how are the tuna /noaa meetings going so far?????

[garonmailman]

i will be going to the Portland meeting in the morning anyone have anything they want me to key in on or stress the point of. the only thing i can come up with is more herring/mackerel = more tuna . my dumb ass could use a few good points. or the name of some people i should ***** slap for thinking shutting down tuna fishing is a good idea thanks for your help

[tomytuna]

Boston meeting was over flowing! standing room only.
Any news from NJ meeting?

[First Light]

Just returned from the ESA listening session in boston and was encouraged that seventy or eighty guys made it out at ten am on a weekday. The status of the review and weather they will take our input into consideration is still something of a mystery, but I feel like we shed some light on the absurdity of the proposed listing as well as gave a lot of pertinent information regarding the availability of fish throughout or region. Unfortunately there was very little recreational presence, and i think they need to hear from everyone involved as to the great abundance of fish, despite tough fishing conditions this past season. there is one week to get your written comments into the review, so please write. follow the link on prev posts to saving seafood. thanks to all who will get the word to these people that the bluefin is no endangered or threatened species. All they want to hear about is how many fish you are seeing and why you feel that is the case. The speakers who perked up her ears discussed how bait relates to our areas only being so attractive to what is a massive population of giants to our north and east, the need for better science including a real arial survey, and the fact that all those sub 73 inch fish we all let go are not on their radar. their data seems to only account for 73+ fish sold and shorts that were killed recreationally and reported. Let them know how many little ones are out there!!!

[Fin Addiction]

Good to see u there Nat......I think it was a successful meeting in all even tho it was mainly commercials who voiced there opinion.

[horsemackeral]

Boston meeting-encouraging turnout. anyone who cares to help ensure the future of our fishery now is the time. These people think inside of boxes and there is without a doubt an underlying political agenda at work. Speak up now or forever hold your peace gentlemen!

NOW IS THE TIME FOR ACTION!

no matter if you fish em 1 day per year or 100. Attend Portland meeting and no matter what- write letters- we still have a week to submit written input.

cb

[relentless]

I was able to attend the Boston meeting today but only stuck my nose in as I was on lunch break. Nice comments by the ones I heard speak, Andy Bahler and Mike Abadow. I will be taking off tomorrow and attend the Portland Meeting and speak there.

Thank you to the guys and gals who did attend and speak and as mentioned if you can not get those letters out ASAP. I also encourage everyone to send letters even if they did speak to get them on file.

Dave

[Innovator]

There was an excellent turnout at Boston. I spent most of yesterday and last night reviewing the issue. As I was reading the actual petition I was scratching my head wondering how the HELL, this even got to this point to begin with.

After the meeting I am even more blown away (and scared) of the real possibility of this going through. I am absolutely shocked of the NMFS lack of reliable data regarding the bluefin stock as a whole. They (NMFS) are almost entirely unaware of the absolutely huge amount of juvenile and small/medium fish that are around from an area ranging from New Jersey to the Gulf of Maine. The underlying problem is the actual method the NMFS uses to determine stock estimates. They almost exclusively use landing data to determine the size of the stock. So for example you are a commercial general category fisherman fishing live bait on the bank. The bite is red hot and you catch 10 fish in a day but none are 73" and release them all successfully. There is no system in place to account for these fish so they simply do not exist in the NMFS eyes.

The same thing goes for recreational fishermen if you do not report your catch they do not count towards anything in assessing the stock of Bluefin. The NMFS/NOAA is absolutely clueless of the enormous amount of fish we are seeing on a daily basis. Harpoon Boats discussed running through 50-100 mi. of short fish in attempts to find 73" fish, again the NMFS is clueless.

The moral of all this is a dramatic change in the way the Bluefin stock is assessed as a whole. The problem is this does not help us out, NOW, in preventing the Bluefin Tuna from being place on the endangered species list. I cannot stress the importance of all input to the NMFS regarding our view of the Bluefin Tuna stocks, this includes everybody- recreational, commercial, charter, harpoon fishermen. Please take the time to review what is going on and get involved.

Here are a couple of useful links-

Actual Petition
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/s...-5-24-2010.pdf

The American Bluefin Tuna Assoc.
http://www.theabta.com/

[simonsez1]

I was there today, it is amazing that they have no clue how many fish of different sizes are around. The stock assessments are being done by some JA sitting behind a desk where they can't possibly know how well this species is doing! It is easy for us to see the progress that the Bluefin Tuna has made in the last 7-8 years just by being out on the water, they should go out and take a look themselves. Please go and tell them how many fish you see! This is the info that needs to be conveyed to NMFS, this is what they are looking for in these meetings. Hopefully the gentlemen that spoke today will have an positive impact on the outcome of the ESA listing. If not we are all going to lose out, and then our quota will be given away, more than likely, forever.
Kevin

[On The Edge]

I hear poor attendance at the Sandy Hook meeting. 20 attendees and 6 people dialed in the call". among them was Pamela Yuen from Congressman Pallone's office (she stayed the whole time and took ~5 pages of notes), a NYU post grad doing a dissertation, Dan Harley from the tackle side, some commercial guys, bunch of recs (charter and private), Karen Wall from the Fisherman/press, the Belmar Bridge Operator and others.

[twofinbluna]

Thanks for showing up today guys. Very impressive turnout, especially given the time/day/place, and tons of great comments. Will let you know how Portland goes, and hope to see another great turnout!

I did not do a formal count, I have some pics I can go back and do some rough counting, but I would say it was at least 80, but possibly more given the people that came and went and the people who were forced to stand in hallway/entrance (both who were hard to count). Again, very good turnout!