General Category Quota?

[SteveH2112]

As of Oct 11th there was still 129 MT of Bluefins left to fill the quota. Do you think it will be filled? My guess is...........NO. I'm saying about 386 MT total

[twofinbluna]

If it is not caught there will be two major reasons. First, the fact that almost 80 million pounds of herring was taken from Georges. (And recently the pair trawlers have been fishing hard in Area 1A). Second, the absolutely AWFUL weather this Fall.

Just look at the current forecast:

Gale Warning
Georges Bank...From The Northeast Channel To The Great South
Channel Including Waters East Of Cape Cod...To The Hague Line
Overnight
SW winds 20 to 25 kt increasing to 25 to 35 kt. Seas 8 to 12 ft. Scattered showers and a chance of tstms late.
Mon
W to SW winds 25 to 35 kt diminishing to 20 to 25 kt by noon...and then to 15 to 20 kt late. Seas 8 to 12 ft subsiding to 6 to 10 ft late...highest se. Scattered showers and a chance of tstms ending by noon.
Mon Night
W to SW winds 15 kt. Seas subsiding to 5 to 7 ft.
Tue
SW winds 10 to 15 kt early...becoming S late. Seas 4 to 6 ft. A chance of showers.
Tue Night
S to se winds increasing to 15 to 20 kt. Seas 4 to 6 ft.
Wed
S to se winds increasing to 20 to 30 kt...then becoming S 25 to 35 kt. Seas building to 10 to 18 ft...highest S.
Thu
Winds becoming W to SW 25 to 35 kt. Seas 13 to 19 ft... highest E.
Fri
W to NW winds 20 to 30 kt diminishing to 10 to 15 kt late. Seas subsiding to 6 to 10 ft late...highest E.


With weather like that, you can barely fish inshore, let along offshore. Weather looks like it could improve a bit this weekend, lets hope thats a sign of things to come.

I have never seen a stretch of weather like we have had since early August. The harpoon fleet was essentially shut down. (To be honest, the weather sucked all summer off Maine, but at least in June and July we had weather good enough to go.) I know that hook boats are not as impacted by wind and seas as we are, but the weather has been so bad that even that part of fleet has been impacted. The herring problem will not be solved in the next couple weeks, but some decent weather would be very helpful on its own.

[LadyB]

Lets hope we do fill this quota so no more will be taken away from us! We still have the water temps on our side. The weather should improve by the end of the week. Let's hope so !