"Harry Krause" wrote in message
. ..
JimH wrote:
"Harry Krause" wrote in message
. ..
JimH wrote:

But thanks to the excessive catches by commercial fisherman on Lake
Erie
walleye and yellow perch may also soon face the same fate, this time
not to
pollution, although we are seeing new water quality problems on the
Lake
that we did not see in past decades.

Excessive catches by commercial fishermen are hurting sportfishing
almost everywhere along the US east, west, and gulf coasts, but I had no
idea it was a problem in the inland lakes, too.

A big part of the problem for us: the foreign fishing fleets with their
gargantuan ships that literally suck all the fish out of certain
sections of the ocean. Overfishing is a real problem, and I have no idea
what the answers might be.

Commercial fishing in the US waters of Lake Erie results in the catch of
9.5 million pounds of yellow perch annually. Commercial fishing for
walleye in US waters is banned. There were a series of indictments
against commercial fishing companies for their under reporting catches of
yellow perch from 2001 to 2003 by over 100 million pounds.

Canada takes out 3.4 million pounds of yellow perch and 7 million pounds
of walleye annually from Lake Erie.

Commercial fishing in Lake Erie was the result of the blue pike becoming
extinct.


I'm not sure I understand why non-farm grown fish, which, in reality,
belong to all of us and none of us, should be harvested commercially.
Maine lobsters, for example, are mostly grown in holding pens these days,
although there are many lobstermen who still use individual traps. But
these rugged individuals are NOT hauling up tons and tons of lobsters with
every haul, and their catches are closely regulated.

There was 400 million pounds of fish taken by commercial fishermen out of
the port of Reedville, Virginia, second highest of all major US coastal
ports:

http://www.st.nmfs.gov/pls/webpls/MF..._YEARP.RESULTS

New Bedford, Massachusetts ranks number one for total dollar value of the
catch:

http://www.st.nmfs.gov/pls/webpls/MF..._YEARD.RESULTS

An interesting site:

http://www.st.nmfs.gov/st1/commercial/