 Scaler Cod- The SWGE and Ma.DMF is insane
For those of you not acquainted with the term-
A scaler, is the term used to describe a fish, typically a cod orhaddock that was caught using a gill net and subsequently drowned andbegan to partially decompose and or was scavenged upon by numerousother sea creatures, most commonly sea lice.
Sounds pretty nasty huh?
It happens a lot, much more than it should.
Some of it is landed, you can see that by looking at the returns forthe Gloucester auction. Landed and sold, as what and for what isbeyond me.
I see that the average price for drowned lice eaten cod in the GDA wasbetween $1.28 and $1.82, last Friday, so I don't think they are usingit for lobster bait.
What is in the nets that we aren't seeing or hearing about?
I fished on, and ran one of these boats, so I know firsthand, it wasn't pretty.
2 years ago, I submitted a petition to DMF to ban gill nets forgroundfish from state waters, it obviously didn't pass. It did howeverbring about the eventual committee level discussions and suggestionsfrom DMF ,the need for more comprehensive rules regarding amounts ofand or lengths of nets.
Too little, too late?
A little history- several years ago, Ma. DMF began to close an area offNahant, which is now referred to as the CCZ- cod conservation zone.
The closure was necessitated by and a reaction to high discard rates
in this and the greater area by a large influx of traditionally offshore boats
(mostly gillnetters) ( there was an article in com fish news aboutthis- which I can''t/shouldn't post- it's archived past the ones theyput up for the public, but I have it here),getting around days atsea, by putting their NEMS permit onto another, often smaller boat, a"placemat boat", and fishing in states waters using what was then, justa standard anyone can get one state permit.
What followed, was increased landings in state waters, mainly by theselarge gill net vessels, and the reaction from the DMF to close theseareas off to everyone, essentially punishing some fishermen, who haddone nothing to deserve this. The state, in it's infinite wisdom, notwanting to actually do something about how all of this affected smallboat operators
and their continued ability to remain viable, decided it would just shut it all of, because it was a lot easier?
The next thing DMF does is very interesting. They propose and createthe SWGE- state waters groundfish endorsement. At first, it looks likethe GE will only be issued to folks who could qualify, by proving theyhad landings of a certain amount, during certain years and who did nothold a federal permit on the vessel they were applying for the GE for.Then not being able to manage to figure out who made up what and so onbecause of inaccurate or non existing landings data to compare, theyjust giver the GE to anyone who had a commercial license before acertain date, including all those gillneters
So, now whats my problem?
The issue of the GE is going to be revisited soon. The state has beentalking about IFQ's for cod and other species in states waters.
IFQ's are almost always basedf on landings and listening to the lastcommission meeting's audio, I hear Mr. Diodatti tell the commission "wehave a couple of years landings info with the GE in place, so we sortof know who the active participants are"-.
Holy $ hit!! Yeah me too Paul, the gill netters are!!!!!!!!!
This is why I proposed banning the gillnets then and why I am gonna tryagain. I knew he didn't have the stones to do the right thing then andthis is just too much. Does he really think some of us aren't payingattention?
First he bitche $ to the commercial fisheries news, telling them howbad all these gillnetters are to the "last major aggregate of spawningcod ", now he's giving the whole fishery to them?
This is pure BS boys, it stinks lie an outhouse in July.
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