Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeToole
Throwing dead fish over the side has got to be the dumbest thing ever to come out of fishery management. I think that if a boat goes over it's limit or there is by-catch the boat should be required to bring the fish in. The money from the sale of these fish will be turned over to either fund research or enforcement. The poundage will be deducted from the commercial catch quota for that state. Now you have given them a real reason to avoid by-catch and going over there limit.
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Sounds good at first, but if you think about it, it's really a bad idea - much worse than throwing fish overboard.
If the comm can't make money on it, it's unfair to require him to spend money landing fish he can't profit from. I suspect it wouldn't happen.
If you compensate them, you will encourage them to increase by-catch, IOW fish in areas where they'll get lots of it.
Even if you could entice comms to bring this bycatch in without encouraging them to get more, that will penalize the comm that does a good job targeting specific fish and/or put the little guys out of business. Imagine what happens to the price and quota of striped bass when a couple herring trawlers bring in 20,000# of bass. Price plummets, quota is reached early and the hook and line guys are out of business.