Nets or No Nets
Thursday June 11, 2009
While fishing off Cape Lookout from Beaufort Inlet, NC, I noticed something I had not seen in many years - net boats. Florida passed a law several years ago restricting most nets. The effort was controversial to say the least. Recreational anglers hailed it as the ultimate plan to save an ever shrinking resource. Commercial anglers, whose very lives depended on the income these nets brought, saw it as a selfish attempt by sport fishermen to have the fish only for themselves.
Comments
limiting the amount of net fishing has brought back a resurgence of kingfish in the florida west coast. we now have a continuing spring and fall run.
if one can look to the tourism amount spent on fishing in this state,one would see that it out weighs what the commercial bring in. i personaly like the ban. by the way i release 95% of my catch.
Speaking from experience in Floirda, and as a member of the “selfish sports fishing community,” the radical change since the net ban went into place has been astounding. Pogie pods are a common site now, but were faultering under the pressure of the “pogie fleet” compete with processing boats, in the pursuit of pogie oil and raw material for pet food. A dramatic increase in the number of juvenile kingfish is obvious. Prior to the ban, juvenile kingfish only a few inches long were part of that “insigificant bycatch” that ended up overboard in the massive dump of unused sealife. Asserting that a fleet of incredibly efficient, large fishing boats has no effect on fish stocks simply can’t be defended. The reality is that every resource is finite and can be over-harvested.
The gill net industry harvested roe mullet and discarded not only the “by catch” of juvenile redfish, and spotted trout, but also all the carcases of the mullet once the two sacs of roe were removed (to be sent to Japan in order to satiate their taste for fish eggs). So removing the reproductive potential just prior to spawning is most certainly the most direct way to wreck the resource.
This portion of the fishing industry had become so efficient at total harvesting, while at the same time, totally against regulation or disclosure, that the only viable option was the existing net ban. Without it, the system would have reached a point of no return.
There are two sides to the net issue, and both make their points. Whenever there is competition for a scarce resource - and fish are getting more scarce - there will be controversy. We need to find ways to give and take on both sides of the issue.
I am all for BANNING the nets . I have seen the results in all the states that have done this.
I’ve fished east coast of florida for 40 years and the net ban has made a tremendous diffence.When you see giant schools of redfish in the lagoons,and mullet,you know the net ban is working.
I fished Morehead City/Beaufort Inlet, NC this past weekend. For the first time in many years I have seen more mullet and tons of pogies pods in several years. I have no scientific evidence for the excellent catch of fish we had however we threw on the huge pods of pogies and had no problem hooking up with 6′ sharks, loads of large bluefish, and small kings. It is however quite obvious that where there is bait there are preadator fish. And I think that the commerical industry is not getting this simple impact they are having on the fish and bicatch that they take.
I wish there was more restriction on these boats in Virginia.