“Save Nothing”

The new fluke regulations are nothing short of being spit in your face with your hands tied and told to accept it. The mafia gives you better terms.They have a system that is useless at best. Recreational fisherman are one percent of the catch. To be brutally honest we should not even be included in the equation of this half-assed formula of their quotas. I must seperate this horror story into two parts: A. Commercial B. Recreational A. Commercial Commercial fishing needs to have one month quotas of weight and whatever falls into their nets stays with them. Shoveling fish off a boat because going over a daily weight quota is pathetic. Reality must come above bullshit politicians double talk. Whatever comes up in the net is dead, period. Stop all the survival rates. Itıs not worth counting. Commercial have every right to do their work, it hard earned money and they are not criminals. The criminals are the committees staying with a program that is destroying our oceans. So whatever comes up is their catch and if the captain fills his quota for the month in a week, he can park his boat, save money on crew, oil and no more shoving fish over. Stop the insanity. The weight of dead fish shoveled over would make your blood run cold. Out of state commercial fishing vessels are fishing New York State water ways should be stopped. Itıs our money going else where and then being sold back to us. The committee's excuse is that they are under funded to do better sutdies. So this is what theyıll stick to... thatıs like an alcoholic going into a bar for better results. B. Recreational Fishing How can Jersey boats have a different quota than the boats in Sheepshead Bay. When theyıre fishing 20 feet away from each other. OK, you guys can keep 3 fish at 18 inches and your Jersey guys can keep 7 fish at 16 inches. Excuse me please, how do you reconcile that in your math? Same body of fish. What fish are you saving? Explain this to me. I didnıt do enough heroin to accept your reality. All you have done is move our fisherman over to Jersey. 25 porgies in our state and what, 50-60 fish in our neighboring state? All you did is have our businesses move over to the next state to fish the same body of fish. Porgies by the way have the best population in twenty years and what one commercial net pulls in, is the Viking's entire catch for the year. So what fish are we saving here.... NONE! What is the reasoning of the fishing commission's existence to keep our fishing stocks healthy. They are using the recreational fisheries as their excuse for keeping a job they are not doing. Their quotas of last year are off by 75%, not five percent or ten percent. But three quarters off. This is a unreliable source where our livelyhood is at stake. They need to all get real for our ocean life and stop passing the buck. May, 3 weeks of rain and winds, all but a few boats made it out to fish. That's three weeks out of the quota. June, weather is still nasty, fishing taking place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday... the rest of the week there are only a few regulars fishing. July, the dulldrums for all the party boats, half business at best. August, warnings of hurricanes during that month kept many fishermen away from all party boats. So where is your quota? Stop and look guys, either get real with the facts so someone out there believes the bull that you're shoveling, or destroy all the party boats in Long Island over a program that's not worth the toilet paper that I wipe my butt with. With such love from ScreamingReel Dave (Excuse my language, but I'm really disgusted.)   One last note: Just an opinion. Party & Charter boats should not be under the same ruling as private boats. Private boats should be restricted to the three fluke or twenty-five porgies or two bass limit. How much is that dude going to eat? A party boat dude waits all week to go on his favorite boat with his kids. He can't afford to buy a $60,000 boat with a $300/month dock fee, fuel and bait. He doesn't go fishing three days out of the week. He may get out maybe twice a month. Now I know a few skirts will be raised over my proposal, but think for a minute. To a private fisherman, what are you giving up? Nothing. Eight blackfish, twenty-five porgies, twenty-five sea bass per guy... you would be so lucky to catch all that... and you don't need anymore unless you're selling. Party boats are part of Long Island and New York's history... and should stay that way. Our water ways are not just for the rich and shameless they are for all of us to enjoy. So the DEC would be happy... the private boats would be happy and the party boats would be happy. Quotas are beyond met and we'd be in good standing period. To simple I know, but I'm a dreamer for a better future. Only politicians can complicate this with their arrogance. There are solutions... and they are so simple that a gerble would understand, so please consider this immediately.

 

Return to Main Page or Dave's Special Reports Archive.