Midwater herring trawlers are back in Area 1A starting tomorrow. (10/1) - Page 2 - The Hull Truth

twofinbluna · 10-10-2007, 10:06 PM

The whole spawning closure issue really angered the herring seiner fleet. The issue benefited the midwater fleet since they could not fish anyways and with the closures, it stretched the catch out so they would have more access come October 1st. It is a shame because the less fish taken by midwater gear, the better.

They (midwater lobby) pushed hard to have more days out of the fishery throughout the second half of summer. Towards the end, there was almost 4 days out a week. Again, they fought for that so that they could slow the catch and catch more come October 1st.

And of course, Jeff Kaelin would never admit that things are better as his job is to deny the problems with midwater trawling. He would claim things were OK up until the day the last herring was caught off of New England (and then would still deny that midwater trawlers caused the problem).

2nahunter · 10-22-2007, 09:36 PM

i seen 12 midwater trawlers in ipswich bay today going back and forth all day long there will be nothing left in the bay in 72 hours probly less . the herring are still full of eggs who says they are done spawning oct 21 tell the fish that why don't they have observers on these boats now during these opening days for science reasons . if there were observers on these boats they would be done effective imediately.150' boats should not be fishing within at least 40 miles off the beach so us smaller boats can catch fish where we use to catch it , before the midwater trawlers ever showed up 10 years or less, they ruined boston bluefin fishing .something that was so famous is now so sad . canada has a heathy stock of herring = heathy stock of bluefin tuna . i'm not even a scientist just seen it unfolding before my very eyes. nmfs is full of crap they should be working for us taxpayers we pay their salary why don't we have any say . unbelievable how they ruined another fishiery. idoits they will never get it right ,excuse me marine fisheries has brought back an endangered species known as the "dogfish" the biggest preditor of the ocean. nothing will ever live with so many dogfish out there .good job marine fisheries now lets do something now about those midwater trawlers . . we need to hold their hand and tell them what is going on, like you tell little kids .they don't know what goes on out there without us telling them ,just look at the numbers, no herring +dogfish = no feed for bluefin tuna or codfish =no fisherman . i just didn't make this all up , fact, you don't have to be a scientist to figure it out 25yrs of hands on experience should count plus everyone elses yrs of experience should count too .

twofinbluna · 10-23-2007, 01:48 AM

Quote:

2nahunter - 10/22/2007 8:36 PM

i seen 12 midwater trawlers in ipswich bay today going back and forth all day long there will be nothing left in the bay in 72 hours probly less . the herring are still full of eggs who says they are done spawning oct 21 tell the fish that why don't they have observers on these boats now during these opening days for science reasons . if there were observers on these boats they would be done effective imediately.150' boats should not be fishing within at least 40 miles off the beach so us smaller boats can catch fish where we use to catch it , before the midwater trawlers ever showed up 10 years or less, they ruined boston bluefin fishing .something that was so famous is now so sad . canada has a heathy stock of herring = heathy stock of bluefin tuna . i'm not even a scientist just seen it unfolding before my very eyes. nmfs is full of crap they should be working for us taxpayers we pay their salary why don't we have any say . unbelievable how they ruined another fishiery. idoits they will never get it right ,excuse me marine fisheries has brought back an endangered species known as the "dogfish" the biggest preditor of the ocean. nothing will ever live with so many dogfish out there .good job marine fisheries now lets do something now about those midwater trawlers . . we need to hold their hand and tell them what is going on, like you tell little kids .they don't know what goes on out there without us telling them ,just look at the numbers, no herring +dogfish = no feed for bluefin tuna or codfish =no fisherman . i just didn't make this all up , fact, you don't have to be a scientist to figure it out 25yrs of hands on experience should count plus everyone elses yrs of experience should count too .

I hear ya, 2na, the midwater boats are no good. It is ridiculous that nobody from MA, NH or ME sampled what was in the area before reopening it (spawning closure that is). It is obvious that fish are either have not spawned or in the process of spawning, certainly have not already spawned. The solution to this would be to stop midwater trawling within 50 miles of land, year round. Obviously the spawning rules are useless.

Also, someone posted this on another site, sickening...(note the second paragraph):

""Ipswich Bay today...

The day would have been great but---
There were at least 6 pairs of the mid water boats stripping every ounce of life from the bay.

**After trying to jig up some of the marked tuna we moved out to the edge of old scatum and saw a single trawler moving in slow circles. The trawler move off as we approached and thats when we saw them - ACRES of dead blueback herring floating on the surface.**

Can someeone tell me why a trawler would dump this many fish??? Very sad!""

Sickening....hopefully this will remind people to send in letters to the Council if they have not already. We need to do something about the boats, fast.

twofinbluna · 10-23-2007, 01:49 AM

Just for reference, here was my answer to his question about why they would do this:

There are two reasons they would do this. First, I heard a lot of the herring in the Bay were spawning. Many of the boats now supply to the food market for herring, meaning they do not want fish full of spawn. They sometimes do not want spawn fish for lobster bait, either. Regardless, they will dump a whole bag of fish, dead, if they pull it up and see it is too spawny. There is actually a loophole in place that makes it so they do not even have to report dumpings- essentially the regs allow for it.

Or, they may have realized they had a whole load of river herring and instead of getting in trouble and causing a firestorm (which may happen if someone sees them unloading river herring) they may dump the bag.

It is sick, but this happens way more than a lot of guys here realize. This is why we are fighting so hard to get teh Council to take action. The midwater fishery is messed up. Check out the sample letter thread I put up a wee k or two ago, on this forum, and speak up.

twofinbluna · 10-23-2007, 01:51 AM

double post

(although this issue almost deservers double posts just for emphasis)

DKD · 10-23-2007, 10:02 AM

If tuna fishing is not frustrating enough some days, yesterday topped it off with the midwater boats in Ipswitch bay. Incredible how hard you have to work to get a 1/2 box of bait out of a bait net with the dogs the way they are and these guys dump acres of herring. I think I’m throwing in the towel after that show yesterday. (I say that today)

What I do not understand is how their nets do not get all dogged up???

Come on June 1

nausetblue · 10-23-2007, 12:41 PM

It appears all of us have had enough of this fishery,lets all speak up and email our senators,congressmen and the white house & ask them to ban this fishery before our giant tuna weigh 300 pounds and we have no ground fish in the area left due to lack of food. Please email them today and have all of your fishing friends and family members do the same.

nausetblue · 10-23-2007, 01:07 PM

http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/sfa/hms/Tun...er_18_2007.pdf
This data shows the average tuna is 70 pounds lighter this year vs last year.

twofinbluna · 10-23-2007, 02:59 PM

Quote:

nausetblue - 10/23/2007 11:41 AM

It appears all of us have had enough of this fishery,lets all speak up and email our senators,congressmen and the white house & ask them to ban this fishery before our giant tuna weigh 300 pounds and we have no ground fish in the area left due to lack of food. Please email them today and have all of your fishing friends and family members do the same.

Speak up, guys. We have the numbers but everyone has to do their part.