Captain Tred Barta - FISHING: Calcutta Kill Tournaments

[hubris 1]

you remind me of that movie......Goodfella's. at the point when joe pesicia sticks the ice pick in the back of the guys neck. and then he says, " I never thought he would shut the f...... up!" really dude, for an italian guy.......you sound like an irish chick. shut up, just once!

[Deep C]

Somebody please explain how we have already gotten to the point of derailing Treds thread? Boys, you know this is SFC and that is not our way... Now lets get it back on track please and let Tred express his point of view... Even if he is a million percent wrong...

Vinnie, Hubris, Joe... behave... Go ahead Tred... pontificate to your hearts content for I too enjoy a lively debate... You're gonna have to work harder though if you want to ruffle my feathers...

[tim R]

Sorry, Tred not personal just trying to follow the theme of prostitution and cancer being used....

Tred you're making one HUGE error with your disertation on calcutta tournaments and inviting arguements that will pit sportfishermen and their opinions against each other.

Look if you actually want to improve our fisheries management instead of your ratings then you need to address the real problem all sport fishermen face, commercial overfishing world wide.

Billfish enthusiasts are "truly" the only ones who care about managing the species and we have got alot of ground to make up to compete with the commercial fishing industry world wide. They, the commercial industry, are better organized, funded, have better scientists and lobbyiest around the world. This is the REAL issue not arguing calcutta tourney's and the ethics surrounding them...Sportfishermen need to put aside they're differences and work together otherwise we'll have plenty of time to tell Blue Marlin stories because that is all we will have.

Hell our Kona Maui Jim series of tournaments are a blast to fish more than 90% of fish get released, we have fun and it brings in great tourist revenue for our economy.

I guess as a Tackle Store I would catagorize my self as a Marlin Pimp, so those without sin amoung us can cast the first stone!

[Squidnation]

First - Pacific Blue Marlin is legal to sell in the US. I have seen it in my neighborhood resturant as well as some resturants in OC. Supposedly the resturant is to hold on to the receipt of origin showing that it is Pacific Blue Marlin to prove they are not selling atlantic blue marlin.

Calcuttas are just another part of the industry that profits from the catching and sometimes killing of billfish. Just as one should not hold the billfish to a higher status, The calcutta is not any more culpable then the tournament, bait provider or hooks manufacturer.

Your prostitute ****ogy is interesting. What you failed to mention is that the church really doesn't care if it is mafia, drug or prostitute money. They will gladly accept it all.

You make some interesting points but I still believe that calcuttas will be around for a long time and there is nothing wrong with that. Another note - Do you oppose calcuttas for release tournaments?

[Boonebird]

Guys. I start off by saying this. I personally never have fished a big game tournament. I would love to as long as its not my money. I had the invite this year to fish a shark tournament out of montauk. I couldnt make it happen. Oh well here we go.


Money money money. Give it up Its fishing. When I think of fishing I dont think of money. I think of relaxation. Last year they had a 20000 dollar calcutta on a shark tourney. I heard 8 boats got into it. Yea I guess odds dont get better than that. I have 4 friends that own big boats they wont spend a nickle on a tourney. Im stressed enough when I go offshore now add money to the mix. Forget it. Im not against killing animals. I do it my self all the time. But I only kill what I eat. If your going to take a few pics of a fish eat it while its guts are still in it after it has layied in the sun for 4 hrs. Knock your socks off. If its going to be cut up and tossed in to a lobster pot or worse than that a dumpster. Its time to hang it up.

I hear every year the complaing how this guy cheated. Tehre was 20 pages in www.noreast.com about how one cheated winning the tournament. Your kidding. A 16 year old kid won it on his first adtempt in entering. Everyone should be happy for the father and son team.

MONEY= Greed
You will never see donating money in one of these tourneys. Thats my 2 cents.

[knot for shore]

I believe the focus on "who's doing what to a resource" is being missed here. The focus, if you're concerned about depletion of stocks for money, should be on commercial fishing, not kill tournaments. I disagree that kill tournaments are the thing of past or are even bad for tournaments in general. People get emotional about what's in front of them at any particular time. Maybe those people need to be more concerned about the harvesting of sharks for their fins ONLY, or the dead bycatch of longliners, or the veal calves that stand in a pen their WHOLE lives without moving, or the millions of starving kids in the world, or the this or the that.

Maybe I got off track a bit, but my point is, is that the few fish killed in tournaments is a far cry from the millions that are caught and wasted by other means.

Focus on stocks needs to be narrowed down to the largest users - Who's doing what regardless of financial gain. It's all soup in the end. One just has to look at who's pot is bigger.

[WAHOONBOX]

http://www.wahoonbox.com/videos/sharkster.wmv

I JUST CAME IN FROM MY MORNING HUNT....PUT ON SOME NEESES SAUSAGE....ON TWO SLICES OF WHITE WHEAT ...SLAPPED ON A LOAD OF MAYO...........
TURNED ON THE FARM TV......WE ONLY GET A FEW SAT' CHANNELS AND THE OUTDOOR CHANNEL IS ONE OF THEM

I WONDER WHAT HUNTING SHOW IS ON.......JIM ZUMBO OUTDOORS.....WHO THE HELL IS JIM ZUMBO?.................I WATCHED THE FIRST 15 MIN................I LITERALLY COULDN'T TAKE ANYMORE OF THAT MESS......15 MINUTES OF HIM SWEATING AND CHANGING CLOTHES.....AT FIRST I THOUGHT THE SHOW WAS FILMED IN SLO-MOTION........THEN I REALIZED THAT THIS IS WHAT ZUMBO OUTDOORS WAS ALL ABOUT.....SLOW ZERO NANNA NOTHING

CAPT EPPEHIMER....I THANK YOU FOR BRINGING THE BEST AND THE WORST TO SPORTFISHERMEN.COM..........BUT PALEEESE...PALEEESE DO NOT GIVE JIM ZUMBO A FORUM! SFC IS ABOUT ACTION! AND ACTION IS WHAT WE GOT HERE!

TRED BARTA....TRED BARTA IS AN ACTIVE MEMBER ON SFC!!!! HARD TO BELIEVE....BUT I FOR ONE AM EXCITED!

WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS A LIVING LEGEND SHARING HIS VIEWS AND ADVENTURES.......WOW

HOW CAN WE BE SO LUCKY?.... IF ANYONE THINKS THEY CAN RATTLE THIS ANIMAL OF A MAN......I LAUGH IN YA FACE

BRING IT ON TRED....
I

[Swami]

Tred:
Here's the info on the commercial sale of billfish from the home page of the IGFA:

Many of the world’s billfish stocks are in bad shape. Nevertheless, marlin, sailfish and spearfish are harvested, exported and imported worldwide. In some areas, billfish caught by small scale artis**** fishers provide sustenance to the local populace, while in other places billfish are a niche seafood product that are marketed to high-end restaurants and grocery stores.

Until recently, no one really knew the extent of the international billfish market. To determine this, IGFA contracted Gentner Consulting Group to develop a report on the current state of international billfish markets. What we found may surprise you. The United States has the dubious distinction of being the world’s largest importer of billfish (swordfish not included). You can see this shocking statistic and others by downloading the full report or executive summary.

IGFA along with several other organizations will be using this information to mount an aggressive campaign to ban the sale and importation of billfish in the United States.
The US billfish market just doesn’t make sense and it’s time we made the American public aware of it. IGFA will be using every available angle to get marlin and sailfish out of grocery stores and off of restaurant menus. It won’t be easy, but we believe it is necessary.

You can go to www.igfa.org to download the full report or the executive summary as a PDF file.

Just wanted to save you a few minutes in case Rob Kramer (with a K) at the IGFA doesn't get right back to you...

[unoyankeefan]

If you think you get weird stares about talking about killing a billfish, try bringing up the idea of keeping a Redfish around these parts – people will look at you like a two headed dragon. We got well paid marine scientist with the marine fisheries that can close the fishery if a fish is under too much stress. If it’s a legal kill then get the heck out of someone else’s business. I get a little perturbed about the self proclaiming gods of fishing that think they have the right to designate what fish are “good” kills and which ones other people should be lynched for taking out of the drink. If it’s legal it’s legal. We would be much better off talking about eliminating nets that take out juveniles and other by-catch and using all those fish cops that stop you 20 times a year for life jackets to actually enforce laws and look in the fish boxes to keep the bad guys and gals from ignoring the size and creel limits that the well paid marine scientist set.

[unoyankeefan]

P.S. I would love Tred or Box's response to this. Tourneys are about big fish. Are not the biggest of the big fish past their prime in the reproductive cycle? I don't know that exact stats but I've been told that a grander is out produced by the 200-400 pounders all day long. Is that is true then what is the big cry about on taking a grander for a million?