What is the deal with Gill Net Ban?

[Cacia]

I do not take the paper anymore. I was reading a Hawaii Skindiver and noticing the adds. Also the Hawaii Fishing News looked like they were for it. I was looking kinda fast in the grocery store. Can someone fill me in?

 

[Wildcard]

Haven't seen an update in a while but it's the same ole crap, no gill nets except for hawaiians, like anyone else uses them. The lobster net ban was put aside awhile back, I think. Having been a commercial fisherman for a few years and always a lover of nature I can see both sides. What I see here is a very few local boys leaving lots of nets on the reefs. Look at the turtles on the north shore. Almost every dive I cut free a turtle tangled in gillnet...What they are doing is not for tradition nor substance or even a living, just a hobbie. More power to them if they want to do the traditional thing and sew there own nets that degrade in a few day in the water, but they don't.
I did fish lobster nets here. I just got tired of too much bycatch so I stopped. I just can't target bugs that close on the reefs. Offshore netting has some to lots of bycatch also, some to most is sold. That that isn't is usualy due to federal regs that won't allow the sale of some species, to protect them from fishing, so they get dumped. What coule be profit for the fisherman is worm food. Yet if we allow the sale, these same species will be targeted by those with the bottom dollar only in mind. If I had an answer I could be voted in as god or something.
What was your question?????

 

[drbill]

Wildcard mentions the major reason for banning gill nets... bycatch. Gill nets were banned in California waters in 1993 (?) and some species involved in the incidental take have apparently rebounded (giant sea bass) while others (blue shark) may not have.

Back in the early 1970's I spent a day on board a shrimper in the Sea of Cortez. I was astounded at the bycatch. Our job was to sort out the shrimp and comb the bycatch for interesting species to collect for the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. The rest went overboard. Such a waste.

 

[dpbishop]

Ocean Defenders is a relatively new non-profit organization in Orange County, California that identifies and retrieves abandoned fishing nets and lobster traps that pose a danger to sea life. If this is the problem that
Wildcard indicates perhaps it would be a good idea to start a similar program in Hawaii.

Here is a link.

http://home.earthlink.net/~oceandefenders/index.html

The bycatch in offshore nets in California included whales, dolphins, sea lions, turtles, etc. as well as protected fish. While fish may survive a while when caught, and possible be rescued, the mammels drown.

 

[drbill]

Ocean Defenders is a relatively new non-profit organization in Orange County, California that identifies and retrieves abandoned fishing nets and lobster traps that pose a danger to sea life. If this is the problem that
Wildcard indicates perhaps it would be a good idea to start a similar program in Hawaii.

Here is a link.

http://home.earthlink.net/~oceandefenders/index.html

Good info Dpbishop. Thanks for posting it.

 

[Wildcard]

All legal pots aka traps have a weak link in them to prevent them from ghost fishing. I would think real hard about any group that professes concern yet dosen't know this.
Also most non trawl nets are made of light weight web and are torn to shreads very quickly ending any further kill. Twral nets are spendy and can be repaired so are seldom abandoned. What people are finding for the most part is lost net pieces.
I spent five years as a commercial fisherman and still have my boat, 46 foot F/V Wildcard. I always tried to be a "green" as possable. As you can see, Im on both sides of the fence here.
A far bigger problem is asian countries still using the ocean as a dump, it all ends up here!

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

Last June on Maui a gill netter had too many akule so he dumped thousands of them just off Honolua which of course attracted 4 or 5 tiger sharks and closed down the bay for over a week while the tigers fed on the thousands of dying akule.

I wonder if they ever caught him?

 

[Cacia]

What are the most "eco-conscious" choices for fish consumption? I love fish, but it gets confusing. I gave up Sea Bass, grouper, etc. How about Opah, my personal favorite? (Moonfish)??

 

[sea nmf]

I actually stopped eating all commercially caught fish for this reason - not sure what the catch-rates and by-catch is.

However, if I catch the fish, or a friend catches it sport fishing (including spear), I'll eat it. My reasoning is probably flawed but basically I know that it wasn't "overfished" by one fish and there is almost always no by-catch.

I used to eat farmed fish but that also ruins the environment so I eat fish very, very rarely now. And I like it!

 

[Wildcard]

The bycatch rates might suprise you. Mid water trawling is a fraction of 1%, like .001% when targeting pollok ( fish sticks, imitation crab, surimi ). Samlon trollers have near zero bycatch as do salmon purse seiners. Salmon Gill netters have a minimal amount but do get a few birds, not many buy a few. Bottom gill netters, what the original question dealt with, have a substantial bycatch, but nothing like bottom trawlers. They are being banned everywhere as they should be. The one trip I went on to help a buddy we shovled about 30 tons of bycatch over for the 8 tons of keepers we got. NFMS is responsable for the rules that required overages of the DTS complex to be dumped when some of the species target levels had been reached. I threw tens of thousands of dollars worth of black cod ( butter fish) over becouse the boat had hit the monthly limit but was allowed to continue to catch the low dollar thornyheads and dovers. Keep em or stop fishing! Feds make the rules, blame them. BAN ALL BOTTOM TRAWLING!... I fished pots (traps) and long line mostly. Both for the most part fairly clean fisheries with very limited bycatch.
What to eat? Albacore tuna has little bycatch and it's good for you. Red salmon are not farmed and are plankton eaters so little bioacumulation of heavy metals, ect and they are the best eating. Pinks also have littel bio problems andf are overly abundunt. Could'nt get 4 cents a pound for them this year in AK, too many fish! Ya don't hear about this do ya? Kings and silvers aka coho are troll, gillnet and seine netted, hard to tell which was what for the untrained eye but it's all good. Cod fish are abundant, fast growing and tasty. Taken by pots, LL gear, trawl, all prety clean. Mostly seen as fish n chips. Nokaoi!
I stay up on most of these fisheries world wide so if you have any questions, I can give you a somewhat educated answer.....NO FARMED FISH OF ANY KIND!!!!!
Sory about the typos, this took a while and a few glasses of vino
PS, spearfishing has zero bycatch! ( for MM)