year 2010 recreational catch statistics

[MAKAI]

From the Oxford American dictionary


Commercial ( adjective )

1. Concerned with or engaged in commerce.

2. Making or intended to make a profit.
(a) Having profit, rather than artistic or other value, as a
primary aim:

It is rather obvious that we should break the accountability take pie
into thirds.

Commercial. ( selling fish )
Charter / Headboats . ( selling fishing )
Recreational.

I work some weekends as a mate on a Charter boat out of Green harbor. The general theme is a keep everything meat fishing trip. The whole attitude is to fill the box.
A far cry from most ( not all ) people that I know when they are out fishing for enjoyment.

No way it's an either or , now you would be just arguing semantics.

But this is all a mute point to our collective ignorance to the future of this fishery. The plenty of now does not mean the plenty of tomorrow.
Hell, just look at the state of our Country and economy. Aren't we all just looking around wondering " what happened ? It was so good not long ago, "
You can definitely draw some parallels to striped bass fishing, once this large biomass out there now is gone we may be in trouble.
The deterioration of the estuarine nursery may not bode well for all of us, who for work or play, pursue this fish. As I said earlier it now takes 3 times the breeders to produce the same YOY as it did 20 years ago.Something is very wrong.

Get involved.

[MikeToole]

IMO charter and head boats are not selling fish. They are selling a service; a ride out to where the fish are, rental equipment, bait and instruction. Most of the time the customers keep the fish for personal use.

To me the real difference centers around final results. On a charter 6 people go out and they get to spend a day on the water with friends and maybe catch 12 bass. For many of them this only happens once or twice a season. They pay the charter 3.5 to 6 hundred depending on location and time. They may also eat out and rent a couple of rooms. So in the end six people got to have a good day fishing and dumped some money into the economy. The boat earns about what one commercial fisherman would make if he caught 12 fish.

So the main difference is in one case 7 people benefit and in the other case only two at most when averaged (whole saler and retailer). In both cases the trickle down is still there just to different people and the fish make it to the public for use.