Fishing Quotas: 80% reduction?
 

Maybe finally realizing climate change forcing fish to move, 50.5d right now in Gulf of Maine? mentions the dawgfish..:smash:

80% reduction could come today. The meeting is in Wakefield if people have the time to go
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Personally I don't think it is all about ocean temp. (with regard to cod anyway) When "they" (DMF) allowed the taking of breeder fish during the spawn year after year after year and did not stop this activity until a crisis occurred, this is what happens down the road.

IMO it is their MANAGEMENT that is at fault, "they" (DMF and their experts) are now looking for a scapegoat that no one can argue with...blame it on Bush and water temps.

Facts: "They" have been managing this species for more than 3 decades. It has gotten progressively worse and is now in disaster stage. Time to FIRE ALL TOP Leadership and establish a new management path using conservative common sense and logic. This is LONG overdue. Stop blaming it on other indirect factors which you know there is no direct evidence that this is the primary issue.

80% reduction of what's not there anyways.
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It seems there is also a 20% reduction in menhaden catch. Not sure when it will be in full enforcement, but what is 20% of ZERO ????

Too little too late,,,again !!!!:fury:

Van...It's brought to you by the same people who believe that giving a tax break to people who pay nearly no taxes to begin with will somehow make you feel better.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Patricia M. Fiorelli
December 20, 2012
978.465.0492
Council Delays Vote on Groundfish Catches, Opens Additional Areas to Fishing
Wakefield, MA Amid fishermen’s testimony about negative economic impacts to the region’s groundfish fishery and its obligations under the rules that govern fisheries management in federal waters, the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) today voted to delay setting controversial catch limits for 2013-2015 until its late January 2013 meeting in Portsmouth, NH.
In recognizing the potentially devastating consequences of cuts of up to 70 and 80 percent from 2011 levels for some commercially important groundfish species, the 18-member federally appointed Council agreed to examine possible options available to it between now and its January 29-31 meeting in Portsmouth, NH. “There is too much on the line,” as one Council member commented during the discussion. Importantly, the Council will by then have received the results of the most recent cod assessments, reports that will outline the health and abundance of both the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank stocks.
Other significant issues were approved that will affect the groundfish fishery that harvests cod, haddock, pollock and several types of flounders. The NEFMC supported a measure that allows groundfish sectors, a type of harvesting cooperative established in 2010, to request exemptions from the longstanding prohibition on fishing in the year-round groundfish closed areas on a limited basis. These restrictions provide that:
 Access would only be granted for the parts of areas that are not defined as habitat closed areas, or that have not been identified as potential habitat management areas currently under consideration in a habitat action that is currently in development;
 Access to Closed Area I and Closed Area II (on Georges Bank) would only be granted for the period May 1 through February 15 to protect spawning fish;
 Access to the Western Gulf of Maine Closed Area (off MA and NH) would only be granted during periods not subject to rolling closures that are applicable to sectors and already specified in the Groundfish Management Plan;
 Access to defined portions of Cashes Ledge would be allowed year round; and
 Access to defined portions of the Nantucket Lightship Closed Area would be allowed year round.
The Council will submit these and other measures in final documents to the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Secretary of Commerce for final approval and implementation as soon as possible. Measures approved today will in place at the start of the new fishing year that begins on May 1, while others will likely be delayed as a consequence of the postponed decision on 2013-2015 catches.
The NEFMC, one of eight regional organizations established by federal legislation in 1976, is charged with conserving and managing fishery resources from three to 200 miles off the coasts of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.
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FF thats.....UNREAL...

Why not
1) Fish them to extinction.
2) Blame the Recreational sector.
3) Lose their boats
4) Use the government buy back program. (??)
5) Once some time has passed and they use up their "donation" ,,go buy new boats.
6) And go out and catch whats left in their shiny new boats.

7) Repeat 1 through 6....

Screw the fish, nature and the ocean,,,,,, its all about ME !!!!!

Makes me wanna :yak: :yak:

I'm a global warming agnostic.

I believe the ocean is warming. Whether or not we're in a natural or man-made warming cycle that's 2, 10, 20, 100 or 1000 years remains to seen. The weather forums i go on with professional meteorologists, believe that it's 100% natural warming cycle.

There is a ton of anecdotal evidence that shows we'll be fishing for mahi in cape cod bay soon.

Just last week I heard from one of my customers:
One of the traditional christmas seafood dishes is smelt that comes out of New Brunswick. 2 years ago, the first striped bass made an appearance in New Brunswick. Everyone thought it was pretty cool. This year the striped bass in New Brunswick nearly wiped out the smelt fishery. They can walk on the striped bass up there this year.

The list goes on and on.

Lots of bonito all the way to New Hampshire this summer
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The tuna in december is nothing new.

I was listening to stories from one of the captains across the dock from me and he was telling me how they harpooned fish on Christmas day in Cape Cod day in the 70s.

IMO The earth is still evolving...hence "climate change" is to be expected. What disturbs me is that for some reason many experts think the earth should be static I guess.

There were ice ages, heat waves, droughts storms volcanos tsunamis for the last billion years and will be for the next billion. The desarts in the West were once seafloor bottoms! What is new now is the "reality TV" world and instant news coverage of anything "bad". The weather has become a reality show. Frankly Sandy was not that bad in the big picture. Yeah I know lots of property was destroyed. But what really happened was populations increased in these storm hit areas and it seems worse now but really there were many storms that were alot worse over the years and did not get the coverage. (Its all about getting free money from the gov).

Mankind ***may*** be contributing to the warming process to some small degree but I think the earth is doing the majority of changing on its own.

The bottom line is that if this is just about ocean temp and not over fishing then the cod just "moved" to someplace else..ie to find the colder water...but they are not there either, just ask Canada. This is about one thing...poor resource management over the course of decades.

I was in Moab, Utah several years ago and during my vacation there took a jet boat trip up and down the "Green River". Guide pointed out at one place we stop a petrified palm tree. He also said not to touch or take any of it. That palm tree is in the middle of the high desert in our midwest where Jim said and is right about where the southern oceans use to lap our shores. As I type this repsonse to everyones posting I look up at my piece of the palm tree I brought home. Just couldn't resist.