The Martha's Vineyard derby commitee has been discussing wether or not to have False Albacore in the Derby this year.
As many of you know, Albies are not the best eating fish in the ocean. If a person weigh's in a fish for the derby it is used for lobster bait for the local lobster guys, but after so many they just do not have a use for them and they get tossed off the docks in Edgartown harbor, where you can see a ton of the carcusses in the water. And so that some of you know whom might not, the fish that are weighed in ie. Bass, Blues, Bonito are filleted by volunteers and donated to the Island people for food.
The Derby is trying to consider ways to prevent this species from getting killed just to be weighed in for the derby. Some suggestion have been made such as, raising the size limit for weigh in, either by measuring to the fork of the tail, or overall lenght so that so many fish are not being weighed in. This is the only species in the derby which you can only win a weekly prize with. The bass, blues, and bonito come with a daily, mystery or weekly prize. This had been done to prevent so many albies from being weighed in in the past.
There have been some discussions on the MV derby web site and We will be responding there to our concerns about removing the ablies all together as that is pretty much the only species, Bill & I fish for, and if we get a good one then we will weigh it in as the derby comes second in our minds. We go there to fish for the albies because it is one of a few places you can actually target them from shore in NE. But that is just Bill and I and I am sure that there are alot of different ways other people like to fish the derby.
The real concern is how much will removing the albies from the derby, hurt the revenue to the Island and the Derby if this species is dropped. We need to think of some ways to be able to keep the albies in the derby and also ways for the fish to be used instead of just tossing them back in the water dead.
My 2 cents on the issue is not just that these fish are being thrown back dead into the water, because at least if they go back in the water they are still feeding something else, not just going to waste in a dumpster some where. But I also think that if the ablies are removed they will lose at least 1/2 the amount of people in the derby, because many guys just go for the speed demonds and sign up for the derby just incase they get a good one.
Some things I think that would be good are as follow's!!!
1. Measure fish to the fork in the tail for total length.
2. Place instructions on ways to handle each species of fish in the derby book or size limit sheet you get when you sign up for the derby, so that people are not just killing them from keeping them out of the water too long, (Which we see happen alot). Three things you should have on you at all times is a tape measure, pliers, and a camera. You should not be running back and forth to your vehicle to get these things while the fish is possibley not big enough to weigh in and kill that fish because you don't know what you are doing. ALso a few instructions about gear types to use and how to fight a fish as some guys just don't have a clue. This information coulb be very usefull to people who are not used to fishing for this type of species.
3. They should also place average weight to inch sizes in the derby rules so that if someone catches one, that is say 26 inches and will probably weigh around 71/2-8 lb and the leader is already listed as having a fish weighed in at 12lb, you have no chance of beating that fish, so you know to throw it back.
4. If it is a weekly prize, each competitor can only weigh in 1 fish per week? Which leaves it in the fisherman's discretion on wether to keep the fish or not.
5. I also feel that throwing the fish in the water right at Edgartown dock probably isn't the best Idea as it is a big tourist area also and some people will just never understand the theory of giving back to the resource. Maybe the committee could have some of the lobster guys or local guys take the carcusses off shore and dump them back in the water so that they are still feeding something out there.
These are just my thoughts on the issue, I am sure there will be alot of other points of view, but my reccomendation is that if you are concerned, and fish the derby and want to help them figure out ways to rectify these issue's is that you go to
www.mvderby.com and post on there site ways that may help them out. The real reason that Bill & I have such a passion for fishing the island is it's beauty, different species to catch and renting a house full of buddy's that we love to fish with and just spend time doing what we love best FISHING!!!!
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