Any truth to the rumor

[mzajac]

that we as a group were 3.5 times over the recreatioanl tuna quota last year? At one of the charter association meetings there was a feeling that there is a very strong probability of no school tuna retention this year. Can anyone shed any light on this or the actual quota catch?

[sashamy]

i heard 700 tons over for two years..350% overage each year

[Block and Tackle]

This ought to be a great thread. I have been saying this for 2 seasons yet all the recreational do not want to believe a word of it. I am interested to see where this goes.

[backman]

as a rec, full agreement. Give me a book of 5 stickers with my 27$ license and allow me to keep and report 5 per year; that's plenty of meat for myself and my crew.

Or; if I feel the need to keep more because I am gods gift to recreational fisherman and I need a bloody mess each time out - allow me to buy another 5 tickets for a reasonable price - say 100$ for 5 so I can keep another 5 fish.

[KP161]

as a rec, full agreement. Give me a book of 5 stickers with my 27$ license and allow me to keep and report 5 per year; that's plenty of meat for myself and my crew.

Or; if I feel the need to keep more because I am gods gift to recreational fisherman and I need a bloody mess each time out - allow me to buy another 5 tickets for a reasonable price - say 100$ for 5 so I can keep another 5 fish.

Good idea.

As long as all the tags that are handed out (and also the the unreported fish) still excedes the quota.

All the rec class boats on the east coast being able to keep 5 fish might also excede the quota. Any idea how many Rec boats there are?

Now I know all rec guys don't keep 5 fish a year but I would think blowing away the quota by that much on small fish might not be good for the long term health of the fishery.

[tunatamer73]

I wonder how much of that 700 tons were wasted by improper storage and had to be thrown away? Probably a lot! They should be issuing tags to recreational anglers like they do with anterless deer. 2 or so per person per year. When fishing on a charter you must show your tag. My .02

[tunatamer73]

Backman you must of been typing as I was. I think 5 is too many. That would be like 500+lbs of meat.

[shoefish]

Could someone educate me on what the source for the 700 ton number is and how it was calculated? Thanks for the help.

[backman]

shared resource. I kept 7 last year; a lot more than 5 the 3 years before that. I make ~ 12-15 trips east per year because I work for a living and also go south.

its not unreasonable that a bathtub fisherman fish 2-3 days/week from June -> Oct or 40-60 trips/year with the short distances and easy sea conditions I'm pretty comfortable stating that if you do something that much with the current rich fishery your going to catch a fish at least 50% of the time or between 10 and 15 fish per year. If you walk on water like some of our experts you'll catch one per trip if not one on every cast.

Knock that down from 10-40 per year per boat to 5 per year per boat and you'll reduce the overage substantially.

Lets not forget that 20% of the fisherman catch 80% of the fish, except on this board where 90% of the posters go 3 for 5 on slobs every day

[jpurcell]

Been out roughly 22 times the past 2 years. We caught 2 and kept 2. Not a very good ratio but sure is fun. Learning more every year.