Quote:
Originally Posted by fishbones
They need to crack down hard on the places that knowingly buy illegal fish, as well. If there weren't places buying through the back door, there wouldn't be as much of an incentive to poach. Attacking both ends of the problem will be more effective than just tryign to stop the poachers.
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Well said. If all fish bought and sold are accounted for and count towards a quota, then serious commercial poaching becomes more about commercial fishermen cheating each other than harming the resource.
Better yet, the ASMFC could make a realistic estimate at the numbers of black market fish killed each year, subtract that from either the commercial or both quotas, and manage things from there. That they don't (as best I can tell), and even decline to do so (based on the discussion published in their last technical report) indicates to me that maintaining high user group catch numbers is a greater priority for the ASMFC (and perhaps the majority of fishermen) than resource conservation.
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