OCEAN CITY — Federal fisheries officials this week opened the public comment period on a series of recommendations aimed at further protecting Atlantic bluefin tuna, a stable of Ocean City’s commercial and recreational fishery.
NOAA Fisheries is considering a rule change and associated draft environmental assessment aimed at reducing discards of Atlantic bluefin tuna and outlined a series of recommendations proposed that would reduce incidental by-catch by commercial long-liners targeting other species. The draft environmental impact statement also includes the ecological and socioeconomic analyses of the proposed amendment change.
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4 comments:
Joe,
Thanks for bringing this article to the attention of your readers. The actual proposal is an attempt to allow commercial fisherman to keep accidental by-catch Bluefin Tuna that under present regulations if caught on longline gear have to be thrown overboard dead and wasted. This category of fisherman has been often maligned and environmentalist using false information have tried, in some areas such as Florida, to legislate them out of existence. There are several boats that fish this category right out of Ocean City providing jobs and tax dollars for the state of Maryland. Please if you read this article or the proposal don't make judgement on these fisherman without first asking for the other side of the story!
I guess those commercial fisherman are just going to "accidentally" catch more.
Yeah, I'm thinking that more thinking has to go into this. We can't allow or force "wanton waste", and I understand that any bait on a hook and line will catch just about anything swimming by.
Maybe longliners must have to apply any tuna toward their yearly catch limits, and when one limit is reached, season over.
This may force different strategies in their fishing efforts.
Oh, I'm 854- ish, and am NOT anything NEAR a Waterman. I leave that expertise to them. I was just throwing that out there wondering if there were different baits and rigging to use to modify the catch?
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