new GOM cod regs are out
 

just read them,,..... 9 fish @ minimum of 19"
19 seems small for cod but i guess its to prevent dead throw backs...
better than what people were talking about @ 2 fish

Just wait till next year!!!!

Haven't read them yet. Surprised by the minimum size drop... 9 at 24" would have been a win. I'll see if my opinion changes when we actually see what the catch size is.....

Lowered to 19" to minimize return of short dead fish! Like making the limit on fluke 17-19".....neither 17-19" fluke nor 19" cod have any size fillets, they are getting returned on my boat......

PR - cook those 19" inchers whole, no waste and a good meal.

no we have to figure out whats up with the haddock regs been hereing they were going back to the old 18" no limit....but not sure its true. as far as i know new rule 19"/9 stands....??

Banks been pounded by trawlers . No cod out there anyway.

The haddock reg's go back to 18" and no limit starting May 1st.

I am fairly certainly its not 100% death rate on shorts. There was an opportunity to actually do something and this to me doesnt seem like good advice, the groundfish are in trouble, big time and aside from closing the the grounds where all the breeders hang in the winter there really hasnt been much done in a while. The haddock is another issue. Basically asking to be overfished.

They can't drag em all up. I'm not jumping on the boo-hoo-choo train just yet.
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I am amazed NOAA went for a 20% reduction for this season...they are calling for up to a 90% reduction on 2013. Fishery management is a utter failure across the board. There should be no negotiations between groups...just DO WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE and let the chips fall where they will. If that means a complete shut down, then DO IT!

Let's not forget the role the council has played in this reduction. Bottom line is comm/rec support businesses etc are all screwed come 2013 unless something dramatic happens on the sci side of things.

thing that bothers me is you have the average joe that goes out with a few friend on the weekend gets some fish for the freezer, but then you will have a 100' dragger that scoops thousands of fish in a single pass sometimes.......reduce the commercial take . not the rec guys. big differance. Problem is commercial guys put alot of pressure on noaa to let them take and take.... my .02

They are fishing for the 99.99% of the population that can't or won't fish for themselves. The fish belong to everyone!

What's needed Is better science that everyone agrees on.
they don't even count any of the fish the draggers bring in. None of the 50,000 pounds a day the draggers catch counts. None of the cod dragged off the bank thru catch shares are counted, None of the fish that go to market count. None of the fish that end up in the supermarket are counted. They drag a net thru the water for a certain amount of time and count the fish inside. That's how they "ass-ess" the stock.
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problem is those draggers pickup EVERYTHING big fish ,little fish, rare fish....etc.
problem is worlds population is constantly growing,requiring more and more food, they should start more off shore fish farms to feed the masses in my opinion

They are fishing for profit!
I don't have a problem with that because I do it too. Well at least that's my excuse for the expense.

Would you do that job for nothing?

Not true, try a google search on "rhule trawl"

Dont blame NOAA as in cases of controversy this severe they report up and execute orders. The 20% cutback is all about next November. There is an election coming.

Bull.

Yes the fish belong to everyone.

If the 99.99% of the population was the primary concern the fishery would have been shut down totally a decade ago. No consumer wants to pay $17 a pound for food that better management (i.e., allowing a fishery to recover) would make available for $3 a pound.

The codfishery (and other commercial fisheries) are managed for the benefit of the commercial fisherman......NOT THE PUBLIC. The public pays a cost of billions of dollars in the form of higher food costs as a result of this mismanagement.

Shut the fishery, when the fish are recovered reopen it. If the public came first that is what would happen. The reason it has not happened is because the public does not come first....plain and simple.

i know what you are saying but after those nets get clogged with fish they start scooping everything.....
sorry it bugs me when we are out there jiggin away they a dragger goes by and scoops up everything in its path.
maybe go to rod and reel commercial ground fishing lol.....

You obviously do not know what I'm saying. Try doing the search suggested or contact the URI sea grant program.

The fallacy of your statement can be demonstrated by one statistic, the U.S. IMPORTS 70% of our seafood. No matter what the NMFS did, it wouldn't lower prices to the consumer.

I pretty much do:rotf2:

Uhhhhh, no, Mike, all that statistic shows is how closed your mind is to the reality of what is going on.

First, isn't most imported seafood is Asian farmed shrimp, Canadian lobster, and farmed salmon? Codfish may compete with the latter, but not very much the first two. Secondly, it says a lot about how bad fishery management is when imported salmon is cheaper than native codfish.

Obviously if the NMFS managed cod fish for the interest of the general public, rather than commercial fisheries and local political constituencies, there would be far less need and demand to import finfish for consumption, and those who choose to eat finfish could do so more cheaply. This would result in increased consumer surplus.......a major goal of national economic policies. The 99.99% of people commercial fishermen are "serving" would have more money left in their pocket after eating to spend on other things. You think they prefer it the way it is?

Codfish once were a hugely important national source of cheap protein. Now they are a luxury item. Fisherman can still make a living catching them since market price is high, but the consumers in this country subsidize this and get screwed doing so.

Yeah that's not really true, even on a standard trawl, and especially not a Rhule trawl. 6.5" mesh doesn't get "clogged", at least in the GoM. Common misconception. But I still believe that the minimum mesh size going to 7" would make a big difference in the health and sustainability of our fisheries.

Don't look now, but a lot of the codfish you see in the markets is coming from Norway. Same for haddock, grey and lemon sole, and on and on. If you think all of that imported seafood is farmed fish and shrimp, you need to dig a little deeper in the statistics. Its not hard, the info is out there, if you just open up your mind and go look it up.

Happy Easter. Once we had the most productive ground fish fishery in the world. And now you say we have to import it but restoring the fishery would not change that? And you honestly believe that? Sorry, but that seems a bit of a reach to me.