On Thu, 28 May 2009 10:31:03 -0500, Richard Casady
wrote:

On Thu, 28 May 2009 07:57:33 -0400, Wizard of Woodstock
wrote:

Last week there was a show on Discovery about cod fishing in the
Bering Sea and that was one of the issues for the fishermen - when the
whales show up, they have to pull in the long lines and leave because
they will lose half their catch to the whales.

Longliners go for large fish. They put out fifty miles of line with a
hook every two hundred feet. You put it out and haul it back once a
day. Swordfish and tuna are longlined. Maybe halibut. Not cod, which
are netted. They would find cod suitable for bait. As for whales, the
sonar they have will pick them up miles away. They can sit there and
watch while the whales clean the longline.

Fishermen lay out long sets of lines across the ocean floor. These
sets are made up of skates, long lines with baited hooks attached to
them. These sets can run nearly 3 miles in length and hold as many as
4000 or more hooks

http://www.fishex.com/seafood/black-cod/black-cod.html