CITES questions....

[twofinbluna]

Bill

I disagree with the need for anything like CITES, but after having this discussion roughly 15,000 times since the CITES push was made public this summer, I just dont have the fire to argue these points anymore.

But one thing I will say is that I know plenty of guys who were fishing back in the 70s (and even earlier) and I dont know of any that would say that all fish were 800-1200 pounds and that 600 pounders were not caught because they were too small. Its one thing to acknowledge that there may have been more slammers around before there was any major Atlantic bluefin fishery, but lets be realistic here. And there has been no shortage of big ones around, especially in Canada and off the Cape. We had a lot more big ones around in the Gulf of Maine this summer too, now that we have seen the herring situation finally getting better. What was truly unhealthy was back 40 years ago when most of what people saw were slammers, because there was massive seine fishery for juveniles and they did a number on all the small fish. What we have now is a lot healthier in that respect. And the reason you hear about so many 100 pounders being caught is because there is a rec fishery for small fish, something you did not have 15 years ago. There are no commercial boats talking about using 12 pound test!

Am I saying that everything is perfect? Obvioulsy not, but the only way to get it done is through ICCAT. CITES will do nothing to help, and will only make things more complex and harder to deal with. The other side has to come into compliance, and as I have said many times, I think the changes made at ICCAT this year will go a long ways towards dealing with the issues we have seen in the past.

The bottom line is that we are getting really close to decision time on this issue and there is no point arguing. Its going to be what its going to be. I just hope we dont have to find out what CITES would do, and that by the end of the spring this whole thing has gone away.

[twofinbluna]

Deep C- Given your story, I would be curious where you used to fish. Your story sounds very familiar to the stories of guys who used to fish off NJ, and in a lot of people's opinions, what happened there is a lack of bait. It is like what happened in the Gulf of Maine a few years back before the herring issue was addressed. Things dry up quick when you dont have bait.

And I think if you give it time to work, you will see what happened at ICCAT will do a lot of good.

Alright, thats enough, I am done!

[Block and Tackle]

Twofin- thanks for all of your hard work on these topics and for your detailed responses. I think it is very educational for a great deal of people including myself.

I personally love hearing guys talk about how great things were back in the 70's and 80's and how they would have never thought about killing anything less than 800. To me that is a complete joke. You are out there commercially fishing and have a 600 pound fish 15ft. from the boat and you happen to decide well today shouldn't be a pay day, he is to small, lets cut him off. Additionally you have to be putting up some serious numbers annually, which most guys were not, to even consider this. Stories from 30 years ago get exaggerated and somethings that happened once all of a sudden become the norm as the years go by. I still fish with some old timers and you always have to take certain stories with a grain of salt.

I challenge anyone who was once in the game not to want to get back in it. I know a great deal of commercial guys and sure right now that may or may not be fishing but soon as a big slug of fish show up I can assure you they will be right back out there. Just remember guys that were fishing through the 70's and 80's, you were fishing under the horrible management system so you were part of the problem.