Find somewhere else for longliners to fish

[reyespada]

One of the main reasons longliners are chomping at the bit is because of the high fuel. Their other complaint is that they have few places to fish. These were both mentioned in the Sun Sentinel as reasons cited by long liners for trying to renter the Straits. We need to consider these reasons and try to propose policies that will put lonliners somewhere else besides here.

My good friend was longlining on the Southern Lady out of Palm Beach this year for swordfish off of south carolina and cape canaveral. He witnessed a good deal of slaughter and has not been back the last few trips. Through the course of talking to the captain at the dock when I dropeed my frend off, I learned that he is an avid recreational swordfisherman from Fort Lauderdale.

Anyway, I was told by the captian that he and the rest of the fleet had been fishing the windward passage between cuba and haiti before this year. This year the rules changed and our military stopped protecting the longline fleet from cuban and hatian patrol boats, who prior to last year were not enforcing the countries' boundaries because of our military presence in the area. This forced the longliners to go 200 miles offshore of South Carolina and Cape Canaveral which is much more dangerous and way less efficient during winter when seas are rough from nor'easters.

It would make sense to me that instead of putting the longlining fleet back in Florida that our federal goverment should be ensuring our fleets right to fish in open waters where they have traditionally caught fish AND that are NOT depended on by recreational anglers (like between Cuba and Haiti NOT IN FLORIDA). The bottom line is that recreational fishing is proving to be a more efficient use of our fishing resource than commercial fishing in Florida, where the economic value of recreational fishing is very high. Between Cuba and Haiti that is not the case.

If we dont propose different policies, our objections will finally wear out and they will be back in. We have to propose alternative policies to win the war. Simply saying no do do it wont last for long.

Also, we should also start talking about longline boats fishing with beeper buoys. One boat the Whitewater, has been fishing off of Miami using this technique, where they drop between 10 and 15 beeper buoys with two baited hooks on each. I witnessed him setting the gear off of Miami a few weeks ago. They are fishing this way to ensure compliance with the handgear regulations for directed swordfish permit holders, whihc probit more than two hooks on a single line. This reg was implemented at the insistance of IGFA and others who got wind of a "garden spool longline fishery" fishery being practiced by some of our very own sword buddies here in south florida. Basically, they were setting a mile of gear using a small handcrank spool with a mile of mainline, which was legal.

This is not the spirit of the handgear regulation (which applies to all recreational anglers as well) and NMFS should probably specifically prohibit this activity as it allows another 40 hooks a night in for the 1 boat alone. I heard more and more longline boats are considering doing this if they cannot fish elsewhere.

I dont like the idea of longlining in recreational waters, but commercial fishing does serve a purpose for those who can't go catch a swordfish to eat for themselves. They will not go away. So we need to find them some other place to go because they will in fact go somewhere.

If you ever want to read the official Swordfish regs issued by nmfs look at
go here
http://<br /> <a href="http://www.g...html</a><br /> and type in 50CFR635 in the search box.

[url]
http://frwebgate3.access.gpo.gov/cgi...ction=retrieve


These are the definiations for handgear and handline:

"Handgear means handline, harpoon, rod and reel or bandit gear."

"Handline means fishing gear that consists of a mainline to which no
more than two leaders (gangions) with hooks are attached, and that is
released and retrieved by hand, rather than by mechanical means."

Also check out the bottom of
http://frwebgate3.access.gpo.gov/cgi...ction=retrieve
which says:
"Except for persons aboard a vessel that has been issued a
limited access North Atlantic swordfish permit under Sec. 635.4, no
person may fish for North Atlantic swordfish with, or possess a North Atlantic swordfish taken by, any gear other than handline or rod and reel."

[LegalLimit]

very interesting!!!!!!!!!

[jerry]

Good post, well thought out and written. My .02 however. I dont believe giving the long line fleet the right to fish the windward passage is the answer. Those very same fish passing through the passage may be the same fish being caught off Florida. I live and fish in Jamaica and we have been faced with a fishery that is producing relatively small fish. Does this mean that Jamaica is some kind of vagary or is the same overfishing affecting our stocks as well.
Having run a commercial fish house during the 90's I have witnessed the havoc wreaked by longliners first hand. That entire fishery needs to be changed as it is not able to be discriminatory where it comes to species, size, breeding etc.
I sure dont want them destroying the population here.

[Keith Poe]

Yeah the terrorist aren't going to go away so lets figure out where to let them kill cause there going to kill and not go away so lets figure this out?

C-MON Man the L-L are out dated and destructive.
They kill indiscriminately just like terrorist.


Keith Poe
PO Box 2056
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
310-562-6205
www.sharktagger.com
sharktgr@verizon.net

[reyespada]

The terrorist analogy isn't exactly on all fours. Most sane people are againsts the terrorists. That is because terrorists most always spell "bad things" for most peopl. But there are many sane people are on the opposite side of the longline issue than us recreational folks. You see, politics always takes into account people on different sides of the same issue. You cannot discount the commericial fishing industry and their lobbying power. Therefore, it is better to support them when their cause has little effect on us and stand firm againsts them when it does. This is of course given the fact that they will be around no matter what we do.

In an ideal world their would be no terorists or longliners. But we cannot afford to be idealists when we have to deal with reality.
We cannot bomb them (just like terrorists), and if we dump swordfish blood on them in a PITAesque radical demonstration they will probably lap it up with there serpent toungues So see, its kind of like the containment approach adopted by our military against the terrorists, we have to keep them out of our territory, on the run, somewhere else.

Agreed that the tecnique is non desciminatory, destructive , and the like, but most alternative techniques for mass fish production (other than fish farming) are. Hopefully science will provide us with the answers over time, but in the meantime i want to be able to catch nice fish off of FLORIDA, so move the longliners somewhere else.

[jerry]

I dont think the containment approach is working very well for the military and I doubt it will work with the longline issues. Remember the species that are targeted/bycatch are all highly migratory. If you disrupt them at one location you will disrupt them elsewhere. And again its easy for fishermen in one location to say that send them anywhere but here, but the anywhere fishermen dont want them either.

[reyespada]

Thats politics though, You cannot look out for everone's best interests. You have to look out for your own.

[jerry]

reyespada, we should be doing this over drinks 0123 But thats one of the reasons the world is in the mess its in is that too many folks are watching out for themselves and not others.

[Break Away]

We do have to find some way for the longliners to make a living somewhere ( not here ). If we don't catch our quota as a nation (longlines and recreational together) our quota will be reallocated to other countrys. We lost 25 MT to Canada in 2002 because we were not haveresting enough. There are countries that don't have the same bycatch regulation and inforcement as we do. They would be glad to catch a portion of the US quota and not care about damage. If we could get all the recreational anglers to report there catch it will help. We as recreational fisherman need numbers to be taken seriously.

[Keith Poe]

yeah who cares if the fishery cant stand the pressure just make sure no one else gets it LOL.


Keith Poe
PO Box 2056
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
310-562-6205
www.sharktagger.com
sharktgr@verizon.net

[ReelIntubaiter]

I'm totally opposed to any type of Longlining...PERIOD! Longliners have been indiscriminantly raping the oceans for decades. It's time for that practice to cease. I have a different suggestion. Why don't we (government, recreational fisherman, Fishing organizations) consider "buying-out" the commercial longliners so they can become extinct before the Swordfish do. We cannot tolerate any longlining. It took me 27 years to catch my first Sword after witnessing the slaughter in the late 70s. We can't let that happen again.
There was also a suggestion that local recreational fisherman are using numerous hooks (garden spool). Is this true? If so , this practice also to needs to cease immediately! Shame on you. [-X

[reyespada]

There are likely many seafood restaraunt owners and grocery stores who would be adverse to your policy. I would also like to ask you if you own any LP lights? LP makes 80% of the worlds longline systems. They would probably disagree with your policy too. I am not supporting the longliners, I am just telling you why they wont go away.

The bottom line is that only science can provide long term answers to fish management. Until then we will have longliners, whether you or I tolerate it or not. BY the way, the federal goverment already bought out many US longliners that used to be in the fishery in the 80s and early 90s after they, and foreign boats, decimated the fishery, which is why there are relatively so few longliners left.

If you made swordfish illegal on menus, like the Atlantic Blue, they would just be discarded dead when the longliners target tuna, mahi, etc. All of these things have been considered at one time or another. The only thing that has curbed the longliners at all so far has been the sea turtle. For the last few years there have been major area closures becasue of seas turtles. Now, all longliners have to use Circle Hooks (18/0s) and carry all sorts of turtle gear (rubber tires, flipper snatches, etc) to make sure that turtles are released unharmed.

Getting them to fish somewhere else is the best thing for Florida. FOr the last few months the entire fleet has been 150 off cape canaveral anyway. If they go somewhere else, we wont have to worry about 30 of them fishing beeper buoys, which they are all going to start doing right now, given the success of Whitewater, the fuel costs, their denied application to longline, etc.

[reyespada]

As far as the garden spool goes, that was the reason the NMFS came out with the reg about no more than two hooks on a handline. It definately happened, and it was on the grey side of legal when it did. Whether it still happens is anyones guess.

[reyespada]

Break Away is also very right about the reporting. This is the same problems Massachusetts anglers have with BFT. No one wants to report their catch on the 800 number for some reason. Maybe NMFS should partner with Swordfish Central to have online reporting.

[ReelIntubaiter]

I'm totally opposed to any type of Longlining...PERIOD! Longliners have been indiscriminantly raping the oceans for decades.

I stand by this statement. The evidence is in an article from Nature in 2003 where they assert that "only 10% of All Large Fish are Left in Global Ocean" thanks to our friendly longliners.

Here's an excerpt from an article:
"May 15th issue of the international journal Nature reveals that we have only 10% of all large fish,both open ocean species including tuna, swordfish, marlin and the large groundfish such as cod, halibut, skates and flounder are left in the sea. Most strikingly, the study shows that industrial fisheries take only ten to fifteen years to grind any new fish community they encounter to one tenth of what it was before."

I think three years is enough to wipe out the Swordfishing grounds just like they did in late 1970s.

[Keith Poe]

PRESS RELEASE CONTACT: Dr. Russell Nelson
For Immediate Release 561 449-9637
October 29, 2002 DrRSNNC@aol.com


No longlines off California becomes a reality.

This evening the Pacific Fishery Management Council voted unanimously to approve a Fishery Management Plan for Highly Migratory Species that prohibits the use of longlines within the 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone of the west coast and prohibits the sale of striped marlin. The regulations will also require that all west coast based longline vessels which fish on the high seas beyond 200 miles will be required to carry observers and utilize electronic vessel monitors which will reveal their position at all times by satellite link. The Billfish Foundation (TBF) has worked on this Plan for over two years and applauds the Council for this pro-active and conservation oriented approach to the protection of marlin, swordfish, thresher and mako sharks, tunas and dorado. In today's action the Council also mandated that a team of scientists develop a plan to establish criteria for ensuring the validity of any future applications for experimental fishing ventures for longline gear.

"This vote was a win for the fish," said Dr. Russell Nelson, TBF's fisheries consultant,
"and we can now look towards restoring the striped marlin stocks off of southern California and using this U.S. example to help in developing safeguards against destructive longline gear in other nations of the Pacific Americas."

TBF President Ellen Peel praised the decision: "We see that our resources and intense efforts devoted to this issue was a sound investment in good management and thank the Council and the California Department of Fish and Game for the leadership they exerted in this battle for good conservation."

The overwhelming support of California TBF members, anglers and conservationists, especially the United Anglers of Southern California, played a crucial role in convincing the Council that any new longline fishery was not in the best interests of the resources. The council received over 10,000 signed pieces of correspondence arguing against longlines during the process of developing the Plan.

TBF is the world's leading billfish conservation organization working to empower sportfishing conservation networks through science and education.
-end-


Russell Nelson
Nelson Resources Consulting
Marine Resource Science, Policy and Advocacy
Russell Nelson, Ph.D.
850 544-4616
DrRSNNC@AOL.COM