mmc wrote:
"Vic Smith" wrote in message
...
Ran across this in the skiff forum.
Being near Chicago I don't get involved, but it might be useful to you
coastal guys.
I know near-shore trawling by commercial boats in Florida was a big
issue to sports fishermen a few years back.
Don't know what happened as I think it was only an East coast issue
and I quit going there.

http://www.carolinaskiffowner.com/showthread.php?t=6286

--Vic

Vic,
I know from experience that doing away with commercial fishing of redfish in
FL really helped the fish stocks to recover. Add to that the ban on gill
nets which had been used to harvest mullet for thier roe, and our whole
picture immediately looked a lot brighter.
I've heard mullet on Floridas left coast have made a come back after being
almost completely wiped out. The mullet are very important to the food chain
and thier harvest was being sent to, guess where? Japan. Harvest all the
eggs and the fish disappear. It's not rocket science.
I used to think that anyone working these kind of jobs would do what they
could to protect thier own future by not abusing the very thing that kept
them employed - but not so. Thier nets not only gathered the target fish,
but also every other fish that became entangled; reds, trout, angels,
puffers, sail and hardhead cats, etc, etc, etc. This is known as "by-catch"
and is tossed over the side.
Thankfully, the state of FL acted before it was "too little, too late".

There has been a problem with "fishing trawlers" form a certain country
that have been plying the waters off of the Virginia and North Carolina
coasts for about 50 years or so.