JohnR
04-04-2002, 09:06 AM
Interesting article that everyone should read. There is a lot of valid stuff and a little he said she said and there's even some well I'm gonna take my ball & go home... I have my own beliefs on "what's fair" which are losely based on the data but still open to move when I hear stuff like this....
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/094/metro/Sport_fishing_cuts_cod_supply+.shtml
Sport fishing cuts cod supply
By Beth Daley, Globe Staff, 4/4/2002
MARSHFIELD - By 5 a.m. most days, bleary-eyed fishermen pile out of cars with New Jersey and Connecticut license plates in Green Harbor parking lots. In groups of six, they board charter boats and stake out a position with rod and reel.
Within two hours, the boats are working one of the world's most renowned fishing grounds, hooking cod after cod. The fish can get shin-deep on deck and the customers - all recreational fishermen - sometimes need help carrying coolers packed with fresh fillets off the boat.
They are catching so much cod, in fact, that regulators now see them as a major factor in the region's overfishing crisis.
At a time when hard-pressed commercial fishermen face strict limits on where they can fish and how many cod they can catch, charter boats are prospering from a loophole in fishing rules: They can go anywhere and catch as many fish as they want.
Nearly one-third of all the cod caught in the Gulf of Maine - the vast body of water stretching from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia - was taken by both charter boat customers and other sport fishermen in 2001. That figure is growing as cod stocks rebound from a vast cod stock collapse in the 1990s. In 1996, there were 413 charter boats allowed to fish for cod. By 2000 there were 610.
But now federal regulators are cracking down on all recreational cod fishing - not just charters - to comply with a federal judge's order to better control overfishing. As early as May 1, all New England sportsmen could face a larger minimum size on cod they can keep. Charter boats would be prohibited from their prime fishing grounds, and anglers on private boats could see the number of cod they're allowed to keep on trips reduced from 10 to 5.
Individual states also are proposing limits. Massachusetts officials want to increase size minimums and restrict charter boat customers to 15 fish each during the main fishing season.
The proposed rules pit recreational fishermen, who see the sea as an open public hunting ground, against New England's beleaguered commercial fishermen, who see it as their paycheck. Marshfield fisherman Ed Barrett is so angry at the vast amounts of fish he sees Green Harbor's charter boats bring in, he's documenting their trips - and he says their catch is even higher than regulators say.
''These guys are catching so many fish, they are taking them off the boats in U-Haul trailers,'' said Barrett. ''Here I am, I can't go fishing for my livelihood.''
Charter boat captains have a far different view. They say stricter rules would devastate not only their businesses but dozens of motels, coffee shops, and restaurants the fishermen frequent. Some afternoons, most of the customers at Marshfield's Compass Rose Restaurant are recreational fishermen. So entrenched is cod in the fishing business in town, a charter boat company even opened a Cod Lodge.
Ninety percent of Green Harbor's charter fishing business is from out-of-staters, virtually all of whom come for the ''no-limit'' rule. Wesley Cure, a ruddy South Jersey clammer, caught 13 fish last week. ''We wouldn't drive 600 miles if there is any limit,'' he said. ''We come here for as many fish as we can get.''
For centuries, New England was sustained by cod. The succulent white-fleshed fish was both a daily dinner staple and the driving force behind the region's economy. The region's cod fishermen were the stuff of legend - defying weather and odds to haul rope nets full of the fish.
But commercial fishermen - and technology - got too good at finding the vast schools of fish. Armed with sonar, bigger nets and, in some cases, enormous boats, they began emptying the sea faster than the cod could reproduce. By the early 1990s, cod stocks had collapsed - not only for commercial fishermen, but for the hundreds of thousands of recreational anglers in New England too. Since then, commercial fishermen have faced a wide web of restrictions: They are banned from thousands of miles of the ocean and the size of their catch and their nets is limited .
Charter and party boats, however, were never similarly limited. For years, sport fishing was largely ignored by fishery managers because commercial fishermen caught many more fish.
As the cod population collapsed in the 1990s, many charter boats went out of business. But cod stocks have begun to rebound, and the charter business - still largely unregulated - is surging back. Sport fishing is now responsible for a growing portion of the total fish landed.
Angling for cod may not spark the same passion as hooking a feisty tuna, but it has always been a popular sport. Even in chilly March and April on the open sea, fishermen brave the elements to catch what can be 50-pound cod.
On Tom DePersia's Big Fish III charter boat in Green Harbor, most customers are diehard fishermen like Cure or Raphael Burke, a New Jersey charter boat captain. Burke left his fishing job on a recent Monday to go fishing in Massachusetts Tuesday ''because that's what we love to do,'' he said. DePersia charges $1,140 for a party of six to go out on the ''six-pack'' boat, bait and tackle included, and he's booked almost every day of the week. Most of the increase in charter boats is with six-packs; boats with more than six people have much stricter safety and liability guidelines.
The boats leave the harbor for the region's richest fishing grounds, most of which are closed to commercial boats. As fishermen stand in front of a rod and reel tethered to the boat, they lower a hook, or maybe two, into a school of fish below and start reeling in. By the end of the day, the fish is filleted by a boat mate and placed in a cooler filled with ice for the drive home.
In Marshfield, the charter business is so brisk that commercial fishermen have begun to wonder if some of that catch is being illegally sold. DePersia has taken to placing signs on the boats reminding customers that they have to consume the fish they catch. But with charter boats sometimes hauling in 600-800 pounds a day, commercial fishermen are raising questions about how many fish someone can stack in a freezer.
''We're only allowed to catch 400 pounds a day and we sell that,'' says John Haviland, a Green Harbor commercial fishermen. ''You are telling me that six people on a boat are catching 100 pounds of fish each and taking it home for dinner?''
Federal officials say they don't know exactly how much cod recreational fishermen catch, because data fluctuate widely and are largely based on self-reporting or imperfect surveys. But regulators say it doesn't matter: As cod stocks struggle to rebound, recreational fishermen of all types are taking too many fish.
''It's just not possible to deal with the overall fishing problem, especially cod, without looking at recreational fishing anymore,'' said Teri Frady, a spokeswoman for the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Some charter captains agree that modest regulations are appropriate. Up in Gloucester and Newburyport, charter boat captains tend to cater more to locals, and say a catch limit around 15 is fair. Many party boats - those large charters that take 30 to 40 people - already have self-imposed fish limits for customers.
But charter captains like DePersia, who cater to out-of-staters, are lobbying hard to keep the regulations minimal. DePersia says he would accept an increase in the size of fish he can catch - but not any limit on the number. ''If they limit what these guys can take,'' he said, ''why, that's like putting a $1,000 limit on what you can win at Foxwoods. Who would come?''
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/094/metro/Sport_fishing_cuts_cod_supply+.shtml
Sport fishing cuts cod supply
By Beth Daley, Globe Staff, 4/4/2002
MARSHFIELD - By 5 a.m. most days, bleary-eyed fishermen pile out of cars with New Jersey and Connecticut license plates in Green Harbor parking lots. In groups of six, they board charter boats and stake out a position with rod and reel.
Within two hours, the boats are working one of the world's most renowned fishing grounds, hooking cod after cod. The fish can get shin-deep on deck and the customers - all recreational fishermen - sometimes need help carrying coolers packed with fresh fillets off the boat.
They are catching so much cod, in fact, that regulators now see them as a major factor in the region's overfishing crisis.
At a time when hard-pressed commercial fishermen face strict limits on where they can fish and how many cod they can catch, charter boats are prospering from a loophole in fishing rules: They can go anywhere and catch as many fish as they want.
Nearly one-third of all the cod caught in the Gulf of Maine - the vast body of water stretching from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia - was taken by both charter boat customers and other sport fishermen in 2001. That figure is growing as cod stocks rebound from a vast cod stock collapse in the 1990s. In 1996, there were 413 charter boats allowed to fish for cod. By 2000 there were 610.
But now federal regulators are cracking down on all recreational cod fishing - not just charters - to comply with a federal judge's order to better control overfishing. As early as May 1, all New England sportsmen could face a larger minimum size on cod they can keep. Charter boats would be prohibited from their prime fishing grounds, and anglers on private boats could see the number of cod they're allowed to keep on trips reduced from 10 to 5.
Individual states also are proposing limits. Massachusetts officials want to increase size minimums and restrict charter boat customers to 15 fish each during the main fishing season.
The proposed rules pit recreational fishermen, who see the sea as an open public hunting ground, against New England's beleaguered commercial fishermen, who see it as their paycheck. Marshfield fisherman Ed Barrett is so angry at the vast amounts of fish he sees Green Harbor's charter boats bring in, he's documenting their trips - and he says their catch is even higher than regulators say.
''These guys are catching so many fish, they are taking them off the boats in U-Haul trailers,'' said Barrett. ''Here I am, I can't go fishing for my livelihood.''
Charter boat captains have a far different view. They say stricter rules would devastate not only their businesses but dozens of motels, coffee shops, and restaurants the fishermen frequent. Some afternoons, most of the customers at Marshfield's Compass Rose Restaurant are recreational fishermen. So entrenched is cod in the fishing business in town, a charter boat company even opened a Cod Lodge.
Ninety percent of Green Harbor's charter fishing business is from out-of-staters, virtually all of whom come for the ''no-limit'' rule. Wesley Cure, a ruddy South Jersey clammer, caught 13 fish last week. ''We wouldn't drive 600 miles if there is any limit,'' he said. ''We come here for as many fish as we can get.''
For centuries, New England was sustained by cod. The succulent white-fleshed fish was both a daily dinner staple and the driving force behind the region's economy. The region's cod fishermen were the stuff of legend - defying weather and odds to haul rope nets full of the fish.
But commercial fishermen - and technology - got too good at finding the vast schools of fish. Armed with sonar, bigger nets and, in some cases, enormous boats, they began emptying the sea faster than the cod could reproduce. By the early 1990s, cod stocks had collapsed - not only for commercial fishermen, but for the hundreds of thousands of recreational anglers in New England too. Since then, commercial fishermen have faced a wide web of restrictions: They are banned from thousands of miles of the ocean and the size of their catch and their nets is limited .
Charter and party boats, however, were never similarly limited. For years, sport fishing was largely ignored by fishery managers because commercial fishermen caught many more fish.
As the cod population collapsed in the 1990s, many charter boats went out of business. But cod stocks have begun to rebound, and the charter business - still largely unregulated - is surging back. Sport fishing is now responsible for a growing portion of the total fish landed.
Angling for cod may not spark the same passion as hooking a feisty tuna, but it has always been a popular sport. Even in chilly March and April on the open sea, fishermen brave the elements to catch what can be 50-pound cod.
On Tom DePersia's Big Fish III charter boat in Green Harbor, most customers are diehard fishermen like Cure or Raphael Burke, a New Jersey charter boat captain. Burke left his fishing job on a recent Monday to go fishing in Massachusetts Tuesday ''because that's what we love to do,'' he said. DePersia charges $1,140 for a party of six to go out on the ''six-pack'' boat, bait and tackle included, and he's booked almost every day of the week. Most of the increase in charter boats is with six-packs; boats with more than six people have much stricter safety and liability guidelines.
The boats leave the harbor for the region's richest fishing grounds, most of which are closed to commercial boats. As fishermen stand in front of a rod and reel tethered to the boat, they lower a hook, or maybe two, into a school of fish below and start reeling in. By the end of the day, the fish is filleted by a boat mate and placed in a cooler filled with ice for the drive home.
In Marshfield, the charter business is so brisk that commercial fishermen have begun to wonder if some of that catch is being illegally sold. DePersia has taken to placing signs on the boats reminding customers that they have to consume the fish they catch. But with charter boats sometimes hauling in 600-800 pounds a day, commercial fishermen are raising questions about how many fish someone can stack in a freezer.
''We're only allowed to catch 400 pounds a day and we sell that,'' says John Haviland, a Green Harbor commercial fishermen. ''You are telling me that six people on a boat are catching 100 pounds of fish each and taking it home for dinner?''
Federal officials say they don't know exactly how much cod recreational fishermen catch, because data fluctuate widely and are largely based on self-reporting or imperfect surveys. But regulators say it doesn't matter: As cod stocks struggle to rebound, recreational fishermen of all types are taking too many fish.
''It's just not possible to deal with the overall fishing problem, especially cod, without looking at recreational fishing anymore,'' said Teri Frady, a spokeswoman for the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Some charter captains agree that modest regulations are appropriate. Up in Gloucester and Newburyport, charter boat captains tend to cater more to locals, and say a catch limit around 15 is fair. Many party boats - those large charters that take 30 to 40 people - already have self-imposed fish limits for customers.
But charter captains like DePersia, who cater to out-of-staters, are lobbying hard to keep the regulations minimal. DePersia says he would accept an increase in the size of fish he can catch - but not any limit on the number. ''If they limit what these guys can take,'' he said, ''why, that's like putting a $1,000 limit on what you can win at Foxwoods. Who would come?''