BAD RUMOR

[Raider Ronnie]

Any truth to the rumor - Sport Fishing Forums

Some info & discussion.

[clambo]

Matt I spoke to NOAA people in Maryland and Mass and I believe thus just a rumor and nothing more. I spent about a half hour talking to guy from Gloucester and he basically said thanks for calling because you can get info from the horses mouth or the other end! The fish we are catching are getting bigger each year and that can mean more weight for fewer actual fish. As of today he had no knowledge of any closure for anyone. Matt lost your tel # when my phone fell in the toilet, PM me with # Mike

[nightfighter]

I spoke with a captain I fish with out of Beverly today who told me he heard from a "reliable" source that it will be catch and release this year for tuna less than 73". His source said it should go down in two weeks or so.....and that this was NMFS's trump card they are going to play in the aftermath of the CITES failing to pass.

[Mr. Sandman]

Let's see where the cards fall.

[Sweetwater]

Clearly the number of recreational boats chasing BFT in the northeast has increased over the past few years. But the reason is that there have simply been a lot more tuna around. I would hope that NMFS could find a better way than C&R only to manage the recreational take.

I personally like the idea of a tagging system; however, NMFS would then have to police it (i.e., $$). I'd even support something along the lines of 5 tags per season, with each tag expiring in a given month (i.e., one tag for each of June, July, August, September, and October). That would be one fish per vessel per month with no ability to transfer tags to another vessel or carry-over to another month.

At least it would be superior to a no-take approach and allow us recreational guys to keep some fish.