“buyers’ remorse.” Editorials question- ing the wisdom of the repeal are appearing in local fishing magazines, and similar posts, made by rank-and- file anglers, are appearing on fishing websites. Hopefully, when the issue is taken up again in two years, anglers will realize what is at risk, and support a renewed licensing program.
Tautog vote affects New York fishery
In March, ASMFC’s Tautog Manag- ement Board finally took the advice that biologists had been giving them for the past 15 years, and reduced the fishing mortality target for the species to an acceptable level. Since tautog are badly overfished, that will require a 56 percent overall harvest reduction in the State of New York. There’s little question that such a
reduction will represent a hardship to New York’s anglers, one that could eas- ily have been avoided had the target been put in place when it was first sug- gested in 1996, a time when tautog were more abundant than they are today. However, the bigger concern is whether New York’s commercial fishery — both the legal component and what is sus-
pected to be the much larger illegal fish- ery — can be adequately controlled. Tautog were not an important com-
mercial fish until they exploded onto the urban live-fish market in the mid-1980s, and became a staple in ethnic seafood shops. At that point, both price and commercial harvest spiked. Regulations designed to rein in the commercial fish- ery merely drove it underground, so that the illegal commercial landings are believed to be about 50 percent larger than the legal landings. Based on some arrests made by DEC Law Enforcement personnel, CCANew York believes that the size of the illegal commercial market may be even larger. Unfortunately, even the legal mar- ket is essentially uncontrolled. There is no overall annual quota, and the fish- ery remains open-access, meaning that anyone with a commercial food fish license may participate. The only real restriction is a 25-fish trip limit institut- ed, largely through the efforts of CCA New York, more than a dozen years ago. Without any sort of quota in place, enforcing a 56 percent harvest reduc- tion on the commercial sector will be extremely difficult, and reducing the illegal commercial harvest effectively
impossible so long as the lucrative live- fish market (where undersized tautog can bring more than $10 per pound) remains open. CCA New York has therefore again called on the DEC to prohibit the sale of live tautog within the State of New York. Such a measure is necessary to effective- ly implement the recent ASMFC harvest reductions and to assure that there is not a de facto reallocation of the fishery, from law-abiding fishermen to the ille- gal commercial harvesters who have already played a significant role in the depletion of a once-abundant species.
PACIFIC NORTHWEST
The first CCA STAR Spring Chinook Derby!
CCA PNW is launching our first
region-wide fishing tournament. Run- ning two and a half months during the spring Chinook season, the first annual STAR Spring Chinook Derby starts March 15 and runs through May 29. Anglers can enter the derby at anytime and be eligible for both weekly prizes of up to $200 and the grand prizes of up to $2,000.
The “Blaze $25,000 Challenge” is a
TIDE
www.joincca.org
55
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64