New Bedford fisherman forced to give up 800-pound tuna

[starrfish]

LOL. so much for bleeding, gutting, swimming, spine tap, good side up, rice paper etc... just tattoo it with a net and still get 5.61 per lb.. not bad

[Slamdance]

I wonder how Carlos would feel if I started dragging my 150 sq. foot gill net around his cod boats and kept all I could catch while I was really targeting pogies with it?

[twofinbluna]

I was not aware there was a permit to net BFT tuna.

Trawl nets are not authorized for bluefin, and so there is no permit that would allow it. Other than than the purse seines on the 5 seiners there are no nets allowed of any kind.

[twofinbluna]

SoBo- I hear you, I am just saying that in this specific example I do not think the solution would be to allow him to bring it in. Maybe in fisheries that are under-exploited you could make an easier argument for it, but in a highly regulated fishery that is already dealing with a quota that is too small like the bluefin fishery is, allowing draggers and other net-fishermen to bring in and sell bluefin would be disastrous.

We had an issue come up recently regarding swordfish bycatch in the squid trawl fishery and in that case there was some flexibility due to the fact that there was an enormous amount of unused sword quota to go around. The squid guys were saying they were getting the swords (since they were towing for the same squid the swords are eating) and that they wanted to be able to bring them in. Everyone involved agreed it was a good thing as long as you did it right and kept an eye on it. But with the really low quotas, large amounts of of effort, and the ongoing problem regarding pelagic longline discards in the bluefin fishery, the last thing we would need is for every guy using a net to be able to catch and land bluefin.

In terms of whether trawlers could target bluefin, I do not think you would want to find out what a couple of 150 foot pair trawlers could do if they put their minds to it. And there are some pretty big, powerful conventional draggers out there that tow some pretty huge nets at high speed that could do some damage as well. Tow fast through the bait the bluefin are eating and you are going to catch bluefin...

[Captain Greg Sears]

Someone mentioned the fact that you can not catch BFT with any other gear on board other than approved gear. I thought I read this somewhere myself.... I think lobstering is the same. I also am pretty sure when dragging or gill nets you can't have net sizes other than approved sizes for the type of fish your permitted for. Anyone know the real rules on this???

Another scene could be ..... You are out charter fishing and you have a 55 inch fish on board. You catch a 110 inch fish worth millions. You can not keep this fish and say I did not want to waste it... the fish was dead or anything else... The rules are rules you could find loopholes like I have two dead fish so what one is discarded but you know in your mind you are cheating. Rules are for honest people dishonest people will find a way to justify their decisions.


This guy new what he was doing just like a lot of guys who cheat. I could think of a bunch of loopholes people think are legal or they can get away with. Ignorance does not protect you from the law. It's to bad the guy was ignorant.

Maybe they will give the money from this fish to some scientist to study BFT or to the ABTA someone should suggest this.

[On The Edge]

Trawl nets are not authorized for bluefin, and so there is no permit that would allow it. Other than than the purse seines on the 5 seiners there are no nets allowed of any kind.

Wow Chris This guy is a piece of work!!

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/...NEWS/108190307

http://www.gloucestertimes.com/local...ers-boat/print

Twice in 3 months. Are you frigging kidding me. Guess the rules are not clear enough for him on hidden compartments either.

[HeavyDuty]

piece of work....would be a vast understatement......he personally owns more new england groundfish boats and quota than anyone else in the industry.

[On The Edge]

All the more reason he looks like a moron for trying to play the "i did not know the rules" card.