ABTA urges all fishermen to attend BFT endangered species meetings!

[twofinbluna]

Hey guys, this is very important to anyone who cares about bluefin (and anyone who cares about fishing, to be honest). Check out the notice below, and I will post more info later this week...

http://www.savingseafood.org/conserv...cies-li-2.html

[F.stop]

come on guys our very sport and way of life is on the line again....we are not fishing so lets get some guys together for the jan 5th meeting in sandy hook nj. our jobs both commercial and recreational are on the lines here! going to these meetings are all we have legally so let's get some fishermen together to drive up!

[hubris 1]

Wouldnt a short moratoriam on Blue Fin be a benefit to them? It helped the Striped Bass. All anyone cares about anymore is catching them, blaming someone else, and selling them to the man at the dock. Eventually they wind up in the hands of those we want to accuse of taking too many, and damaging the resourse. Since the only motivation to catch blue fin seems to be monetary, [as a money fish] I see no reason to go to a meeting where the general consensus is..........I make money from it. Talk about a double edge sword, I say this is a double edge message.

[CaptainAlex]

Hubris, Striped Bass are an entirely US (small population ranges to Canada) - ranged species, so a US moratorium worked ...
US fishermen catch ~5% of all Atlantic BFT under the strictest, most-conservation-oriented regulations, if NOAA grants an ESA listing THOSE FISH WILL STILL BE CAUGHT, the ICCAT quota being redistributed to other countries that have lower size and higher bag limits ... if you care about the FISH, never mind the fishery and those it supports, an ESA listing will only hurt the species.
These listening sessions are not about economics, they are strictly an opportunity for fisherman to share first hand knowledge and observations regarding population dynamics, range, abundance, forage patterns, size/year class etc ... and for a species that thinks nothing of traveling 100 miles in a day, getting sound scientific data on how many fish there are depends on first-hand accounts ... if you care about Bluefin, or fish for them rec or comm, or ever want to get near one again ATTEND THE SESSION ... no second chance to share your view on this one

[F.stop]

well hubris.....i must agree there is def. money at stake on these fish but.....the u.s. fishermen has been getting the short end of the stick all to long....the u.s. tuna fishermen for years have fishing under regs. with nothing coming back in there favor.....hence what's fair is fair has not been fair for u.s. tuna fishermen.

europe and eastern nations have high dollar stakes in the tuna fish commercially and the nations that have broken ICCAT regs will continue to do so since there are no true tuna cops...plus as we know many of these nations are part owners in these fleets and many of these nations are socialistic. with the u.s. dollar weaker than ever and our favors and loans down to none the u.s. goverments only bargaining chip is it's commoditys such as nature resources......and this is a game that recreational fishermen sav no say in. it's not just about bluefin being banned today.....but what other fish species will be banned tmrw.

[stew]

Hubris 1 your way off base here on this one. If the bluefin get on the ESA list no one will be able to fish for them at all.. not comm. not rec not nobody. This is not about conservation this is about protecting our rights as fisherman to be able to fish for them. The stocks are coming back and our quota's have been reduced almost every year so we, the American fisherman has done the right thing over and over again and now our own gov't might take it all away from us. I am not going to argue the merits of a moratorium because a ESA listing is not a "moratorium" it is a complete shut down and once that happens you can't even catch and release. When they were rebuilding the stocks of Bass they set a very high minium for a keeper but we all could still fish for and catch bass. If this passes there will be no fishing for bluefin at all. That is why we have to be 100% united, no pickering between comm or rec. or CHB because we will all lose.. bigtime. I can tell you that the bluefin tuna that swim in the USA waters are worth way more from an economical value from the Rec. side of the equation so this has very little to do with American Comm. fishing and way more with Rec. fishing. Just how I see it. Once a fish gets on the ESA list you won't see it come off. They tried this crap with the white marlin a few years back and we all ralied and defeated that and today we have lots of whiteys out there so lets stop the tree hugging\green BS and get behind this 100% or we and our future fisherman can lose big time. Write letters, attend meetings, call senators, whatever you can do.. do now. It's scarey to think that we were able to see CITIES defeated only to have to fight this fight again in less then one year and it could be done to us by or own people. Kind of sad to thing about it so I quess we have to fight!! Capt. Eric

[twofinbluna]

come on guys our very sport and way of life is on the line again....we are not fishing so lets get some guys together for the jan 5th meeting in sandy hook nj. our jobs both commercial and recreational are on the lines here! going to these meetings are all we have legally so let's get some fishermen together to drive up!

Thats what I like to see.

And no, hubris, this is not even close to necessary or justified in any way. The current catch levels on both sides of the Atlantic are well within the science and most would tell you the science would allow for a higher catch. And even if you were to point to the overfishing that was done by some Europeans and Africans in the recent future this would have ZERO impact as this is a US ESA listing and would only stop fishing in the US. This would have zero impact anywhere else, and would simply mean that our important fishery (rec, commercial and charter) would be ended and our quota would go to someone else. But the fact is that the other side has come into compliance and so moratoriums are not even close to necessary there.

This ESA listing is a sickening move by a group that has no expertise with bluefin to try shut down a fishery because they do not like the idea of people catching these fish. It is such a joke. This petition belongs in the trash and if it were not for the current NOAA leadership being who it is, thats where it would have been months ago.

I hope all the people on here from Maine to Virginia who care about this fishery will make it out to speak up against this vindictive move by CBD. You get one chance to speak up and these regional meetings are it. Again, an ESA listing does not even allow you to "pursue" or "harass" a bluefin in any way, let alone try to catch one. This is no joke. We all worked hard to get them to even hold these meetings so take advantage of it, guys!

[twofinbluna]

And please post that link and send around to your email lists, everyone needs to know about this. NOAA is not doing a good job at all spreading the word.

[hubris 1]

But I must admit, I do have a problem with the logic that says, We can catch them with a commercial license, sell them to a fish market, that sells them to the very people we believe to be the problem with this fishery. In that case, why not fin sharks, or hunt whales? I guess the end justifys the means. How many of the bluefins that get harvested for money stay in this country? I dont know. Perhaps, Harvesting them here only to ship them over there is part of the problem too.

[KP161]

But I must admit, I do have a problem with the logic that says, We can catch them with a commercial license, sell them to a fish market, that sells them to the very people we believe to be the problem with this fishery. In that case, why not fin sharks, or hunt whales? I guess the end justifys the means. How many of the bluefins that get harvested for money stay in this country? I dont know. Perhaps, Harvesting them here only to ship them over there is part of the problem too.

Huh? Who said anyone was a problem in this fishery? The ESA listing would shut down bluefin fishing across the board for every category in the U.S.

As far as categories go in the U.S. fishery: Each category has a quota. Just fish the quota of the category you choose and when it is filled that category is closed.