Surprised I could only get a few bites on this issue, anyway I started some flames to see where it would go.
Justin,
Until you start spending months a sea, you will never understand the enormity of the oceans nor the realm that migratory species travel. We could set sail for 10 days east of any US Atlantic port and find swordfish, tuna, marlin or sharks so abundant that your jaw would hit the floor and at any given time 100 vessels would be seeing the same thing over several thousand miles.
Yes, swordfish were recovering before the closures and bluefin piled thru the Bahamas this years and now have made an appearence in the NE without modifications to the current regulations. The Canada report is not theory, it is fish landed and they have not experienced the decline that we had on our side of the fence.
I can not tell you that Bluefin stocks are in good condition no better than you can tell me that they are in decline. Near coastal interaction is hardly enough to determine the health of a species. If we are to always side with caution, then close it down to everyone. Surely then we will know that the stock is rebuilding.
Drew,
4 days or 4 months, the fact is that the fish showed up, they fed and then they moved on or they stopped feeding. You do believe that school of fish still exists and is somewhere else at the moment, don't you? Just because fish are not back where you historically caught them, has no bearing on their existence.
Are we so shallow minded to believe that what we do not see does not exist?
99.9% of the oceans have no hooks in them at the moment and most of that area is home to tuna and swordfish.