Sword....life on the line

[28 Topaz]

The past 2 years off Va in Oct the longlines discarded hundreds of juvenile Swords. We could follow a line of swords for miles floating dead. If the NMFS (another government agency that really works) is going to allow this type of indiscriminate fishing every fish caught on a longline no matter species or size should go towards there weight quota for the fish they are targeting

Jake is your boat still at Rudee's I'm docked behind Rockefellers

Tim

[jimbo62]

one of the striking things to me, was the lack of any professionalism - not just the crew, but the captains. compare these guys to the crab boats and you will see what I mean. I worked on some commercial boats as a younger man and dealt with some jerks, but a good captain sets the tone and the example - gear well maintained, safe crew, no backtalk, etc. many of these crew members are putting their lives at risk with some of these captains. I can't imagine that the boat owners are too proud of what they are seeing on TV.

[clt_capt]

The one big issue I have with long liners is the length of their spread.

A 40 mile longline takes 6+ hours to set and at least as long to retrieve. In that span of time, many of the undersized swords and unwanted bycatch have died - making dead release the only option.

I have no issue with the fishermen - they are just trying to make a living, but the longline fishery is indiscriminant - a dead pup is still bycatch and one that will never spawn.

[LongRigger]

We all understand it is hard work on a longlining boat. I was just saying it is very wasteful. There's a lot killed for that one fish that actually comes aboard. Thats the only point being made.
Nobody was saying anything about the people working the boats, but if we wanted to bring up a whole new topic altogether, how many crackheads and methheads work on them things? There are plenty of hard working, good people, but there is never a word about the plenty of "unsavory" types. I know there are addicts in all walks of life, but these kind of boats seem to be magnets.

We have that problem where i live too. The longline fleet shares a harbor with the sportfishermen. Unfortunately alot of the longliners hear are imported from small island nations across the pacific and dont have more than a couple bucks to their name. What happens? They jump onto the backdeck of the sportfishing boats during the middle of the night and raid bait and drink coolers. Take gaffs, andything that isnt screwed down.

Its sad that in the modern age there are still a huge amount of people who are so poverty striken that they are forced to resort to eating ballyhoo raw as a meal. But what can you do? The longline industry is so huge that no one wants to take it down and expose the ugly side of it. Well aside from nutters like the sea sheppherd crew of course