Mass Marine Fisheries - new regs - River HERRING moratorium

[JohnR]

Originally Posted by JeffH

That makes CT and Mass with a herring ban, where does RI stand..........

Hopefully folowing suit with Mass & CT. The herring numbers are too low in RI as well.

I've had some discussions with people at RI DEM and the recurring theme is that there is a large offshore mortality - what that is they don't know or won't say. My fear is that even if we go through a cycle of closures for a few years, what good will it do with that offshore mortality....

[striperman36]

One word ---- BYCATCH = offshore mortality

It's a small mesh fishery right?

[tattoobob]

I am all for the ban, I do think the high water and storms in the spring had a lot to due with the low counts. I am also glad it is a total ban and just not the recs. this should be good for both fisheries

[tattoobob]

the bycatch is some thing that can't be stopped unless they stop netting all together

[capesams]

always cutting the thoat's of the land based crowd..full steam ahead for the offshore guy's..thing's will never change untill the money donations from the corperations that own these large boats to your rep's are cut off.

if the owner of these boats had to be behind the wheel in order to go out, 2/3's of them would never leave the dock's.THAT would bring the fish back.

[Nebe]

its a good thing there are no herring runs in RI

[PNG]

This means NOTHING until the Federalies get onboard

[MakoMike]

IMHO is about time. Now RI should do the same.

[JohnR]

Originally Posted by Nebe

its a good thing there are no herring runs in RI

Yeh, and just wait until some of the mass and ct guys, jonesing for livelining, come down to the already depressed herring runs in RI.

Has anyone seen anything close to a comprehensive report on the herring situation? Inshore and offshore? We hear fragmented bits and pieces of here and there but little or big picture (not that I expect the big picture to be correct)...

[MoroneSaxatilis]

Originally Posted by JohnR

Yeh, and just wait until some of the mass and ct guys, jonesing for livelining, come down to the already depressed herring runs in RI.

But John, isn't it a moot point since even simple possession of river herring in Mass waters is not going to be allowed? I suppose that some Mass guys might simply fish RI, but I know that myself and the guys that I (boat) fish with, wouldn't. We don't trailer our boats, and it's unlikely that we would bother to steam all the way to RI and have to learn new bottom. Plus, we would still have to transport them to/from Mass which will be illegal. I, for one, would not be willing to take the chance.
Am I way off base here?

[JohnR]

Not off base at all. Some, a few, will come to RI and get the herring into Mass or CT, some will come to RI to fish. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that all,most, or even half of the CT & Mass guys will be invading RI, and that is not the impression I'm trying to make. My point is that RI likely has as much of a herring problem as Mass or CT. My hope is that RI herring get's closed (with defined triggers to reopen) and my fear is that even if that happens, it still does not address the "offshore mortality" that is happening with these fish....

RI had some odd rules in the recent past which allowed excessive take from a few runs when done downstream of the saltwater demarcation point which I saw with my own eyes had people taking thousands of fish at amounts and on days that were illegal on the freshwater side. Guys taking litterally several hundreds of fish in an afternoon because they were not in the "freshwater" portion of a run. Fortunately, that was addressed last year.

But, there were times when I saw Mass guys taking advanatage of those older rules and filling up with herring. Not picking on Mass guys as a whole (remember I am/was one), just an observation. And it was not illegal at the time. In talking to people pretty active in the herring situation, they say they have seen out of state plates going to runs late at night on "off' nights getting herring.

Originally Posted by MoroneSaxatilis

But John, isn't it a moot point since even simple possession of river herring in Mass waters is not going to be allowed? I suppose that some Mass guys might simply fish RI, but I know that myself and the guys that I (boat) fish with, wouldn't. We don't trailer our boats, and it's unlikely that we would bother to steam all the way to RI and have to learn new bottom. Plus, we would still have to transport them to/from Mass which will be illegal. I, for one, would not be willing to take the chance.
Am I way off base here?

[Mr. Sandman]

I hope this sheds some light on the their ability to manage a fishery.... under their management, things got so bad they had to shut it down altogether. This is not good science or good management. It is a group of commercially biased greedy fools trying to extract the most they can based on bad numbers. And it is never "their" fault...they are always acting on "other peoples" advice. Forget this approach, fire everyone and start anew with a different (More Conservative) philosophy that focuses on the fish, not the maximum yeild.

IMO it is not a few fishermen taking 10 or 12 herring 2X per week at a run that is decimating the population (considering a single cormorant can eat more then that itself), but regardless, we recs will take it up the butt and stop taking the fish so that the commercial harvest can be re-established.

The next couple years could be tough for bait fishermen...no herring, no scup no eels...do bass eat spiny dogfish?

Actually, what bothers me the most is not the herring ban but the social aspect of hanging out at the run. Where else can I go at 5:00am in April? I get to see a lot of fishing friends I have not seen all winter. This is the first fishing related thing I do each year, now what? This herring ban could cause some serious social problems, as it will probably drive us to the bars now