Well they did it.

thurps

thurps

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They absolutely killed our ocean fishing. I thought it was bad enough that f&g put a moratorium on the commercial and sport fishing of salmon off the coast of California and Oregon while tripling the sport fishing and gill netting (sustenance fishing) limits in the Klamath River, which is our major source of salmon. Now f&g has announced the closure of all of the Saint George Reef which is about 50 sq. mi. of prime fishing grounds. On top of this they have closed all fishing in waters deeper than 120 ft.. All of this was done without even having a fish survey! This was supposedly to protect yellow eye and canary rock fish. About ten years ago, you almost never caught one. Now you can catch them just about anytime, anywhere. They say we are catching to many. I say they have recovered in this area. What?s wrong with at least finding out before imposing such gargantuan limits to our fishing.

On a little lighter side, I'm selling a cemetery plot on Craigslist. Someone is going to send me a cashiers check for it and handle the shipping himself.
 
zach103

zach103

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Mar 11, 2008
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Re: Well they did it.

so they cut off all fishing.. that sucks..
i know its not as fun but they should at least let you catch and release..
 
Bondo

Bondo

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Re: Well they did it.

Ayuh,.....

Just 1 more reason to give Calipornia back to the Mexicans......
 
QC

QC

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Mar 22, 2005
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Re: Well they did it.

How 'bout we give New York and the Clintons back to the Brits and we keep California . . .
 
C

cheburashka

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Re: Well they did it.

I'd say it's more like "we did it." There's no doubt that fish populations are in trouble. I find it hard to believe that they didn't do a survey, or that they based this on misinformation about species that aren't in decline. I feel for you. It's no fun, but if there's going to be any fishing industry at all, somebody has to cut back. Subsistence fishing should be cut back as well.
 
thurps

thurps

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Re: Well they did it.

Believe it cheburashka. They declined to do a survey.
 
C

cheburashka

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Re: Well they did it.

thurps said:
Believe it cheburashka. They declined to do a survey.
Click to expand...

I looked into it as far as reading a couple of newspaper articles. I saw no mention of yellow eye or canary rock fish. The sources I read claimed that a reduction of salmon population led to the ban.

I think the reduction of the salmon population is well documented without the need for a survey. Don't you? I don't necessarily agree that decreasing ocean fishing while increasing inland fishing is the best plan, but aside from the hypocrisy of that decision, don't you think there's a need to let populations rebound if they can?
 
C

cheburashka

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Re: Well they did it.

You might want to check this out: http://lnk.nu/64.233.167.104/k3d

It explains where the estimates come from and why it was necessary to close down St. George Reef. It seems that some folks were purposefully targeting the rockfish as a sport-fishing species because there weren't enough salmon to catch. That indicates to me that there is a serious problem.

I'm not sure how they generate their numbers, but F&G seems pretty confident that Yelloweye are down to less than 20% of historical levels. Sounds like it was time to do something.
 
SgtMaj

SgtMaj

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Joined
Nov 19, 2007
Messages
1,997
Re: Well they did it.

Great line, T2F.

By the way, closing down fishing (esp. commercial) for a year will do wonders for the following season, so don't complain too much. Just plan for a great season next year.
 
P

PW2

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Apr 21, 2004
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Re: Well they did it.

Some of the Rockfish take years to develop and populations to increase. And many of the "bottom" fish from deeper waters won't survive if brought to the surface.

Nothing is an exact science, and a lot of the survival rate will be due to no doubt a multitude of factors, only one of which is fishing pressure.

Still I know a fair number of fisheries biologists--most will admit that they sometimes are wrong, and that they are mostly working with complex science, but they always take their job very seriously.
 
thurps

thurps

Chief Petty Officer
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Jan 14, 2007
Messages
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Re: Well they did it.

Maybe I would fee better about it if the ban diden't origeante from The Northwest Wildlife Management Authority, which is a government agency created to study waterfowl habatat.
 
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