Finning Swordfish: A lesson for Striped Bass?

[SAUERKRAUT]

"Finning Swordfish". I heard this straight from the mouth of an old New Bedford commercial fisherman:

There are or were... only 3 known places IN THE WORLD where swordfish, peculiarly, came up to the surface and finned. Everywhere else and every time else, they are just a deep water fish. The three places were: somewhere on the California coast; the second was somewhere around Sardinia, Italy; and the third was the waters off Martha's Vineyard. And only in these places was there a viable harpoon swordfish fishery and harvest. Like clockwork, the "brown" swordfish would show up in June. 200 pounds was considered even a relatively small swordfish during this fishery. In July, like clockwork, the "blue" swordfish would arrive. And these fish usually ran a little larger. Using an airplane as a spotter, this man stated he had one day where he ironed and killed 54 swordfish! One boat! One good day!

And now this species, this peculiar and specific genetic, is extinct. And my elderly, non introspective commercial retired fisherman contact laments and wonders why this species and fishery is extinct, and asks what happened!

This is what I feel is inevitable about the present day striped bass resource. The inshore genetic of the species will be wiped out. What remains may be a deep water or offshore population genetic, if any. Or, the genetic population of the species that is highly migratory to Cape waters, or the population that migrates to and through the Cape Cod Canal-- will be wiped out as to become genetically non viable and therefore extinct. Just like the Finning Swordfish.