Well this stinks!!!!

[gmbaker]

decapoddiver,
sour grapes? based on what? What in the posts indicates that opinions that are pro catch limits are the people who are not good at catching them?

I am not trying to argue with you. We clearly don't agree on the catch limit issue and I dont intend to try and convince you that my opinion is more or less correct than yours, but to blindly assume that the issue is sour grapes is just plain wrong.

decapoddiver once bubbled...
... As for the catch limit discussion here on the board, it seems to me like a bit of sour grapes. Those that aren't very good at it and average only a couple of bugs don't have a problem with it

 

[decapoddiver]

I based it on comments here on the board like "I don't really have a problem with diving catch limits [but hell, I've never taken more than 2 a day diving anyway!]", on discussions I've had at my LDS and mostly on what I've heard at dive sites. I guess I shouldn't have called it sour grapes or implied their abilities are poor. More like "Doesn't affect me so I don't really care". I didn't mean to cause friction on the board:bonk: I was very tired and still pretty upset about the whole thing (must be my complete resposibility for the lobster population)
I must say though that when we exit the water with heavy catch bags, our fellow divers are the only ones who have ever made negative comments regarding the number of lobsters we have caught. Comments like " Hey! Thanks for leaving some for us!" I gently reminded him that he had finished his dive before us and therefore we were "hunting" water he had already coveredI guess after hearing things like that over and over from "unlucky" divers, I developed my sour-grapes philosophy. I will attempt to keep it to myself from now on

 

[decapoddiver]

We only take what we will be able to eat. Anyone who has questions regarding my philosophy on bug hunting should refer to my club's website http://www.townisp.com/~stat12/ and look at the club rules. I wrote them,I believe in them, I enforce them.

 

[Spectre]

decapoddiver once bubbled...
I based it on comments here on the board like "I don't really have a problem with diving catch limits [but hell, I've never taken more than 2 a day diving anyway!]"

Given your attitude towards using restraint as far as catch numbers, I'm surprised you feel the need to dismiss my opinion just because I'm not personally effected by a catch limit.

As it is, the new laws have probably more effect on me than you guys anyway, as they are reducing the number of fishable pots from 10 to 5. Average that out, we end up looking at a reduction from 7 bugs a week to 3.5... The end result is the potential to take that barely legal cull female that I usually throw back 'cause I got a bigger better one anyway.

When they imposed catch limits on bluefish a couple years ago, did I get all whiney? "Oh... I can only take 10 now!", no. I delt with the catch limit, went out fishing more, and still got my annual bluefish supply. And yes, I still maintained my personal size limit.

Just because I've not taken enough to be effected by the catch limit doesn't invalidate my opinion in the slightest, or the fact that the lobster population is verging on a crash anyway...

Take a step back and look at the restrictions they are placing on the commercial fisherman as well... They are getting knocked way down on the number of traps they'll be allowed to fish as well.

Which would you prefer, a catch limit of 10, or the potential of a tagging system where we [as a group] aren't allowed to exceed the number of recreational takes from the previous year?

To quote your rule: "We dive for fun and not to put food on our table"... hmm.... doesn't sound that way to me.

 

[decapoddiver]

How exactly will a catch limit affect the lobster population? Given the fact that non's are responsible for less than 1% of the overall population, do you really think that it will make any difference? Why do you think it's a good idea? I'm not trying to start an argument, I truly do want to know. You haven't explained why we are in disagreement. You only said that it doesn't seem like a bad idea.

 

[Spectre]

Everyone is getting hit across the board. The commercial lobsterman are getting reductions in fishable traps. The non-commercials are getting reductions in their fishable traps as well.

Since divers can't be limited by a trap reduction, why should they get off when everyone else is getting hit with reductions. Personally I feel a 10 catch limit is a hell of a lot better than a number of other options they could have gone with [caps on diving licenses, tagging system where divers as a group are only allowed a certain number, 'lobster diving season', etc...]

There is all this talk about the non-commercials taking the hit... but read the stuff. They are talking about potentially a 62% reduction in the number of traps commercials will be able to fish.

So instead of asking why I don't have a problem with it, let me ask you why you feel the divers should be the only ones not getting caps or reductions... and what method you feel would be more fair than a catch limit?

 

[decapoddiver]

To quote your rule: "We dive for fun and not to put food on our table"... hmm.... doesn't sound that way to me. [/B][/QUOTE]

Next time you choose to quote me, try to quote the whole thing.
"We dive for fun and not to put food on our table. Therefore, a successful dive will not be
determined by how much sea life we bring home. It will judged by how much fun we had and the new
things we saw and learned.

BIG difference between using restraint and being forced to do something that has absolutley NO proof of working. I don't dive solely to put food on the table but I also enjoy eating lobster and so does my family. With the new rule, I will take 10 everytime I can as opposed to only when I need to. I will still average the same number. Once again, I am upset that the money is the basis for the rule, not scientific fact. The commercial guys can decimate the population and we're the bad guys. Maybe if we're lucky we can buy out the commercial guy's boats like they did when the gov restricted the fishing and the fishermen rallied. Great plan. The gov basically bought out their boats and gear and what did some of the fishermen do? Went out and bought bigger, better, more expensive boats. Sadly, the commercial group has portrayed themselves as being vacuums of the sea but they're never to blame. I still can't figure that out. "Science be damned! Let me suck the ocean dry and then cry for you to bail me out".

Go ahead. Flame away. It's never their fault. We really do play a major role in lobster populations. We're definitely to blame. I'm also supporting terrorists by driving a gas powered vehicle to get to my dive sites

P.S. I used to guide on the Cape for stripers and blues. I didn't cry either. The science made sense. BIG difference.

 

[Spectre]

Notice of Public Hearings

They will be discussing this [as well as proposed licensing for scallop diving] On Feb 3rd and 4th.

These are also "Proposals", so go ahead and go fight 'em.

 

[Rick L]

From the way I read it they will still be able to keep there 800
trap limit? But the ones who dont fish the limit wont be able to
unless they request to fish more traps? And it says maybe in 2004
not this year? am I reading this right?
Rick L

 

[decapoddiver]

I'll be there.