|
Is over.!!!!!
Many of you, like us, have enjoyed the great fishing on southern Jeffries the last few weeks. This bite as chronicled in the Gloucester Times, Salem News and Boston herald, has been one of the best inshore tuna bites in recent times. Boats from all over New England came to gloucester, buying fuel, tackle, slippage and patronizing local business. Another group of boats from all over New England converged there last night the pair trawlers and herring seiners. As a board member of ABTA in conjunction with the choir coalition, we fought long and hard to exclude these vessels from the inshore gulf of Maine for the summer and spawning season of Atlantic herring. The southern Jeffries bite is entirely predicated on the presence of these spawning herring, which arrived this year in good numbers and drew the tuna, as well as millions of cod, haddock, whiting, whales, dolphins, porpoise and seals.
After last night, when no less than eleven 150 plus foot boats descended on that bottom to catch their entire area 1A quota out of one little spot five miles off shore, there will be nothing left. This is an area where currently a recreational angler is not allowed to catch cod or haddock with a jig for fear of their stocks collapsing. This is an area where gillnetters have been forbidden to fish in the fall due to fears of interaction with dolphins and porpoise. But management thinks its fine that the entire herring fleet towing mile wide nets in 150' of water of 5/8 inch mesh at seven knots is a good way to harvest the inshore herring resource.
Disgusting. When management didn't realize the big draggers would pound the bank all winter under catch shares we all lost our ground fishery. And now we watch as their lack of foresight or care for the resource wipes clean the inshore bottom. Goodbye great heralded bite of the decade, anyone think the papers will publish a story on the heaps of dead by catch drifting around Jeffries this week?
As reported by Firstlight Anglers
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device
|