Why aren't you Guys Reporting your Fish?

[Ron.38 Special]

I just reported a fish today and was disturbed at the fact that acording to my count, only about 40 fish have been reported since early October.

This count is based ont he number system which is simply a running total of the fish reported in Florida.

If I just do a search on this forum and th other one about sword catches, I can pull up many more than 40 fish in the last two months. Even that analysis would assume that every fish caught is posted on one of the two forums, a fact which I know is not true.

Most of the swordfisherman I know wouldn't post a picture on either forum for any reason and they hate the publicity this fishery gets on the internet. But that's a whole other story.

What part of reporting keeps people from doing it.

There is a very real possibility that after the new ICAT assesment of quotas, that the US will loose a substantial part of our quota. If that happens, we could be shut down twice a year (as each simeannual quota is reached) and have to wait until the next quota period before any of us can keep a fish.

Another possibility is to have a recreational quota set aside like other fisheries. This wouldn't be too good either since our quota would be set based on historical catch rates.

The last issue is that if you don't report the fish, it wasn't counted as if that fish didn't even exist. It didn't help the SU quota, it didn't help any future rec quota, and it didn't help keep some other wanna be sordfishing country from getting our fish and taking away our quota.

I challenge any reader to post one good reason why we whould not report our fish!

For Gods sakes, men, we have a great fishery out here, lets do what we can to keep it!

[Shark Tagger]

Great question and point. It is unfortuante that people are not reporting, but we must all report our catch.

Why would you want to lose this fishery agaiN?

ST

[Broadbill]

Ron,

Are you supposed to report releases also? We have been tagging all of them so I guess they are being reported in a way.

Thanks,

Scott

[RiskTaker]

Broadbill:

NMFS is not even interested to record "swordfish catch" information for released fish. The reporting only pertains to fish landed: which happens to include all billfish and bluefin Tunas. I believe that the State of Florida also has reciprocal law enforcement: meaning that if you happen to harvest a regulated billfish in state waters you must still report to the Federal requirement. (Please correct me if mis-stated since I do not have that information posted here in writing to support that statement.)

Here is a link to a summary:
http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/sfa/hms/rec_info.htm

You can dig deeper from there.

Basically:

You must have an HMS permit. ($22/yr. - registered to a vessel)

You are required to report your landing of regulated species within 24 hours of return to port.

It is not that difficult to do, and from all appearances, systematic reporting seems to be to our benefit.

I did not happen to see the penalty for failure to comply but will revise post if I can find it.

[Broadbill]

Thanks Risktaker. I have the permit and understand the rules for keeping fish. Just making sure we were not supposed to report releases. You would think they would want release information also. It still represents fish being caught for their estimated populations, dead or not.

-Scott

[J.P Freeman]

i thougth you had to report every fish. guess not. good thing to know, thanks guys.

[hannaman]

My last reporting # was FL699.

[Flatsfish B]

REPORT YOUR FISH!!!! You can do it the next morning when you wake up just do it!!!!

[Ambitious]

Capt Ron,

Good point. If I were to guess as to why guys do not call fish in I would say its pure laziness. I know guys who have not bothered, they think that their occasional fish call in will be irrelevant. These will be the same guys to cry like babies on this forum if the fishery gets taken away or restricted. Besides all that, its the freaking law, you are required to call in your landings if you are an HMS permit holder period. If you are not, you are in breach of the law and I would suppose if they had a way to enforce it, it would be a Federal offense and likely pretty serious since these fish are managed at the Federal level (felony maybe?). Best thing is to keep up the peer pressure on the guys we all know who are not calling in their fish. Would help maybe to keep posting the 1 -800 number for you guys who are new or have not been calling in:

1-800-894-5528. After the message starts hit 21 and it will take you past all the message crap and right to where you leave the permit #, size of fish, date caught, name and call back number. A pretty cool fisheries guy, Greg (hunter, fisherman, marine biologist) will call you back. He has some good information on weights based upon average historical catch data, which is nice for those who have no way to weigh their fish (like us). Just do it, you will be helping to establish our foothold in this fishery.

[CaptainEd]

Maybe it's because some of the catches posted are "Imaginary" fish... Others may decide it might not be too good to report a swordfish(es) they plan on illegally selling? Who NEEDS to boat 3 fish!? Most "regulars" here always report their fish.


If you don't report it's not a felony, just an act of ignorance. If you are amazed at how many people are not reporting fish you'd be more amazed at how many more don't know and/or care that you need an HMS permit to even fish for swordfish. Mike if you want to do the Swordfish world some good post the HMS and Reporting Information on the top of this page and keep it locked up there.
A word to the wise. I heard there's this guy from NOAA that is so crazy if he finds out you caught a fish and didn't report it he'll take his chainsaw and carve you a new assh*le :shock:

[edk]

Originally Posted by Ambitious

Capt Ron,



1-800-894-5528. After the message starts hit 21 and it will take you past all the message crap and right to where you leave the permit #, size of fish, date caught, name and call back number.

I am glad that you posted this! I called my fish in this morning and must have missed those instructions - I ended up listening to about 10 minutes of irrelevant information and missed two calls in doing so before they got to the "report your catch" menu. The NMFS website doesn't publish that number as the "Information" number - they tell you to call 888-872-8862 for information. It would be more user friendly if the menu on the reporting hotline went to the reporting menu by default. Better yet would be an online reporting system like they have for bluefin tuna.

Ed

[Mike]

Good idea guys. The number and info is pinned at the top of this forum...

[Shark Tagger]

ya keep that sucker up there...

ST

[Ambitious]

good job Mike and way to get it roll'n Ron.........

Will that number double when the SESC reports the catches
of its members?? cheers, arthur

[RiskTaker]

ProfessorO:

I would think that the reports would not increase any more due to SESC contributions more than is already on NMFS records. (Just that there is more variable data to work with.)

Unless there is an organized tournamament, the individual vessel operators are always responsible to report their fish landings to NMFS. I hear what you are saying but it should not ever be the SESC's job to report catches for it's members, unless it was agreed upon by the management.

Yes, we have heard that topic discussed before in club meetings: as a way to facilitate the reporting requirements. But I suspect that the AS-IS requirement will not change unless it is formally accepted by NMFS and mutually agreed upon by the SESC Management including the membership. (These are my personal comments and I am not speaking on behalf of SESC in any way.)

Just as a sampling from the most recent reported landings, SESC members have accounted for at least 60% of the NMFS recreational reports, for Florida. Overall the percentage would likely be less. But in general, it seems like members of the SESC are significantly more repsonsible to report their fish than, the public at large.

The recreational SESC members just need to continue to set a good example by reporting their landings of swordfish and other regulated fish species to NMFS. All anyone has to do is to call that number listed above.

P.S. - Here is another one, for the recreational sector to add up.
SWO12042005FL703