Dr Block BFT meeting this Mon 22nd!!!!!

[Junior11]

2 and a half hours each chum. last year we caught fish to 800 lbs and didnt fight one fish for more than an hour and 15 minutes... those fish both dressed about 400 that was ridiculous. We hooked both at anchor, and one took us 3 miles from our anchor ball in flat calm seas with no wind. Things were definitely racers, and there actually was some bait there for like 3 days before the trawlers came back through... but the fish werent worth anything 750 a lb for mint unburned fish... if you listen or go to Molly Lutcavages presentation there is a direct relation to the number of fish landed here as every year goes on... with that the GRADES of fish are going down, meaning they arent fattened up form eating herring/macks/pogies. Meanwhile Canada is having banner years of fattened fish full of herring... Personally I think the fish are changing their migratory patterns based on the trail of food. once they leave canada it seems to be a free for all on the way down the coast/across the atlantic wherever they go. Theere doesnt seem to be the large body of fish feeding on the herring off chatham and then folloiwing the trail of pogies down the coast to MHC. I believe they are spending much more time out in the gulf stream and not traveling in large schools as they used to... Or if they are, they are traveling to fast and not stopping cause there is nothing to eat. Just my two cents for whatever I know. As far as anyone insulting our scientists thats ridiculous maybe she isn't the best ( I am not agreeing with you) but so what she is lobbying for are cause ot keep us fishing, and we all have common enemies (the european fisheries, midwater trawlers... ect....) so put your beefs aside we can use any research we can get to try and prove this lack of food theory or the two stock theory or whatever we gotta do to figure this joke of a fishery out...

[oldmud]

Junior 11: You've got it. I know Chum gets it . As for the early fish every year early in the season I always use 300 lb. mono and floro. Seems a little excessive but when those stomachs are empty they are usually not as line shy and mean as hell. ...Don

[chum1up]

I hope the fish keep showing up. What they are doing in the MED is awful...

[frankypettolina]

I was at the class as well. Dr. Block put on an excellent presentation, and it was cool to hear some people speak instead of just seeing them type. Jon Tenant did get the "question of the night" award as well

From what I got out of this presentation, these fish are in trouble, its not just a bait or lack there of thing. The med is hurting the populations. Longlining in the Gulf is hurting. Rec anglers killing 27 to 73 inch fish is hurting. Commercial fishermen killing 73 plus inch fish, which I did not realize are not spawning until they are 90 plus inches, are hurting the fishery.

I would like to beleive that hook and line fishermen in MHC, NE, or anywhere in the Western Atlantic are not the problem, but after that presentation, I feel that we are part of the problem, just not the biggest part. It will be interesting to see what, if anything, ICCAT, NMFS or any of the governing bodies do to save this fishery. It is kind of sad to hear Dr. Block say that the best hope the GBFT has is the work of the "green groups" lobbying for closures and protected areas.

Dr. Block also took the time after her presentation to chat with a bunch of us. Nice Lady, with a lot of info.

[Capt. Jon Tennant]

Well guys sorry for the late report. I've been doing alot of thinking about what needs to be done if we are going to have any fish left to catch 10 years from now. I stayed after the meeting for a good hour or more discussing the situation the fish are in. Here is the situation the best that I can sum it up.


There are two distinct groups of atlantic bluefin- western breeders ie:gulf of mexico spawners & eastern breeders ie: med spawners.

While they have proven the fish mix across the ocean it seems all the the mixing is happening on our side of the ocean from the flemish cap to the waters off NC & SC. In the spring off the year, after spawning, the fish are heading north towards the cap with the largest fish traveling the farthest north. The big tough fish are the only ones that can take to extreme north atlantic waters with the smaller fish setting up camp from NJ to the PEI in Canada. This is where they will spend the most of the summer feeding. As far as the banner years canada has been having, the loss of bait on the traditional northern grounds have forced the fish find different areas with enough bait to support them... ie: if Mc Donalds won't feed me then I'll just go to BK. There is not some huge hidden population of fish that everyone seems to think are out there somewhere. These summer grounds are where most of the mixing occcurs. The Med fish will travel to the west atlantic as small fish, stay here mixed with the Gulf fish until they become old enough to spawn at anywhere from 75" to 85" and will then seperate from the gulf fish and return to the east atlantic to spawn in the med. Once these fish have gone east they do not return to the west atlantic period. Its not known if this is do to the mass murder in the med or if it is just there nature. As fall begins the spawning run starts, the gulf fish head south toward the gulf & will not stop in one place for very long while on their way. The smaller fish do however stop along the trip south from South of NJ to SC. With out the urge to spawn they will set up camp & hang out the rest of winter feeding on the bait the Chesapeake bay and the sounds provide until time for the spring run back north. These are the fish that really fired off the NC fishery for bluefin in the beginning & provided the great fishing every one remembers. At the same time across the ocean in the med, tuna farming and the mass over-catches to support them were just getting started as well. The great fishing we were experiencing were mainly on the med fish before they returned home to spawn and live out the rest of there lives in the east atlantic. These "recruits" have been in the west atlantic since small and were essentially the main thing in our fishery. Now the "recruits" have been mostly caught & put in pens before they could ever make it out of the med. This leaves us with only the small population of gulf fish to fish on. These are the bigger fish (spawners) we have been seeing the last couple of years off NC. The reason the fishing has been tough is because there are very few fish left. Now instead of having the med fish sitting off our coast feeding all winter long the only fish thats being caught are the gulf spawners on their way through. Since the fish are not hanging around for any period of time, fishing for them is just luck of the draw or should I say "turn of the wheel" just hoping to get in front of one on its way through. Talk about timing is everything, damn . All of this is not only backed by the tagging but also from genetic research. These are facts not theories.

Sound pretty bad huh? Well it is.


What can be done to save the med fish? Nothing. The scientist are positive it is far past a point of no return for the med fish. The complete collapse of the fishery and possible extinction are going to be a sure thing in the next 5 to 10 years and the only thing that will stop whats happening over there. Research the WWF for whats going on over there.


What can we do to save the Gulf fish? Three things and I try to explain why.

1. Time area closer for area 3 (ie: flemish cap, middle atlantic) during the summer while the fish are using it for a feeding ground. In the 80's when the japs longliners were forced out of the gulf and strict quotas were put in place the gulf stock of fish should have had a great recovery from near extinction by now but hasn't. The reason for this is the same boats are killing the same fish, only now they are doing it unregulated in area 3 instead of the gulf. For the Gulf fish to have any chance this has to be stopped.

2. Time area closer on the spawning grounds in the gulf. What is happening is the yellowfin long liners are building up there by-catch allowances throughout the year and then targeting bluefin "as by-catch" on their spawning grounds where little yellowfin have ever been caught. This is total bullshit and is being supported by the big commercial fish associations, etc.

3. Raising legal size over 90" (allow for the fish to spawn) and huge reduction of US & Canada's quota for 5 or more years ( to help in #'s of fish, but more importantly to fill generation gaps that now exist and in themselves threaten to future of these fish.)

This will be the only way for the US & Canada to have complete control of the western (gulf) stock of fish regardless to iccat's piss poor crap. I don't like this at all & thats sugarcoating it. The western fish can be saved and can provide us with a very healthy fishery if we do something now. I don't know how we can do this but if anyone wants to be fishing for bluefin in the future we have no other choice. It's to late for the med fish, lets not wait till its to late for all of them.

Any ideas of where to begin?

[Washashore]

The 2 stock theory is bullshit-always has been. It's long been held by the real scientists in pelagic fisheries that tunas don't know a damn thing about lat/longs. They go where they want to go. Hydro-acoustic studies and satellite archival tag studies prove that-it's old news. The "line" over which the fish go is a political line, not a real one. It was set up in the '70's as an appeasement to the European scum who catch tiny, year 1-3 fish. Guys from Maine to the Cape have had their tags showing up in Euro fish markets for 40 years on small fish. One thing that hack Block is right about is that mixing between east and west fish is FAR more prevalent than anyone has admitted until now. We in the states have been stocking the Euro fishery for decades. The US/Canada/Japanese quota has never been the problem-Ever. Look at the fucking numbers! EU-over 50 metric tons-western allowance, less than 2200. Do the math, for crying out loud. It's the Euros who have fucked this fishery to death. What you southern boys need to get through your skulls is that our elected officials and the idiots they appoint to "represent" fisheries interests do not represent the fisheries for US. From the failures of Dick Stone to the most recent idiot at NMFS in Bill Hogarth, they aren't willing to force the issue of Euro over-fishing that everyone knows is happening. Tell the Spaniards that we won't take their fucking olive oil if they over-fish. Tell the fucking Guineas who sell pans to cook 1 year old fish in the street that they can keep thier fine Ci-aaaaanti. Tell the Frogs they can take a bath in their fucking cabernet id they overfish. Tell the Croats who are developing a fishery in 10-20 pound bluefin that they can keep whatever shit they want to import to the states at home. Go ahead, find one politician who will fight with his back to the hill of fisheries in the US, then get back to us. It's not that hard to figure out, but if you start a conversation by saying there are 2 stocks of bluefin tuna, then you start way behind the line, Carolina. That ship sailed YEARS ago and it took all our fish with it. Best regards,

Washashore

[Glenn W]

Dang, This Washashore guy is brash, beligerent, and an asshole---- but he didn't fall off the Turnip Truck yesterday---- at least on all issues
Pretty (albeit a bit colorful) work

[Admin]

Washashore,

Could you do me a favor since you seem very good at dropping into all these topics and hitting everyone really hard on points. I would like it if you could start a new topic sometime and tell us about washashore !

[Bog Monster]

Thanks for the info on her study. Franky told me I would really like to hear what whe said, because I have been to other scientists presentations who should be embarrassed to say that they have preformed research. They are drawing conclusions based on too small a sample size. Of course righ after he told me how much I would have liked it he told me he threw out the notes

[frankypettolina]

Washashore, I agree with you that something needs to be done. And as a side note, I prefer WOP (although I have a passport and birth certificate) or Dago to Guinea (I am 2 generations off the boat so to speak). Guess its a good thing africa isn't killing tunas or you would really ruffle some feathers.

Explain this to me. If the 2 stocks of GBFT is a crock, how is it that there are 2 different DNA codes and scientific names (which was new to me at the meeting) I believe it is Thunnus Thynnus, and Thunnus Orientalis. I have to swallow all of this stuff about hatchet and white marlin partially based on DNA, shouldn't we have to believe this tuna stock thing because of DNA?

The bottom line is that Med fish do not go to the Gulf, and rarely cross into the western atlantic. US East coast fish do cross the imaginary line (after all it is not a fence)The Med is the chief offender, but as sport and commercial fishermen we are not entirely without blame. A dead GBFT is a dead GBFT whether it is penned, harpooned, seined, longlined, or caught on a ballyhoo.