The future of fishing

[lazyfatass247]

ALL right guys i would like to hear what everyone has to say about the future of fishing and fish stocks? Now that the new BFT number are out. I will be writing a paper that will be completed by the end of march. Anyone's thought would be appreciated.

All species are welcome, but i will be mainly talking about offshore species.

Thank You

-Deane

[Bluewater Sportfishing]

Wow thats a tough one.
The state of the fish stocks are way down due to the WORLDS hunger for seafood. The amount of fishing pressure that the fish get on our side is tremendous from both recs and commercial. The amount of overseas "overfishing" is far worse then here because of poor regulations. The biggest problem I see is ICCAT not able to police the waters over there and they seem to crumble when a country demands a quota...except us, they tell us to go screw. This is primarly with the Bluefin tuna. Barabra block has been doing some incrediable research on the mixing of the bluefin stocks and ICCAT has pretty much turned a blind eye on the subject, although this year, they finaly admitted to believing Barbara. Another major concern is pirate commercial fishing some people on here saw it first hand and its a very destructive force out on the high seas. Our commercial fleet is the most regulated in the world. Thats why we still have fish swimming in our oceans. What can we do about it? Not much till our govt puts alot of pressure on ICCAT but they wont because we need those countries as allies. The switch from j-hooks to circles for billfish is a bounus, I know there are people that dont like the new rule but if it saves the fish then its worth a little more then a dead fish. As far as the future of fishing..who knows I can see the bluefin getting wiped off the face of the earth if somthing isnt done to prevent overfishing. Also the forage fish need to be protected a little better. The closed down area 1a (gulf of maine inshore) to mid water trawl boats, thats a good thing now everyone is hoping the bluefin will returne back to their inshore haunts.

[lazyfatass247]

Thank you very much for your thoughts and comments