The Fate of the BlueFin

[Ace1st]

Yes.........I have to agree with you in alot of ways. It is sad that a creature be driven to the point of extinction at the benefit of such a small segment of a population. A creature that has withstood time only to be wiped from the face of the earth in just decades.

I personally do not believe that a single fisherman with a hook, line and rod can exterminate a species.....although hundreds of boats with miles of nets has proved that they can do just that.

The American commercial fisherman is not the problem! The world demand and the Mega Seiners are the problem! Technology has led to the collapse of this fishery as well as many others.

But where does it end..........when there are no more? And yes, judge me for I too have contributed to their demise. In my lifetime I have killed one GBT off of Ocracoke and released one off of Morehead. If one calls that adding to their demise? Although I have tried to catch more but with no success.

As I grow older I now wonder if my son will ever get to see one of these Magnificent Creatures off of our coast. If things do not change probably not.

Yes, we ***** about regulations, of witch take food off our tables, but is it worth it. Is it worth wiping out a species for monetary gain?

The one problem I see is that we all must get on the same page or this species is doomed. All this bickering about whats right and wrong only leads to indecision. The fishermans voice must be loud and in unison to have any chance of being heard. If not there will come a day when individuals who have never seen a fish will decide the fate of us all.

There are individuals within our own ranks who could rally a cause like this if they only realized that the species existance is much greater to us all rather than just their personal benefit.

It will take one voice being backed by hundreds and thousands of voices to stand for this species or soon the GBT will be a memory to tell our grandchildren about. Until then, fewer and fewer fish will come this way, till none come this way. But then it will be to late. And that excuse of taking food off my table will be for real.

[burricane]

Sea Draggin I have to disagree with you about the charter vs commercial. I was one of the original people that wrote articles, did TV shows and ran charters my-self and was one of the first boats to run stand up charters for the bluefin. What I found out was that very few anglers that came in to catch the bluefins here in NC rarely came back after having sucessful bluefin trips. Once they had caught a giant, they said they had done it and didn't want to do it again. There were a few exceptions. Many of the stand up anglers enjoyed the fight and came back to do it in following years. The commercial fisheries is a much longer season with anglers that spend large amounts of money in my tackle shop, restraurants, fuel, marina and hotels. From what I personally have experienced the commercial fisheries brings in 10 times the economic impact. Yes as far as the charters go it was nice to be able to go out and be guarnteed a daily rate instead of trying to catch a fish to sell. There are still boats that charter for bluefins, but a large percentage of the charter boats are commercially fishing for the bluefins and doing quite well selling the fish. The main reason the charter fisheries is down on the bluefins right now is the economy. Not many people have the expendable income for a charter right now.

Capt. Joe Shute

Well said Capt. There is still some money to be made chartering for sure, but it pales in comparison to those who are willing to chase these fish with the dream of a nice payoff (mostly) on their own boats. I think both markets can co-exist to some degree.

And here's a thought, kind of going off what you and Ace said in subsequent posts, WHAT IF we could get the other nations, particularly Japan and the EC countries to respect their quotas and restrict their gear/tonnage limits. Can you imagine what would happen with the price we got for our fish, considering how well our fish typically sample with fat content? The brokers would be wealthy (as if they're not doing fine already, a bunch of them are crooks anyway) and would probably screw us less on the fish. I'm with you Ace, I don't think a fishery can be depleted with hooks and lines. I think the US/Canada are probably the only responsible stewards of this fish in the world. The billion dollar question--how do we make this happen?

[Fritz]

but this is worth reading. I think I would pass on the wacko comments section though.

http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/20...f-the-commons/

[tunakiller 4 hire]

The New York Times is a commi rag that is to FU to wrap fish guts with.