check this out....

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/scp_v3/viewer/index.php?pid=16598&rn=49750&cl=1307161&ch=340958&src=news

Interesting Video. Sure might explain why we have no herring here on the cape.

That was an informative news bite. Thanks for posting it. IMO pair trawlers should be stopped altogether. (Period). Same with gill netting. OR any fishing that injures fish so that they cannot be released unharmed. The pair trawlers are just too efficient at removing fish from the sea and the by catch is huge. Do you see the way they defend the status quo with no respect at all for the other inshore fish that eat herring. :yak6: :yak6: I am against all inshore comm. fishing. The value of rec fishing in terms both social and $$$ impacts are so huge compared to what society gets from inshore comm fishing that I can't believe that we still manage this with the "maximum yeild" mantra. Lets stop trying to comm'ly squeeze every last drop of value from our inshore waters. geeeez.

The problem is actually much bigger than this. For example, they still allow some smaller inshore boats to take 2500# PER DAY of herring as a by-catch! We didn't take 2500# all season at the local run. The entire rec vs comm limits are is so skewed the manager’s look like fools when the general public gets wind.

Somewhat similar but a little:topic: Just now with the fluke matters coming to a head, as more people are finding out about how this is managed the common question is...you mean the comm guys get to keep on fishing and the rec's get cut back?...that’s not right?...Then they see the 60/40 split and ask why is that? Honestly the best thing that can happen to fluke is to shut it down for a year just to wake the public up and fire ALL the fisheries managers and start all over with some fresh thinking.

Just remember, the people who are managing this have been managing codfish for 25+ years and today it is worse then ever. They never gave a damn about herring or menhaden and looked what happened. The don't see the total picture, they manage each fish in a box. They have no idea what the recs really take and they have no idea what harm comm fishing does to inshore fishing. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

My computor is supposed to work with that type of video but it doesn't. Thanks for the mini explanation!

Thanks for posting that. I am looking out of my living room window at the two herring trawlers shown in that video and I have mixed feelings. Not just for my selfish need of having an endless supply of fresh herring for striper bait all season. They said it best at the end of the video, there has not been enough research and there is not enough proof on either side of the argument. The answer probably lies somewhere in between and regulation must be the answer, but how strict should the regulations be and how do we go about determining that without better understanding how bad the problem really is? Some of you are already thinking, " why wait for it to become a real problem" or "It will be too late if we wait" but perhaps herring can recover more easily than fish like menhaden, who knows.

just big ol vacum cleaners...they really SUCK