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Unfortunatly I don't think what you guys witnessed is illegal. Those trawlers threw the bass back because comm bass season is over and must be caught on hook and line. So they have to throw the bycatch over. It is a product of commercial dragging. I don't favor gillnets either but gillnetting is far more size specific than a dragger, species specific not. Science has come a long way with new types of drag nets that will catchmore of a specific species because of different colors and things at the beginning of a trawl say to scare cod away and catch more haddock that hang a bit higher than cod. Neat stuff. But I agree when you see that it is is an eye opener.
Just wait till next month when you guys will be into nice cod jigging between graves and the B-bouy. Then Dec 1st the inshore gillnetters will be there. And when they haul there nets and get more than there 600# or what ever they are allowed the rest will go over dead. I forget if they imposed a closer in this area with the meetings they had this past summer on this situation. Maybe it is closed to all fishing this year?? Don't know.
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