http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20150524/PC20/150529592
Fwiw
Decent read. I think they have been more abundant outa OI, than the last 5 year or so. To bad we can’t send some Navy ships to go and enfore these international treaties.
So the point of the article is they want to put a limit on blackfin?
.
Are BFT’s migratory. .? Im not sure about the limits. I have never been on a bite where I needed to look it up. Three here, two, there. I have been on better YFT bites here. They do need to be out front if it though. Its like this Cobia deal down in Beaufort. People were slaying big breeders forever, and now its close to a crisis.
quote:
So the point of the article is they want to put a limit on blackfin?
^^And close the areas around the 226-hole to all fishing.
Note the quote below, straight from the article…
quote:
But as the population dwindles, then the fish are only found in the optimum places, where there are upwellings, feedings and high concentrations of bait.
218WA Sailfish
200 Verado
The "Penn"sion Plan
quote:
Originally posted by A2ZSo the point of the article is they want to put a limit on blackfin?
.
I guess but the biggest thing I took away was this:
Jenkins said purse seining (where fish of all sizes are gathered in a large net) that takes place on the west coast of Africa and northern part of South America affects the abundance of yellowfin tuna off the coast of the U.S
Yeah I think there are YFT on the other side of the steam but at the same time I think the stocks are just getting decimated around the world. They are going to be in crisis mode like the bluefins soon enough.
quote:Just a theory. It's always easy to blame fishermen. Don't get me wrong, I hate purse seining and wish it was eradicated, but before we put all of our eggs in one basket, we need to definitively *prove* that is the issue. We used to catch 450 yellowfins in the Governor's cup tournaments and they virtually disappeared overnight. It seems that if foreign fishing pressure was truly the issue that it would have tapered off slowly. Also, did they just start purse seining right around the same time, or was there an increase in the size of the fleet? If the fleet has been around for 2 decades before and suddenly tuna crash overnight, how can we put our finger on that as the catalyst? Looks like they are reaching for straws to me.
Originally posted by shevyquote:
Originally posted by A2ZSo the point of the article is they want to put a limit on blackfin?
.
I guess but the biggest thing I took away was this:
Jenkins said purse seining (where fish of all sizes are gathered in a large net) that takes place on the west coast of Africa and northern part of South America affects the abundance of yellowfin tuna off the coast of the U.SYeah I think there are YFT on the other side of the steam but at the same time I think the stocks are just getting decimated around the world. They are going to be in crisis mode like the bluefins soon enough.
A good theory.
A very large spawning area sits off South America and Africa,unregulated,a tuna farming fleet can net all they want.Who patrols that area?
Capture one or two years worth of spawning tuna,nothing will be left.
I was fishing off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica a few years ago and we got into a huge school of YFT, they covered acres, if not miles.
A large commercial fishing boat pulled in, vessel had a Panama registry, a floating fish processing plant, and it proceeded to launch a dozen dories and 3 helicopters. The dories were spreading a purse seine net that had to cover a square mile and the helicopters were dropping dynamite into the water to herd the fish into the net. Never seen anything like that before. They had to catch 10,000 YFT that one morning. I couldn’t possibly catch a many tuna in my whole life of trying than they did in a couple of hours. Made me sick.
Capt. Larry Teuton
912-six55-5674
lteuton at aol dot com
“Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made.” -Robert N. Rose
quote:But why all of a sudden? Did they just start up the fleet there the year before the yellowfins disappeared?
Originally posted by poke saladA good theory.
A very large spawning area sits off South America and Africa,unregulated,a tuna farming fleet can net all they want.Who patrols that area?
Capture one or two years worth of spawning tuna,nothing will be left.
As Larry points out, this type of fishing is going on all over the world.
quote:
Originally posted by skinneejquote:But why all of a sudden? Did they just start up the fleet there the year before the yellowfins disappeared?
Originally posted by poke saladA good theory.
A very large spawning area sits off South America and Africa,unregulated,a tuna farming fleet can net all they want. Who patrols that area?
Capture one or two years? worth of spawning tuna, nothing will be left.
As Larry points out, this type of fishing is going on all over the world.
Several factors. I do not believe it was all of a sudden. The technology didn’t exist in the 70s for everyone to routinely fish the Georgetown Hole or other parts of the ledge. As electronics and boats became more sophisticated, it was easier for angler to dial in to the tunas which, I would hypothesize, helped increase exposure and catch #s through the 80s, 90s and early 2000s.
This is also true for the commercial fleet. Technology became sophisticated and affordable enough for them to develop floating processing plants, run helos and spotter planes, create giant-mobile net enclosures, and take the entire production to relatively un-regulated waters off the coast of Africa and S.America. If you can snuff an entire school of tuna in one netting, it doesn’t take a decade to draw down populations.
Especially when you do it like this (these are bluefin but the concept is the same):
Following tuna year-round on their migratio
They are crushing in the NE canyons already, started almost a month ago.
I don’t think you have to or can point to just one thing as to why a certain species is not available in a certain area. Climate, current, weather, temperature, fishing pressure, etc…all play a role in how a species, not just fish, reacts to a situation.
To me one of the biggest players is forage. Fish don’t really worry about much more than eating/being eaten/mating.
Looks pretty sudden to me…
2003: 272 Yellowfin tuna
http://govcup.dnr.sc.gov/Newsletter/t_and_r_v9n1.pdf
2004: 44 yellowfin tuna
http://govcup.dnr.sc.gov/Newsletter/t_and_r_v10n1.pdf
2005: 17 yellowfin tuna
http://govcup.dnr.sc.gov/Newsletter/t_and_r_v11n1.pdf
Let’s not forget that they are doing this in the Pacific as well and are not said to be “overfished”…
quote:Yes, the other thing that seems to have disappeared is BIRDS... We used to have a ton of them offshore... Did the commercial guys kill those too and sell them as imitation chicken strips?
Originally posted by CourtlandThey are crushing in the NE canyons already, started almost a month ago.
I don’t think you have to or can point to just one thing as to why a certain species is not available in a certain area. Climate, current, weather, temperature, fishing pressure, etc…all play a role in how a species, not just fish, reacts to a situation.
To me one of the biggest players is forage. Fish don’t really worry about much more than eating/being eaten/mating.
Larry/Skinneej:
I totally agree with the assessment about foreign fishing practices. Too often (almost always from what I have experienced), the “sport” fishing groups do the most to try and abide by rules (some of these “rules” being ridiculous).
Many foreign registered vessels fishing in their own waters, or even in the “open” seas don’t seemingly follow any rules at all. I have also observed purse seiners from a certain country south of the US, dynamite albacore, & yellowtail, to turn the schools into their waiting nets. I used to own/operate a 65’ sportfisher from San Diego. Would sometimes take charters out 100 - 200 miles during the Albacore runs in July & August and more than once observed the practice.
Sickening is an accurate word.
Worse yet, on a dive charter to the Northern Channel Islands - specifically West Anacapa & East Santa Cruz Islands - a gill net strung over FOUR MILES LONG, between the two islands. After putting dive gear on, I observed all manner of marine wildlife, pelagic fish -(yellowtail tuna), sharks, a harbor seal, bottlenose dolphin, spinner dolphins, a pilot whale, even pelican’s caught in the illegal net.
No, IMHO sportfishermen do not generally cause these fish management issues (unless they use dynamite or gill nets).
When I later inquired of a local DFG (Department of Fish and Game) agent about the illegal gill net, he made a fascinating comment. He said “look, we only have enough resources (people & boats) to catch problems at the launch ramps or at the docks where the sportfishing boats tie up”. He (not me) said, our ability to monitor the problem is like having one policeman to monitor the crime in all of Los Angeles.
My response to his statement was: “So, you only go after the low hanging fruit - the sportfishing crowd?”.
He walked away.
illigitimi non-carborundum . . .
quote:
Originally posted by Bottom ScratcherLarry/Skinneej:
I totally agree with the assessment about foreign fishing practices. Too often (almost always from what I have experienced), the “sport” fishing groups do the most to try and abide by rules (some of these “rules” being ridiculous).
Many foreign registered vessels fishing in their own waters, or even in the “open” seas don’t seemingly follow any rules at all. I have also observed purse seiners from a certain country south of the US, dynamite albacore, & yellowtail, to turn the schools into their waiting nets. I used to own/operate a 65’ sportfisher from San Diego. Would sometimes take charters out 100 - 200 miles during the Albacore runs in July & August and more than once observed the practice.
Sickening is an accurate word.
Worse yet, on a dive charter to the Northern Channel Islands - specifically West Anacapa & East Santa Cruz Islands - a gill net strung over FOUR MILES LONG, between the two islands. After putting dive gear on, I observed all manner of marine wildlife, pelagic fish -(yellowtail tuna), sharks, a harbor seal, bottlenose dolphin, spinner dolphins, a pilot whale, even pelican’s caught in the illegal net.
No, IMHO sportfishermen do not generally cause these fish management issues (unless they use dynamite or gill nets).
When I later inquired of a local DFG (Department of Fish and Game) agent about the illegal gill net, he made a fascinating comment. He said “look, we only have enough resources (people & boats) to catch problems at the launch ramps or at the docks where the sportfishing boats tie up”. He (not me) said, our ability to monitor the problem is like having one policeman to monitor the crime in all of Los Angeles.
My response to his statement was: “So, you only go after the low hanging fruit - the sportfishing crowd?”.
He walked away.
illigitimi non-carb
I will argue the only thing to make these boats from third world countries stop this would be for fish prices to plummet. The only thing I believe could do that would be for aquaculture to be ramped up on a huge scale to increase the supply, and drive down prices. That’s a whole other discussion, but it’s what I think needs to happen to help the world’s wild fish stocks. It has worked to some degree with Salmon.
Evidence?
Ummm, on my best charters to fish for Albacore, I would have 20 to 30 fishermen; on a truly outstanding day (we had a few) we might have caught 8/10 per pole. Let’s say 300 fish.
Do you think the purse seiners caught more than 300 fish?
Oh, let’s factor in all the sporfishing fleet. Say 100 vessels could fish out that far.
3,000 fish.
Do you think the purse seiner caught more than 3,000 fish?
Well, here is a possible answer.
Way back in the day, a 130’ steel hulled US purse seiner operating out of San Diego caught so many fish, it sunk by the the #1 buoy going into San Diego Bay. The purse seiner was called the “High Seas”. It sunk stern first with it’s excessive load of fish. I used to take dive charters to dive the wreck.
Oddly enough, even with 300 fish on board a 65’ sportfishing boat, we never came close to scuttling our boat. Do you think the High Seas had more than 300 tuna? More than 3,000?
Yep. WAY more.
illigitimi non-carborundum . . .
quote:I thought it was clear that we established that purse seining was bad. I don't see how you presented ANY EVIDENCE that fishing off of the West Coast of Africa is the REASON for the DEMISE of the YFT fishery in SC.
Originally posted by Bottom ScratcherEvidence?
Ummm, on my best charters to fish for Albacore, I would have 20 to 30 fishermen; on a truly outstanding day (we had a few) we might have caught 8/10 per pole. Let’s say 300 fish.
Do you think the purse seiners caught more than 300 fish?
Oh, let’s factor in all the sporfishing fleet. Say 100 vessels could fish out that far.
3,000 fish.
Do you think the purse seiner caught more than 3,000 fish?
Well, here is a possible answer.
Way back in the day, a 130’ steel hulled US purse seiner operating out of San Diego caught so many fish, it sunk by the the #1 buoy going into San Diego Bay. The purse seiner was called the “High Seas”. It sunk stern first with it’s excessive load of fish. I used to take dive charters to dive the wreck.
Oddly enough, even with 300 fish on board a 65’ sportfishing boat, we never came close to scuttling our boat. Do you think the High Seas had more than 300 tuna? More than 3,000?
Yep. WAY more.
illigitimi non-carborundum . . .
Yes, I understand purse seining is bad. I get that. I stated that. But, I want to see the evidence that links the collapse of yellowfins in SC to fishing in West Africa.
quote:they are going somewhere,if they suddenly all changed migration, don't think they wouldn't be followed.you think they have changed migration pattern and no one has followed?
Originally posted by skinneejLooks pretty sudden to me…
2003: 272 Yellowfin tuna
http://govcup.dnr.sc.gov/Newsletter/t_and_r_v9n1.pdf2004: 44 yellowfin tuna
http://govcup.dnr.sc.gov/Newsletter/t_and_r_v10n1.pdf2005: 17 yellowfin tuna
http://govcup.dnr.sc.gov/Newsletter/t_and_r_v11n1.pdfLet’s not forget that they are doing this in the Pacific as well and are not said to be “overfished”…
if they did happen to return,the yahoos fishing out there today will run right over every school,forget that.