Quote Originally Posted by JakeF View Post
He's a recreational angler. What the F is he going to do with 700 (or 665) lbs of fish? And he wants more than that next time he goes? It's that kind of BS philosophy that puts fisheries in jeopardy.
Jake, I gotta take the other side on this one. I agree 100% in principle with what you said here, so please understand I'm choosing my words carefully.

The way I read that article, and some of the others that talk about the salmon sharks, it seems salmon sharks are seen as upsetting the balance of nature up there. For the most part, fishermen are after salmon and halibut. The sharks follow the salmon like the seals follow the bass on Cape Cod.

These salmon sharks, the way I understand it, don't have too many natural predators, in the same way that the seal population has few natural predators to keep it in check, hence the grumbling from Cape Cod Fishermen.

665 lbs is a tremendous amount of meat, enough to feed several families. On the other hand, the guy didn't break any laws with his catches. So in his eyes, as he was following the law, he did nothing wrong.

One of the things I learned in the last year or 2 is the number of people who will listen to a point I'm making is inversely proportional to the volume/ judgemental tone of my comments.

I feel passionately about fishermen losing access, traveling 85 miles each way to Brookhaven, a place I will never be able to afford to fish because of the out of state permit fees they now have.

I try to talk to people I meet while fishin about striped bass and the future of striped bass, and can honestly say that only about 10% of all fishermen I meet actually want to be involved in any of this "fishery, future, fishermen access, C&R, etc, " stuff that we talk about. They just want to fish.

And whether I agree with it or not, if the law says they can take X number or sizes of fish, I don't think it's fair to slam them for doing so.

I think the important thing is that we educate people about how it used to be in the past, what really happened to cause certain fish stocks to decline, and give people the information and tools to make their own decisions.

Many of the laws out there I feel are unfair. For example, I think the current fluke regulations for both NY and NJ border on insanity. How can you claim to build up a fluke biomass when you're targeting the bigger breeders, females, for fishermen to catch?

So I would say this same thing about the lemon sharks, striped bass, and any species we feel might be in danger of being overfished. If we don't like the laws as written, it's up to us to rally people as to why they don't work, and try to muster support to change them.

One example for your argument is the overfishing for cod that closed the Georges banks for awhile. A lot of blame was put on the commencial fishermen, as it should have been.

Now that fishing is open to recreational anglers again, how many people do you hear of who fished for cod off Block Island this year that didn't fill the coolers with them when the bite was on? Is there something wrong with filling your cooler during a hot codfish bite? Not legally? But I think our responsibility should be to educate fishermen as to the premise that if the codfish grounds could be closed for commercial greed, then should they also be concerned about recreational greed? Good points to ponder, I don't think anyone's opinion would be absolutely right or wrong here.


If anyone can do some research about salmon sharks and whether they are overfished, or in any kind of potential danger, please post it up. We need to hear all perspectives on this site, and then make up our minds for ourselves.