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Exactly a damn friggin shame
Unfortunately, bycatch is self-policing unless there is an observer on boat.
These boats are restricted by the government not to sell what they vacuum up in their nets. Herring is a small mesh fishery and it's not unusual to see large amounts of any fish feeding on the herring to be discarded sometime it could be 50% of the haul. souther shrimping can be over 70% And you wonder why tuna follow them around
A popular agreement with commericals now is the the sporting community has a higher mortality with catch and release than discarded fish!! Right, I see that!!!!
If these commercials have the latest gear they can tell the mix of what is down there, each fish has a different acoustic signature. Would love to see that captured and reviewed along with gps coordinates of each haul back to
NMFS or DEP. Unfortunately, it's take over 10 years just to get trackers in scallopers!!!
Bill
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