Say goodbye to codfish for awhile in the northeast

[Sk8man]

http://www.newsweek.com/feds-close-most-northeast-cod-fishing-284126

[baitrigger]

Fishing is a tough sport. Hats off to anyone who does it for a living.

[BSmaster]

I went out twice this year in the bay of Maine and can tell you nothing about the fishery based on my experience but there were a lot of seasoned guys on the boat and they say it is pretty rough.  A lot of fish were caught but were shorts.  I went porgy fishing last time because the capt I was going with closed up shop.  He made a comment the last time I went because the boat was so empty that the mates made more money than he did.

 

Other things I learned is that changes to the striped bass fishery are next.

 

"It is what it is and if it wasn't it would be something else"

[Sk8man]

We think the Lake O fishery is tough to manage properly but the ocean environment is much more complex....even in terms of the number and types of commercial fishing "players" involved. If it was a matter of "rods and reels" and small boats it wouldn't be a problem but the large multinational and multi-tiered boats (catching to processing and freezing/packaging) that catch millions of fish and also end up with tons of "off catch" (wasted) are at the heart of the problem and no one can (or will) control them so the small commercial guys will be out of business while those big commercial rigs fish outside the U.S. boundaries unimpeded decimating what is left of the fish population. Like most things nowadays human greed is at the heart of the problem.

Edited November 14, 2014 by Sk8man

[CaptSpike]

Fishing is a tough sport. Hats off to anyone who does it for a living.

I'm assuming your talking about commercial fishermen and not recreational charter boats that take people fishing. Because if you are talking about the commercial fishermen they are the ones that put us in this situation. Well them and piss poor management of the fishery. Apparently what I was told led to this latestest "collapse" of the fishery is three yrs ago NMFS removed daily limits on the groundfish and allowed boats to catch their yr'ly quota in one day if they wanted to. Well my guess would be if I were a commercial fisherman and my screen was lit up I'd sure as hell scoop up my yearly quota in one day. Problem is the fishery could not sustain having indivual schools of fish completely removed or at the least depleted in one day. Thus the situation at hand.

Case in point for piss poor management #2 (as the above statement certainly highlights #1):

Back when I was chartering the ocean and limits were first introduced to the recreational angler we were told that NMFS counts every discard of a recreational fish as a dead fish and it goes against the recreational quota. Shortly after the limits were put in place it was argued that if every fish rec's catch is counted as dead then why not lower the length limit on groundfish to match those of the commercial guys? The rec length limit was adjusted to match the commercial limit. Keep in mind now I got out of chartering in 2008 and a lot changed since then. Cod went to a ten fish limit per person and then to 9 fish PP. Last yr haddock went from unlimited to 3 PP with a longer length limit. This amazes me how haddock could go from unlimited to just three in one yr. Changing the length limit (for rec's only) then resulted in more discards to go along with the cod above the 9 fish limit and below the increased length limit for them as well.

OK NMFS are you STILL counting recreational discards as part of the recreational limit? If so the rec's will have the same quota but with discard rates soaring high which results in less fish to the end user when on paper it looks like the rec's are still catching and keeping their share of the quota.

 

Total BS. No way a rod and reel fishery is going to hurt any stock of fish in the Gulf of Maine. The number of days to fish are limited by weather and the distance off shore limited by day trips, which would account for the majority of chartered groundfish trips. Can't say I know of anyone that takes their personal boat out groundfishing over night either (especially with the minimal limits in place today).

 

So NMFS did what they did to preserve the fishery by closing the Gulf of Maine to Cod and Haddock. You can bet this will probably translate into a total closure for next yr as well. This is going to put commercial fishermen as well as charter boats out of business. Focus will be put on the few remaining groundfish that people would actually take home to eat, redfish, Hake, Pollock, Whiting, and cusk come to mind. I can tell you in all my charter trips nobody ever took home any of those species except an occasional decent sized pollock and very few wanted the cusk (though they are great eating). Cod and Haddock were the prefered fish and there used to be plenty to catch.

Enjoy your fishery today because someone could screw it all up someday and never be held accountable.

 

Spike

[Thun]

I may be wrong but I think the ban includes charter boats. I agree with you Capt Spike, it's the commercial boats who deplete the resources. The good news is the haddock have come back strong and the feds have doubled the amount of haddock fisherman can catch. The ban ends in May so I think cod fishing will resume next summer. May might be a good time to fish cod once the season opens again. I used to catch them right from the beach on Plum Island in late fall.

 

http://wwlp.com/2014/11/11/cod-fishing-ban-will-cost-the-fishing-industry-millions/

[jimski2]

Iceland has cod, no nets, just hook and line fishing.

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[bandrus1]

"The move threatens to put some fishermen out of business and makes life tougher for others who sometimes catch the species"

 

 

 

 

 

 

BOOOOOOO HOOOOOO

[CaptSpike]

I may be wrong but I think the ban includes charter boats. I agree with you Capt Spike, it's the commercial boats who deplete the resources. The good news is the haddock have come back strong and the feds have doubled the amount of haddock fisherman can catch. The ban ends in May so I think cod fishing will resume next summer. May might be a good time to fish cod once the season opens again. I used to catch them right from the beach on Plum Island in late fall.

 

http://wwlp.com/2014/11/11/cod-fishing-ban-will-cost-the-fishing-industry-millions/

Yes it includes everyone. Many charter boats felt the hit hard when they shut cod and haddock down Sept. 1st this yr.

If I was a betting man I'd say this closure, which is only in place for 6 months because it is considered an emergency action, will be extended another 6 months come May and then NMFS will probably hand down further closures after that.

It doesn't just affect the charter boats and commercial fishermen. It will have an impact on local marinas, tackle stores and lodging places as well as restuarants and other places visited when chartering a trip or fishing on a friends boat. The trickle down effect will hit them all. Some harder than others.

 

Spike

[rolmops]

The ones to blame for the cod collapse are really not only the commercial or the sports fishing guys. It is also the politicians who want  to get re-elected. One year we went out off Gloucester. By pure coincidence it was the first day of gill net fishing season. The sea was full of plastic barrels  and floats  all marking the gill nets. It turned out that there are a lot of people in Gloucester, MA who have permits ,often grand fathered in, who will go out and drop their nets. About 5000 of them in all and each a few hundred yards long. The fish never stood a chance and the sea was emptied out in a few hours. In the end everybody is guilty.

One good thing for the future is that the Norwegians have figured out how to breed cod fish and they are working on developing cod fish farms in their Northern Fjords.

As for "the other species" wolf fish tastes great. Pollock is plentiful tastes good and is a great fighter. Cod has no fight at all and haddock apart from being a very poor fighter has very soft lips so you have to be super careful when you haul them up.

I think that we will see that the charter boats will go after pollock and they will go for cod near long Island.

Edited November 15, 2014 by rolmops

[CaptSpike]

As for "the other species" wolf fish tastes great. Pollock is plentiful tastes good and is a great fighter. Cod has no fight at all and haddock apart from being a very poor fighter has very soft lips so you have to be super careful when you haul them up.

I think that we will see that the charter boats will go after pollock and they will go for cod near long Island.

Wolfish must be returned to the water immediately as they are protected. Read a few reports then tell me how plentiful the pollock are. My buddy went out last week on a head boat and came home with 6 fish, his buddy two. And they do nort eat the same as cod or haddock. Yes charterboats will focus on the fish they are allowed to catch. Problem is the number of anglers willing to go on those trips are down and soon expensises outweigh profit. Many fleets shut down early this year due to that fact. Boats from the Gulf of Maine will not be relocating to Long Island to catch cod. Maybe boats from Long Island will be targeting cod but the headboats and charter boats wont be relocating.

 

Spike

 

I just had a thought....The goverment supports farmers when they have a bad season why can't they support the fishermen and recreational Charter boats (full timers of course) guys when they restrict them from fishing?

Edited November 15, 2014 by CaptSpike

[CaptSpike]

I wasn't serious about my hey I have a thought in the above post.....

 

Spike

[rolmops]

 

I just had a thought....The goverment supports farmers when they have a bad season why can't they support the fishermen and recreational Charter boats (full timers of course) guys when they restrict them from fishing?

 

Small time commercial fisherman do get government subsidies to encourage them to find a new way of life. ( To stop fishing is much much more than changing jobs).The charter boats are a different story. Their income is not dependent on one species and they are more flexible in changing target fish.

It is very hard to find out the truth about the stocks of cod and haddock. It seems that commercial, political,charters and scientists all have their own interests and they all have their numbers when it comes to deciding what to fish where.

One thing is for clear. Most of the cod live on the continental plateau which is completely inside the 200 mile commercial zone. That means that we cannot accuse the foreign fleets of stealing our fish. We do it to ourselves!

[jimski2]

Many party boats shift operations to Florida for the winter.

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[edwardvh1]

Fisheries management needs to be proactive and never reactive. I grew up fishing in Chesapeake Bay. So many factors in a natural reproductive fishery. Inshore mid Atlantic fishing is pretty bad now ,couple good months when big Striped Bass return to the Bay in April and December that's it. I've found great Fishing in Lake Erie and Ontario is worth the expense of coming here except the Salmon was off this summer. I hope managers here never take it for granted because it could happen let's hope not !

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