Pogies Being Decimated

[jmac]

I also believe there is a closed season (before July 15) in the West Passage (Wickford, High Banks, Potters Cove, etc); there was talk about giving up East Greenwich Bay (ever since the change that made it off limits, no pogies seem to go there anymore...almost like fate intervened..bad fate), as a tradeoff to get the upper Bay closed (Conimicut Pt. North), but Arc Bait/ Advisory Panel/RIDEM would not go along with it....this area makes the season for the seiners. Beleive me, the bait seiners don't want to go up there if they don't have to (fishing boats, confrontations/tanker traffic, fuel costs, etc) but that's where the bait is driven (warmer water, more nutrients, by gamefish-natural fish trap); it would be much easier for them to stay near port (Upper Mt. Hope Bay).

It is an interesting situation the way New York handles it; no seining in LI Sound/Jamaica Bay/NY Harbor. The tackle shops get all their bait from individual commercial cast netters; there probaly is about 75 guys doin' it for a living. They supply the shops with fresh, nice bait, make a nice, little living...and no adverse effect on the menhaden biomass...everybody's happy...and believe me there is oodles and oodles of pogies there (been there, done that).