Poacher caught - again!

[dannyplug1]

Well put, a striper is a migratory fish it should be managed by the feds, just like migratory birds like ducks. Another point remember that once migratory birds were legally hunted for proffit by market hunters. Market hunters have gone the way of the passenger pidgeon. Hopefully people will wake up and protect the striped bass from the vast majority of commercials and the recs who both take as many fish as they are legally entiltled to with no thought of the future or the health of the striped bass fishery. Who knows, during the current downward spiral (which is occurring ask any fisheries scientist or a reasonable person) we might be able to finish off striper this time. We came close in the eighties but this time it could be forever! Charlie

[Raven]

I think there is STILL ...........much to be learned

speaking of dead fish..... that includes the small fry encountering
pollution where they hatched out and how farmers need to prevent run off from reaching the breeding grounds.

when you consider how many eggs each Cow lays and how many dinks actually survive the Journey back to the sea....

much could be done to increase those odds in the Striper's favor.

[PaulS]

It must suck to make a living always having to look over your shoulder wondering if your going to get caught, trying to figure out how your going to scam the system, what other sleazy thing you can think of to try to rip someone/something off.

[jmac]

.....but you don't spend the money in MA that you earn from catching fish in MA. Makes no economic sense at all for the state to let out of state commercials fish or sell here, unless they feel the MA commercial fleet by itself could not fill the state's quota. Gives away a significant part of the financial benefit from the state's commercial quota to neighboring states. Hard to see why they allow it.

I think what everybody fails to understand is that there is a reciprocity system in place between MA and RI commercial licensing; it has been in effect for as long as I can remember. Both states fishermen have been fishing/offloading/selling in each others states for years...draggers, ground gear, etc. Before the license moratorium in RI (several years ago, for ALL in state/out of state), MA guys could get a RI license (I know a number of MA guys who hold RI licenses). Back in the 70's, early 80's, everybody in RI sold their catch in MA...better prices than the Pt. Jude Co-op then....we pay the price now because of the way the catch history was used to set up state bass quotas after the commercial moratorium was set aside.

Also, look at the menhaden seining problem in Narragansett Bay....2 boats, both registered and docked in MA (but with RI seine licenses), seine approximately 100,000 lbs a day, each, till the RI biomass is below 50% (like someone is monitoring it)...calculate the dollars earned by both these boats, then tell me about a resource grab....

[Clammer]

JMAC ,

IS CORRECT ON ...BACK IN THE DAY ......... IT TOOK SOME OF US A WHILE TO FIND OR FIGURE OUT on how much we were egtting screwed by the RI dealers . but by the time they shut done commercial back then . I would say 70% of the RI commerciLA WERE GOING TO WESTPORT OR nEW bEDFORD

W OW ..THat was f ed up typing ><><>

Lets start another thread .........rec ,s taking undersize fluke . this thread \\\ has been well beaten ><>><><<><

[Typhoon]

There's a well known story still being hashed out on the South Shore of someone selling illegal bluefin.

They don't %$%$%$%$ around with tuna. He's going to probably lose his boat.

Big fines.

This is how you deal with poaching.

Tuna buys lead to $100k in restaurant fines in Ogunquit | SeacoastOnline.com

[Swimmer]

Originally Posted by numbskull

A lot of what you post is self-serving, but this is ridiculous.

You make a profit in MA commercial fishing and you take it home with you.......otherwise you wouldn't be here. If you are as good as you make yourself out to be, then it is not a small profit either. That money benefits the state you spend it in. Presumably you pay taxes on it (although I'd bet many guys don't) and use the rest for your family's living expenses. That money in turn gets taxed and spent by others where you live (multiplier effect). If a million dollars leaves MA it results in several million dollars of lost economic activity. That is money that could be helping the people of MA.

So explain to me again how it is in the State's interest to allow out of state utilization of our commercial quota?

How many products are made in Jersey and shipped up here for sale. Its no different than any other interstate commerce. Protected under federal law.

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by Swimmer

How many products are made in Jersey and shipped up here for sale. Its no different than any other interstate commerce. Protected under federal law.

There is no limit on those sales. The government can't go up to Apple and say "hey, you can only sell 2 million laptops tp Massachusetts and 4 million iPhones to New Jersey this year and then you're shut down."

On the other hand, and I think this is numbskull's point which I agree with, the government tells the commercial fishing sector that they can only catch so many lbs of fish. As such, there is a limit to how much money will be made from selling fish. By MA allowing out-of-state people to comm fish here, those people get paid by our local markets, and then they take that money to their home state to be used in the local economies of NY or NJ or wherever, as opposed to being used locally in our state.

If a MA market pays a MA fisherman $1000 for his catch, then the fisherman later uses that money to buy his local coffee at the mom and pop shop, at RedTop for extra tackle/bait and to pay his rent. That money stays locally, helps local businesses and is taxed locally.

On the other hand, if that same $1000 is paid to a NY fisherman, then that money leaves the state with him to stimulate *their* local economy as opposed to the benefits being preserved here.

This is like a micro version of our national trade situation. Every dollar we Americans use for imported goods is a dollar that stops being utilized domestically. With the current state of our economy and the number of people without jobs, every little bit helps.

[Mike P]

Ideally, commercial licenses would only be renewed by filing a 1040/1099 indicating that at least 50% of the taxpayers' gross income was derived from the sale of fish. That's the way it has always been in NY and some other states that issue commercial licenses.

I also wonder how many non-residents are filing Mass tax returns. I have always had to file returns in every state in which I have earned income. Some markets pay by check--some pay by cash. My sense is a lot of cash transactions don't get reported to any state, or to the IRS.

I have no problems with reciprocity--but to me, the height of idiocy is Mass issuing licenses to anglers who either reside in gamefish states, or who live in grandfathered states where Mass anglers either couldn't get a license at all, or couldn't get bass tags.

I also have no problem with Mass grandfathering existing licenses to out-of-staters, but issuing new licenses to people who live in states where we can't get a commercial license is wrong.

It's a different game now, with ASMFC and hard commercial quotas. Mass is doing its full time commercials a disservice. DMF cares more about licensing fees than its own resident commercials who actually make a living from the sea. And that is wrong, any way you slice it.

I'm not pointing fingers at anyone who plays by the rules. Report your catches, pay your taxes, and my problem isn't with you--it's with the rule makers.