Co's dont own the land or the water that they are on, so why should they have 100% access to it. In a few places that I and my friends fish at there is a huge pot problem and we deal with it by scouting durring the day and then we try to remember where they are.... Sadly, one of my fishing partners lost his biggist fish of the season to a lobster pot...

There could be a comprimise though- lobstermen could at least do trawls with multiple pots to reduce the amount of bouys, or something..

They are lobstering it for $$ and we are fishing for fun, so its a slippery area like Rockhound stated.

Crafty,
As I hear it, what Mark said was "I don't think we have the authority to tell these guys what kind of gear to use and where to put it." Someone else on the panel ( I think it was George Allen) noted that "we have the authority to regulate where the fishtraps are, but I'm not sure we can regulate any other type of gear." I was tempted to stand up and say, well a fish pot is just another type of fish trap, but decided the better of it. I think everyone is hoping that this can be settled by mutual agreement rather than by new regulations.