Salty
2009-02-28 06:42:44
Ed and Kathy,
You did a wonderful job helping us get ready, keeping us informed, and working the process like the pros you are.
Carol W
2009-02-28 22:03:33
I also want to say thanks to both Kathy and Ed, Kathy has been a tireless advocate for the rights of commercial fisherfolk and has donated untold amount of hours to fisheries politics. Thank you both.
Tom
Salty
2009-03-01 17:04:39
I guess it is time to go public and point out one of the great gaffe's of this BOF meeting. Do you want to confess Tom or do you want me to reveal it? Or you could just send me a private message revealing your top King Spoon. In case your memory is slipping, or there was more than one, I am referring to advising the Board, incorrectly, about how much troll gear we might have on board.
Carol W
2009-03-01 17:17:35
Ok I admit it i told the board of my cache of gear and Eric started snickering for he has 4 times the gear I have however my share of the fish is smaller and so I don't need as much gear. I don't know if you noticed Eric I didn't say a word about coho spoons. And i bet if you thought about it you could name my favorite 6 coho spoons.
Ocean Gold
2009-03-01 17:27:06
I think Vince.W. has no idea what a troller is or does, let alone how much gear they may pack around. On the dual gear proposal 250ish he figured it was not a problem to run to town unload, throw a bucket of troll gear on the boat and get back out. Yes changing a net is not a big deal, but just taking off all the troll gear, cannon balls, gurdies, pulleys, and possibly poles, etc. just might become a big deal. I asked him if he knew how heavy a set of gurdies wear and his reply was " I don't even know what a gurdy is ". I truly believe several of the board members think we are out fishing with a tackle box and poles.
I think we need to make it required that all board members that make any decisions on method and means have to have a idea of gear and gear operation before they make any decisions on that gear type.
Ocean Gold
2009-03-01 17:47:27
UFA meeting tuesday if anyone has anything to ask, add, comment on show up or contact one of us. The B o F will be a topic of disscusion.
yak2you2
2009-03-01 18:20:42
I have a thought Ed. I noticed that it seemed like ATA was the only real gear group shouldering the load of trying to curtail the charter/sport industry. I went to every committee, and I never did hear the gillnetters speak up against or carry a single proposal to try to contain them. I guess my question is, why? The charter industry's overages take as much from them as anyone else. ALFA guys did make a few comments, but for being the MOST affected, I thought I'd hear a whole lot more from them. I guess what I'm saying is, it just didn't seem like a very unified commercial front against the charter industry.
I feel like leaving the ATA to do all the dirty work, left us looking like the aggressors, which probably cost the ATA some of it's non-charter related proposals.
I'm new to the game, so there's undoubtedly lots that I don't understand, but this just doesn't make any sense to me at all. Sure, the gillnetters and the trollers have issues at times, but when it comes to straighting out the charter industry's over population/ over harvest issues, seems to me like the other commercial users could have carried alot more weight. Seems like a UFA meeting would be a good place to bring this up. I don't think any one single user group is ever going to be able to get a handle on these guys, if were going to have a chance, the other users are going to have to step up and speak up too. These are just my personal views.
yak2you2
2009-03-01 18:46:29
I should add that SEAFA did make a real presence at the BOF, you and Kathy are true soldiers for the fleet, very impressive, thanks for all of your advice and efforts. I need to get signed up as a SEAFA member, that much was obvious.
yak2you2
2009-03-03 20:35:51
What is with the board dumping on dogfish increases??? This summer I'm going to take pictures of the thousands that get stranded and lay dead on our beaches on every high tide. I'm thinking about sending them to the commissioner for a reality check.
We tried a couple of times to get a directed fishery for them and got shot down. I understand their concerns about by-catch, but I think in the long run whatever fish were sacrificed would be worth it in order to thin out the locusts. Don't know what it's going to take to get a directed fishery, but increasing sport catch limits should just be a no-brainer.