Quote Originally Posted by twofinbluna View Post
I think it is good to have these discussions but at the same time I want to go back the original point. While not everyone can agree on some of the finer details, I hope that everyone here is able to see how ludicrous an ENDANGERED SPECIES LISTING is for these fish. I just do not see how anyone here could ever think that we need anything like that. Do we need to keep working hard at managing right here? Yes. Do we need to keep the pressure up abroad? Yes. But should we be placing these fish on a list of things going extinct? NO!

And just remember if this listing were to happen, we would all be banned from even touching a bluefin, but our quota will be reallocated to someone else with less strict regulations than us. I do not see how even the people who do not like the idea of a bluefin being caught and killed for any reason, could support this thing.

Hopefully people will be ready to fight when the time comes.
Chris at the same time - and I do think I agree on the ESA, I think there's a shift for some. At one point the commercial tuna interests were pushing to lower the limit even further. I think that goes against the grain of conservation and rebuilding Likewise, I know I'm of the mindset that we do what we can when we can and that there is a middle ground. When I hear talk of lowering the limit I shudder and I'm not confident that if we have a good year or two you're organization won't push to get that limit brought down before we can really see a recovery. Fish weights are still dropping and that's not good as most scientists agree the smaller they are the later they mature. We need to find the root cause of the lighter weights and get that fixed too which I know you're working on. If they have high quality forage they'll fatten up, the faster they grow the faster they spawn.

I appreciate everything you do. There is nobody else pushing to get the herring fleet out of here. You have a special interest in that and that is absolutely fine, it's what makes the world go round...and that's what I've been saying all along. We don't have to agree perfectly and I appreciate that you seem to respect that.

I do feel, hear and see an undercurrent this time in the community that is more oriented towards the "we need to do something, and this is better than nothing" and I think you may be underestimating that. There's a lot of guys that caught scratch this year after many good years and for them the difference between an ESA listing and not is about 2k in money not spent on gas for the same results. That's going to be an obstacle in gaining support.

My only real concern for the future is the GOM spill. If it is found in the weeks, months and year ahead that it did do a lot of damage to our particular stock then I hope action is taken to protect that particular stock.