How does this grab you'all. Taken from the commercial fishing magazine Pacific Fishing is an article that states that the commercial guys had taken 41,000 tons of sardines through last September. Most all of the take was sent to Japan. They concentrated on a hot squid bite in October and left the sardines alone....but as the squid vanished they re-attacked the "dines". All of this took place in California waters mostly from the Channel Islands. They will post the totals for the year in January and I will let you know.
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Got my gander up for sure, though I inherently knew that this is going on, I was not aware of the numbers,
George if you would please I would like to see the numbers when they come available and the numbers of other fishes taken form the western coastal region if you come across them. This is the kind of ammunition needed when it comes to preserving resources for anglers.
Thanks
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George,
very interesting article,if you figure that a sardine weighs about 3 or 4 ounces and 14 ounces to the pound with 2000 lbs to the ton that is a hell of a lot of sardines sent oversea's.I bet that tuna and all the rest is not for domestic consumption either.Now with the Marine preservation act a done deal as Romero said in his post and that it was done even before the meeting in Santa Barbara.Where does this put the regular Joe like you and I.Do we regulate how much fish can be exported, I dont know that answer and would be very curiuos to know.This might be an avenue we can use to our advantage.If less is going out it might leave more for the sportfishing men and woman.I don't want to sound prejudiced in this and I understand commercial fishermen have a right to make a living, but as I see it and I might be wrong,our fish are being decimated not by recreational anglers but by a commercial industry who kills everything that they catch even non targeted species and what really hurts its not for our use it is sent to other countries.I think that limits should be set on how much can be exported and the commercial industry as a whole, which by the way is slowly working its way out of a job needs to be looked at. This might be the scientific data that was sorely needed before the meeting to close off the channel islands. I just read an article in Western Outdoors from a reader who was saying that all the fisherman in california can create their own artificial reef by throwing their rods and reels in a designated spot because we wont have any place left to fish because of all the restraits placed on us by "THE POWERS THAT BE".Even in humor there is a ring of thruth .I don't know the answer to our problem but I sure as God know that we as a group (sportfishers) didn't decimate our fish population. I only need to look at my home port Santa Monica bay to see the increase in halibut catches in just a few years and also a phenomenal white sea bass bite last year and all that is due to a complete ban on commercial fishing mostly gill netting in the bay.
See ya on the water
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