Ma DMf Hearings
 

Ok folks,

The date is August 11, 2002....Tonight at 7pm in the Auditiorium of the Mass Maritime Academy along the Canal, the Public Hearings on the Proposed changes to the Cod & Striped Bass Regulations will happen. Part 2 of 2 will be tomorrow night at 7pm in the Annisquam River Marine Fisheries station in Gloucester.

These are the hearings where the public gets to come and give their opinions on the regulations before they are approved and enacted. This is our time to step up and be counted. Gov't pollsters count one preprinted comment card sent by mail as worth 100 voters, One hand written letter as representing 1000 and one body at a hearing is priceless. We the recreational public have a terrible record showing up for these hearings. It is time to change that. There are some recreational friendly members of the MArine Fisheries Commission, but they will carry no political clout if we (and this means you) do not show up. these hearings challenge recreational fishers as they require htat we show up and join a process we are not familiar with. We need to listedn and try to understand what is going on We need to act appropriately and get our point across at the same time. The commercials we be there in droves. Will we once again have only a few leaders show and be outnumbered. Will the billions of dollars recs spend carry no clout as usual. I hope not. Show up and be heard. Here are the issues on tonights agenda.

Cod

1...Rec minimum size increase from 21 to 23 inches..commercial minimum size increase from 19 to 21 inches

2...Bag limit decrease to 10 fish Cod / Haddock combined on for hire vessels (already 10 for private and shore anglers)

...reduction to 5 fish during the months of December through March

Striped Bass

a...Proposal to authorize holders of the new for-hire permit to filet striped bass at sea for their customers consistant with existing regulations...thereby negating the need for a letter of authorization from the director

b...Proposal to amment the current Striped Bass bag and size limit from the current 1 fish per angler at 28 inches or greater to a limit of 2 fish where the first fish must measure at least 28 inches and the second fish must measure at least 40 inches

c...Proposal to increase the commercial quota from 807,000 pounds to 1000.000 lbs

Hope to see you tonight

Here are my comments on the proposals,

Cod

minimum size increases....support both increases. I do not think the increases will limit the ability of recs to take our limits and it will protect the latest year classes (recruits) to the Cod stocks

10 fish bag limit....I support this as all recs should be the same whether they are paying to go fishing or not

5 fish Dec through March...Opposed, Recs have taken enough when it comes to Cod which were primarily damaged by the commercial fleet taking upwards of 200 per cent of their quotas over the past four years....I want 10 fish all year long for all recs

Striped Bass

For-hire filet at sea....Opposed, Recs should all have the same rules....Filet at sea will make boarding inspections take longer and with reduced enforcement due to 9-11 security measures this will make even less vessells get inspected...this reg will make it almost impossible to enforce any kind of size limits, never mind a slot....can you tell the length of a fish from its filet

increased bag and size limits....opposed, the way the proposed changes are written an angler could take two large fish per day, adding an incredible amount of mortality to the large spawning stock...I am open to a true slot that gives one mid sized fish say 28-32and one trophy over 40, but only if it was written tough enough that there was no loophole to allow more than one trophy..My justification is that over 95% of male fish die off after 30 inches, so we could take more of them and not effect the stock to the same degree as taking an additional large fish...

increase the commercial quota...opposed, I do not think that an increase will take care of the issues that commercial SB fishers are complaining about....we may have to have to have an increse in the quota to balance off the non-fishing publics access to the stock that justifies the commercial take in the first place, however not until the other issues are addressed. These issues include making sure there is no commercial fishing during the Spring ad Fall Migrations, elimination or dramatically increasing the non-resident commercial license fees, looking at other ways to stabilize the price and not have the quota filled in a short time...another issue that makes me opposed to the increse is that I fear the incresae is being forwarded so that the division can suggest that some of the traditional commercial fleet that has totally screwed up their more traditional species can direct some effort at Striped Bass...this would be a very dangerous door to open

Disclaimer...though much of the MSBA public comment I will deliver tonight is similar to my personal feeleings, the above are my personal feelings and MSBA had a system used to arrive at our official statements

Hope to see you all tonight

Good luck out there tonight Patrick. I doubt I'll be there but maybe....

As far as the slot, I think the bottom range should be moved down a tad. say 24-28 inches. Or 22-27... Just my thoughts...

Oh yeh - Fillet @ sea is a bad idea too. I already see the occasional undersized carcass washing up on shore :af:

So I was planning to write a detailed report but since the responses to this thread echo the recreational turnout at the hearings I am going to keep it real short. If you took the Charter Captains out of the room, a cou[ple from CCA, another web sight administrator and myself were there on the recreational side. I think I hyad some effect on things but I am strait up depresed at the turnout on the rec side. I'm going to bed.

Tough to argue with that... Anyone planning to attend tonight's meeting in Gloucster?

Hey Patrick
 

I think I know you ;)

Michael D - welcome to Striped-Bass.... Been meaning to (eventually) talk to you folks :D

Yeh - he's probably the guy you're thinking about...



--- Was anyone able to go to Glouchester last night?

Yep
 

Thanks. I know Patrick prety well and had the pleasure of spending some time with him last week.

http://mvtimes2.com/newspaper/cat/1_...ine_News5.html

Here I go again...this topic really gets me hot.

"...MA has been typically conservative with regard to SB management..MA has not always been rewarded for taking a conservative approach.."

WHY SHOULD YOU? The reward is MORE FISH! What did you expect...a thank letter and a check? There has alway been a "where's MINE" or "whats in it for me" attitude by commerical fishermen and it always bothers me.

"...Thus, fisherman in a state following more conservative fishing practices end up with a smaller piece of the resource pie"

And since we don't get rewared, screw conservitive management, take as much as we can.... I WANT MY SHARE, I DON'T WANT MY SHARE TO GO TO MY NEIGHBOR...Gimmie a break, it sounds like a couple of 6 year olds fighting about the last piece of cake for Gods sake. I find the food analogy really appropriate. They will find anyway under the sun to justify taking more. You never here them say..I suggest we reduce the take this year because there were fewer fish born this year...do you? They will take until there is a major problem and will stop only when they are forced to.

IMO MA should take more of a stance in the "state-by-state allowances” Who sets those nowadays? Probably a team of commercial fisherman from all the states. MA should lead the way to STOP commercial SB fishing PERIOD, not increase the take each year.

I wish the Fed's would step in and shut commercial fishing for SB down altogether. I would gladly not take any fish if I knew there was no commercial activity. This is a fishery run by greedy commercial types that want to take as much as possible for themselves and don't care if they leave nothing left. They have done it before and will do it again. A million #'s is WAY too much! and at 2 bucks/lb it is not worth it! MA should set the benchmark not be lured by 5 weeks of quick summer money.


I have a novel idea...HOW ABOUT REDUCING THE CATCH LIMIT, INCREASING THE LIC FEES (to $1000+) and only allowing serious commerical fishermen to obtain the license? Let me ask you, would the board EVER under ANY circumstance suggest lowering the take? If the answer is NO; I don't think we should even consider their "recommendation" for increasing it.

I think it is clear what the MA commercial fisherman motive is...quick $, screw the fish, give me my 2 bucks/lb. When they are all gone, I will fish for something else, until thats all gone. This is the commerical fishing "mantra".

1 mill #'s @ 2$/# = $2mil

for 1000-3000 MA lic's = an average of $666.67 - 2000 per lic.

Is it worth taking 1 million #'s of SB out of the reproductive cycle FOREVER for less then $2K per man.....I think not.

Now I have a question here hopefully someone will have an answer. The public info meetings held at the beginning of the week reflect potential changes of our existing regs that Mass applies within the guidelines set forth by the ASMFC, right? Well, is this pertaining to this year? So re-opening the comercial season for another near 200K pounds and allowing 2 (1over 40) for the remainder of this year? Again - this all only applies to this year, correct?


As Ammendment 6 is to be implemented next year and would have significantly different cosatwide rules & regs that differ from what we have today. Here is a link to the public draft of Ammendment 6... Comments taken until Oct 2002. To be implemented 1/1/2003


http://www.asmfc.org/PUB/Public%20He...ndment%206.pdf

John, That link has a ton of info every fisherman should read (incuding me) I am heavy into it now.

One thing that always perplexed me....I can understand how they compute commerical harvest..it is measured, but how do they estimate the rec catch with any accuracy? I think much of the rec "take" is released these days.

Yep - a lot of reading and worth it. I need to pull the eyes down and refocus from time to time but it should be read by everyone with a concern for what we all enjoy.

It's based on several things, voluntary reporting, catch reports & interviews develop an average of caught -v- release, size, frequency, etc. Then they use that data with how many they think are fishing to determine how many are kept. Then they use the 8% mortality rate against the released fish. Probably a realistic mortality percentage number for coastwide purposes.

Overall, it's probably not that accurate as the commercial reportings are likely closer to accurate becuase of their catch reports. But you throw in natural causes, bycatch, poaching, poor release methods by some recs and add it all up, there are alot of dead fish out there...