I don't think the fishery is ready for these permits yet. As you know on any good night there are around 40 or more boats fishing 3-6 lines each. At a limit of 3 fish per boat over 47.5 inches each, not to many boats are getting their limit of 3 with the exception of only a handful of boats. We are not reaching quota because the fish are not there in our fishery out front. They will move through and stay awhile before they move on. This is shown by how on one particular night or even a few nights in a row where everyone catches fish, singles doubles, triples with lots of releases, and then the next night you can't even get a bite.
We need the fishery to be where hundreds and perhaps 1000's of fish are moving through the straits before we put any kind of commercial pressure on them. With the small amount of Swords coming through now and the amount of recreational boats fishing them, this can be compared and equal to commercial pressure.
We can't put a number on how many Swords are moving through, but by the numbers being caught it's not impressive. Even if everyone was boating 3 fish, the next issue is size. These fish get to over a 1000 pounds. When we can start boating fish when the norm is over 200 pounds ( and not a 100) thats when our fishery will be healthy. It CAN happen and thats why we need to keep fighting for the Swordfishery.
If it's done right within 5 years or more we may be regularly catching 200 pound fish + with hearing of the occasional grander.
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