Hello all, I'm a newbie here so be easy on me. I live here on the Outer Banks and would like to respond to a couple comments I've read on this board recently
. I've been an avid Striper fisherman since 1992. That's when the Rock first reappeared here on the OB since they dissappeared in the 60's. My first ocean caught Rock was 53 lbs, and I was instantly addicted. I haven't topped it since and I've caught thousands! The REALLY BIG problem as I see it is commercial waste. I mean either Rock being caught as bycatch by the Omega Protein types or as DISCARD by the trawlers. The quotas established for commercial fishing are being caught many times over but many never make it to market. For years we've seen it down here and recently it has been horrible. The trawl boys are only allowed 100 fish per vessel which is absolutely ridiculous! How do they expect a trawler to set a net and only catch 100? They catch up to 10,000 in a set, pick the biggest 100 and THROW THE REST OVERBOARD....DEAD!!!!!! Let's just say it was only 3000, that's a 300% overcatch/bycatch ratio!!! For every fish kept, 300 DEAD & WASTED! It's happened a couple times here over the past 2-3 weeks. 3 weeks ago I got a report from a friend working on a drop net boat fishing Sea Mullet (Whiting) who witnessed a trawler dumping THOUSANDS of dead Stripers right on the edge of the EEZ, it made him & his captain sick. Many of the other commercial captains & crews were pissed off by the sight as well, not to mention the charter captains & recreational anglers who saw it. They're not all bad guys, they're just trying to make a buck like everyone else & most play by the rules, but some morally corrupt dirtbags like the captain of the trawler in question just don't care!!! It happened again weekend before last INSIDE of Oregon Inlet in the area known as Hell's Gate which is west of Oregon Inlet on the way to Wanchese (the comm. fishing port). THOUSANDS of dead Stripers were seen from the sea buoy all the way up the channel into Davis Slough. The phone was ringing all day as we tried to get pics or video of the offending vessel with no luck. Thing is, I found out IT'S NOT ILLEGAL!!!! The law says that fish isn't caught 'til it's in the hold. The rules need to be changed NOW. If they're going to allow trawling, they need to lift the 100 fish limit and make it mandatory that all fish caught need to be kept and that poundage is applied to the quota. If they want to keep a limit of 100 fish per vessel to keep the market price up, make them fish hook & line. Either solution combined with better enforcement would prevent TENS OF THOUSANDS of Stripers from being WASTED. The beach seiners share their over-catch with the others who haven't caught their limit, why can't the trawlers? My dad taught me at at a very young age: "IF YOU KILL IT, YOU'VE GOTTA EAT IT". I'm also an advocate of tighter limits on recreational catches as well. I say issue tags much like we get for deer hunting to limit how many are caught and of what size. Make it mandatory to report your catch so the quota could be monitored and possibly issue 1 trophy tag per person per year so you can keep that fish of a lifetime. Just my 2 cents worth. Lawful recreational fishing is not the problem!
STOKES