Who am I?

[hubris 1]

I go away a week and come back and all of SFC is political. I remember when people on here hated all the politics, but now see its a necessary part of managing people. Along with managing fisheries.
Im a recreational fisherman. What does that mean? Well to me it means, I fish for fun.......nothing else. I have gotten to the point I can let go everything I catch if I want to. I only keep a few fish to eat. By that I mean no more than 3 lbs of fish or one large one.
I dont sell what I catch to a friends restaurant. That makes me a commercial fisherman. I dont charter a boat catching 15 lb mahi all day so the charter guy can sell them to a restaurant. That makes me a commercial fisherman. I dont fish tournaments, claiming that we released 97 percent of all billfish but the winning fish had a bounty of 1.2 million dollars, creating jobs for the local economy. I think cutting open a white marlin at a tournament to pretend your doing research is a silly endeavor. When the prize is millions, its a commercial endeavor.....period.
I too used to fish my own boat spending at least 30,000 grand doing it. I loved my annual trip to North Carolina and Pirates cove. It made the entire expense worth it. I sold the boat hoping to buy a bigger one but I gotta tell ya, I bought a smaller one. I dont think Ill ever do it again after being out for two years. I believe WE as so called recreational fisherman have made our own poison pill and taken it in a lethal dose.
We want to point the finger while we try to claim the glory of a million dollar fish. We suck up to the circle hook thinking we can make a deal with the devil in the end. We want to sell giant bluefin in november and act like the other people are doing them in while we are just trying to support our families. No one in Gov,t is buying it anymore.
Now you want to stand with the commercials and say be united. The problem is alot of us are commercials, we just dont want to say it.
Shark tournaments are a disgrace. More dead blue sharks and for no reason. Oh, but we arent to blame.
Kill tournaments are a disgrace. Its becoming nothing more than a 1 million dollar hunting permit to go kill a bengal tiger. The only thing you prove is you have a million dollars.
Im a recreational fisherman, I dont stand along side all the other interests. Next year when they close flounder season on sept 5th and on sept 6th open it to commercials to vacuum up the coast from Cape May to Atlantic City, Im still going to go flounder fishing. I wont keep any, Im not allowed but Im only trying to have some fun, not make money.
Thats who I am. Instead of yelling about your rights, maybe we need to take a look at who we are. I believe we have done alot to put us in this situation and we dont want to take any blame for it.
If you stand with the commercials I believe your going down the drain while they continue to fish. Keep fishing the kill tournaments, selling the bluefin, selling the mahi that your charter catches, killing blue sharks for no reason other than that and a six pack seem to go together. Recreationals need to stand by themselves even in a smaller number. Let the other interests fight to protect their rights. They will have a difficult time articulating why they have the right to harvest and sell what they catch without expensive fees and regulations. Once again, I stand alone Im sure.

[Glenn W]

You're babbling there Alex--- You have intertwined at least a half dozen topics into one run-on paragraph.
It would seem to me the core issue you attempt to discuss in your thread is pretty simple: that being: if a natural resource is healthy, then we, as American citizens should have the right to harvest some of this resourse and not be told where we can and cannot fish in our public Oceans. The determination of healthy should be made with reliable science and not politically motivated bias.---Pretty simple unification if you ask me.
There will always be some conflicts and disagreements between recreational and commercial interests, but on this topic, both interests are aligned---- pretty simple and straight forward actually.

[clt_capt]

Hey Alex - One of the points that I think you are missing is that with MPAs - not only can you not keep a reasonable amount of fish to eat - You cannot even practice catch and release...

MPAs have become the mechanism of choice for NOAA to manage fishing effort - along with IFQs...

If you ain't got a permit or quota share - you can't be there at all... So go ahead and catch your fluke on Sept 6 - maybe someone will bail you out...

[hubris 1]

Hey Alex - One of the points that I think you are missing is that with MPAs - not only can you not keep a reasonable amount of fish to eat - You cannot even practice catch and release...

MPAs have become the mechanism of choice for NOAA to manage fishing effort - along with IFQs...

If you ain't got a permit or quota share - you can't be there at all... So go ahead and catch your fluke on Sept 6 - maybe someone will bail you out...

See, I disagree. They arent going to take away my right to fish anymore than my right to drive. Now if I want to drive a peterbuilt down the road, Im going to need a permit but my truck..... is fine. Likewise, if I want to go fishing, Ill be allowed, unless I get in bed with the commercial guy........then Im going to need a permit. And that is why, its a mistake. I can also put a windmill in my yard as long as its for play purposes. But if I want to make electricity with it.....Ill bet I need a permit.
Crowd mentality got obama elected, following the crowd mentality on this issue will have the same result I believe. And YES, i HOPE obama fails...........in everything he does.

[Hatterized]

Alex......no fear when i walk into the House or Senate...with my seeing eye dog.......

carrying a fishbowl with a lone goldfish......

i will be wearing my Hubris t-shirt.....so you dont feel left out......now as for Glenn W.....i will name the fish after him ....since the politicos will probably flush the fishy down the drain.....


smile Glennn...we still luv ya....just like ya luvin that new Va govenor....aint cha !!!.....

[Admin]

Basically Hubris is this what you are trying to say.

What class are you?
Recreational?
Commercial?
Charter?

What is your definition of these clearly?

I have my definition.
Recreational is someone who goes out on time off to fish for fun. Dont matter if they bring home tons of fish, most enjoy time spent on the water as a get away with family and friends.
You can take this farther that if rec's tournament fish some want that classed differently.
Fact is though any more you don't see tons of fish at the scales and to be honest I think with the cost of fishing more people save money to fish a event then go out pre fishing or fun fishing. So less days pre fishing or fun fishing in reality should mean less pressure on the fish. But of course heavy pressure on the fish for the tourney days. But fact also is if the weekend is nice people would fun fish for sharks that weekend also.

That makes no sense im sure as its just not a class.


Charter
Well this one is interesting and gets people fired up.
In some opinion a guy who is a vehicle to take rec's fishing.
But when numbers are on the boat and killing is for selling then the class changes.
Here lies a issue.
I have meet a lot of guys who rod and reel fish commercial for a short period of the year.
Why? Money in my opinion. Keep the bills paid. As i have been out there and man its freaking nasty and standing in the back of a sport boat is a little nuts some day taking on a 600 lb fish.
But its done to keep a way of life. Its income. Big income I would guess only to a few who really get lucky.

I will also say this though, after watching the show swords last year I think one 3 mile set on one boat caught as many if not more blue fin then the whole NC fleet.


Not sure if it makes sense since they are mainly called charter boats.

Now
COMMERCIAL....

Sadly this one is a boook...
You have the guy who's family has a boat and he works his balls off to make a buck.

Then you have the bigger operations lets say the True Value hardware store of commercial fishing.

These guys got bigger over head more boats and bigger take.

But then I see the Home Depots and walmarts of commercial fishing. The ones who can pay the government to make people smile. To me its called industrial fishing.


Now god since I think i heard the numbers are something like 85% of seafood is now imported. That really makes you think.
Can you imagine if we could take some of this back and fish smarter and allow them to earn more!

But from what I see there is more money in certain aspects of government selling off quota. I could be wrong.

Venice LA
Shrimp plant is owned by foreigners.
They are the buyer of the gulf shrimp.
From what I learned they buy and keep the price very low and the these guys dont really have much choices as they need to pay bills.

Sadly its more profitable to bring in the farm raised fish.
So you find the local shrimpers selling shrimp on the side of the road to make money or sell off at stupidly low prices.
Sad thing is most of you need to check what you eat any more.

Oh ya i heard alot of that is going to dog food.

So country men who work for a living are getting cut out by over seas trade.

Imagine if our government cared.
Oh but they do right?
Wrong!!!
Bunker
Did anyone know bunker is sold to the chinese companies who are towing your tuna out of here? So they can be fat by the time that make the trip home?

How about awesome gulf white shrimp going to dog food and what you buy in the store is probably farm raised in those patties are troops dropped cool bombs in.

We the buyers are falling right into it.
Think about christmas eve and the shop rite shrimp tray.

Oh but can u imagine if the goverment helped out here and allowed the shrimpers of the gulf coast to get the product to market after Katrina? Holly shit I did not meet one man who would have not worked his tail off to earn to rebuild.

Commercial and Industrial..
Please watch this.
Omega Protein.
Figure out for your self why the government helped them with money for Katrina how much did the little guys get.

Oh ya pay close attention to the scientific data that says your fish are hungry. Could this data be allowing them to reduce the food so much fish are starving to death?
Sure it could but the cool part is its really not for the fish oil pills any more its for the dog food and detergents that are sent where ?// Oh ya over there.

Man who do i stand with?
I stand with the guy who is working everyday here in this country and selling to us.
Sadly that may not be good enough anymore.

Wow im a typing fool today.
Please after watching these videos sadly since this is considered commmercial and not industrial its hard to say we stand with the word commercial. Again my eye on commercial is a guy working his tail off to earn a living. Not
using vacum cleaners to sell our fish food over seas.

Watch its really a eye opener.

part 1:

Video Player

part 2:

Video Player

[hubris 1]

Yea, I think there is a difference.
I dont see anything wrong with fishing for sharks but, killing them to just drag it in is not a good idea and does nothing to make it seem we are not part of the problem. I remember they had a trash dumpster next to the guy cleaning makos one year. Well, it was a shame to see it. Next year that dumpster wasnt there for all to dispose of their triumph. It didnt seem like a sport then.
Also, if they catch everything commercially to sell it for cat food or fertilizer, Please tell me how can that possibly be in the best interest of a recreational fisherman? The guy doing that may make his living that way but it doesnt really do anything for me. I want to catch and eat a flounder sandwich............
I know where I stand and I think its one reason more people were not in washington. They dont see the connection between all the different classes of fisherman and quite frankly I dont really either.
I am not a fan of obamanation but I also dont see anyone getting away with imposing commercial restrictions on a guy going fishing, unless of course he asks for it. I think were asking for it by standing along side them.

WOW.........The truth can be a slippery slope. Now, I got to say I sure dont think omega fish oils are in my interest as a fisherman. I have a full head of hair. I just want a flounder sandwich. I wonder if they went to the rally.

[Big Fish Billy]

[SIZE="4"][COLOR="SeaGreen"]

carrying a fishbowl with a lone goldfish......

And if some conservation isn't done, Giant Bluefin Tuna will be swimming in your fish tank alongside the goldies........

[Admin]

So did anyone watch these 2 videos?

I am blown away that no has anything at all to say.

[Big Fish Billy]

So did anyone watch these 2 videos?

I am blown away that no has anything at all to say.

So what are you saying...it looks like some conservation efforts are underway, the company has capped it's own catch, (that's a change) and local politicians are helping a company in their state, opposite of what they're doing elsewhere, which way do you want it...as I said in another thread, use clout to come up with solutions not moan...Omega will put itself out of business if they continue on this track, and foul the Bay by the sounds of it..here's my solution not knowing anything, cut the tonnage in half and make Omega Oil out of flax seed.....got some pms on the GBT fishery, here's my solution, set the limit at 80", if you're fishing recreationally/charter,you release the smaller fish, if you're the mega commercial guy, put a proctor on board, if you kill one as bycatch pay a $500 fine per fish...if that doesn't work, revert to Deep's scenario of "don't catch, don't approach"...