rediculous story about how the feds are trying to step on the Commercial fishermen

[sokinwet]

I'm all for rational enforcement but I know I have measured and re-measured "close" fish and have found that 1/2" is easy to lose when the fish is dead, stiff and been in the bottom of the box all day. In my fw bass tournament days I saw many a weighmaster measure a fish on both sides..one side it was a keeper the other, not.

[Islander77]

Watch the video again notice those fish have been headed and gutted??? That 1/2 inch could of been lost right there... But yea 11 outta 5k and a 350k fine and close shop for 120 days!!!! that is 4 MONTHS... well I know if its a first offense on boat captain and owner for boat comin in heavy on monk its a 30 Day tie up boat and captain+ 5 Days at sea you can never get back once your landings are off and a 200k fine.... then lawyers come in... ends up costin ya 30 day tie up and over 100k in fines.....

[MikeToole]

Like most of the wbz stories told half the story with a slant.

Their right in that regulations are destroying commercial fishing. They've allowed continued over fishing to try an keep commercial fisherman from going totally out of business. All their doing is causing a slow death. Their trying to spread out a depleted resource and in so doing making things worse. They need to let the fish recover and reduce the number of commercial fisherman so that the ones that are left can make a real living. But even more important we could be getting far more cod from the ocean if we let them recover and controlled the take.

The catch limit and the need to throw back fish comes directly from rules design to spread out the catch. They want to limit the catch and make sure if the boat goes over their limit they can not gain from it. So the regs set up a situation where dead fish are thrown back. Fish regulations at there best! Total lack of imagination on the part of the regulators.