the current fisherman mag..

[Mr. Sandman]

I have not always agreed with everything Zach Harvey writes about but that Fluke article was right on. I am a fluke guy and have enjoyed fishing that species in 5 states since the age of 3, in bays and offshore. It is probably one of the most popular species fished for in the east...and it is not just fluke that get abused like this. IMO NOTHING should be wasted or dumped over the side dead...EVER for ANY reason. If you drag just about anything you pull up will be near dead or die soon after. The discard because of regulations is a very significant mortality number that is being ignored. It should come to market and come off the quota...after all they are dead. Same goes for bass and everything else that swims. Remember the herring draggers catching and dumping bass offshore? This should never happen.

He didn't mention this but IMO the reason they don't do this is that there other factions of the comm industry would be pissed off. Ie. the R&R anglers don't want to see the quota lowered (or even reduced to zero) by draggers retained discard and put them out of work. IMO this is the real hidden issue that they don't want to discuss in the open.

As a recreational angler I actually try very hard not to waste any fish or part of fish. If it is not released, it is kept for food. We don't keep more then we can eat. After cleaning, all the fish waste also gets used as bait for lobster traps or ground up for chum. Nothing (OK, very very little) goes into the dumpster.

Its almost like a slap in the rec anglers face to see deckhands shoveling discard overboard when the rec angler is taking the time to revive a fish and see that he swims off strong.

He made some good points about rec regs as well. But the bottom line is that our fisheries management system is just not working and lacks common sense.

As Ted Nugent tell his kids on his hunting show..."If you kill it, the least you can do is Eat it!"

I am glad they made that a cover story...

[Raven]

i watched the history of the Canadian hand liners and their similar battles with the draggers and the story was truly sad as one guy forced into not being able to fish like his last 3 generations before him did drove him to suicide. As a fishing village they lost ...

[MakoMike]

Very complicated issue, but first off realize that the fluke fishery is NOT in trouble. There are more fluke around right now than at any time since they started to keep records.

As far as that soecific incident goes, those fluke were dumped for one of two reasons, either the boat did not have a fluke permit or the state of MA had a very restrictive trip limit. Either way, it's not the fault of the feds or the ASMFC.

Every state that I know of uses trip limits to try and control the commercial landings against that state's quota. It is a well known fact in fisheries management that trip limits cause regulatory discards, yet the states continue to use them, becuase they have no other effective way of limiting the landings. Anyone have another suggestion?

[Joe]

It's too bad the scientific community is not beyond reproach....

[ThomCat]

Trip limits or not, these draggers are only interested in big fish. When jumbos are paying $4 a pound and mediums (the smallest that can be kept) are paying $1.75, it seems a lot more jumbos and large hit the dock than mediums. When the daily limit goes down to 100 or 75 or 50 pounds a day, all of a sudden only joes seem to find there way into the net. Hmmmm.........

[MakoMike]

Originally Posted by ThomCat

Trip limits or not, these draggers are only interested in big fish. When jumbos are paying $4 a pound and mediums (the smallest that can be kept) are paying $1.75, it seems a lot more jumbos and large hit the dock than mediums. When the daily limit goes down to 100 or 75 or 50 pounds a day, all of a sudden only joes seem to find there way into the net. Hmmmm.........

Tom,
what would you do when the trip limit is 50 pounds and you have 150 pounds of fish on the deck? Only keep the 14 inchers? We need to find a better way to limit/monitor the catch, trip limits always produce regulatory discards.

[macojoe]

Very complicated issue, but first off realize that the fluke fishery is NOT in trouble. There are more fluke around right now than at any time since they started to keep records.

Tell that to all us that fish Lucas area!! We have to get 17 1/2 fish and only 5 fish! It gets worse for the recreational fisherman every year!! While the Commercials continue to rape the sea!!

Takes hours to weed thur the small rats, that I release alive!!

Use to go there just a few years ago and get all you want in just a few min. and all good sizes!

Go to the fish house in NB and watch the dragger's unload 300 pounds of Jumbo's!! What the net missed all the 14" fish I have been catching all day right next to them??

Not to start with you, Thats not my intention!

But the Fluke are in trouble and so is any other inshore fishery as long as the system allows dragger's to fish the inshore water ways!!

And again this is why I will never buy a saltwater lic!

[MakoMike]

Originally Posted by macojoe

Tell that to all us that fish Lucas area!! We have to get 17 1/2 fish and only 5 fish! It gets worse for the recreational fisherman every year!! While the Commercials continue to rape the sea!!

Takes hours to weed thur the small rats, that I release alive!!

Use to go there just a few years ago and get all you want in just a few min. and all good sizes!

Go to the fish house in NB and watch the dragger's unload 300 pounds of Jumbo's!! What the net missed all the 14" fish I have been catching all day right next to them??

Not to start with you, Thats not my intention!

But the Fluke are in trouble and so is any other inshore fishery as long as the system allows dragger's to fish the inshore water ways!!

And again this is why I will never buy a saltwater lic!

Bitch to the MA authorities, AFAIK MA is the only state that has high enough trip limits to make it worthwhile for the draggers to target fluke during the summer. All the other states have 50 or 100 pound limits so that most draggers won't untie the dock lines..

There is no doubt that with relatively low trip limits a lot of high grading goes on. How can we stop it? If you're fishing in an area where the dragger are working, its no wonder you don't see the tremendous increase in the fluke numbers!