Commercial Fishermen worse for environment than BP oil spill

[John Galt]

Wasn't sure where to post this to get the most eyeballs. It's a story that needs to be repeated.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articl...lf-lou-dolinar

I can tell you from personal experience scuba diving the rigs - before and after shrimp season. Before - rigs are covered up with 8" - 12" red snaps. After - scoured clean. In a matter of a month...I know as the summer progresses, the red snaps go to the open water...but a month?

I posted at the time that they hysteria was overblown. Just like the 1991 Saddam Hussein oil spill - a few years later, the United Nations (not exactly a lobbying group for the oil industry) saw few problems.

[willyhunting]

I think the article actually tries to show what a lack of pressure across the board on marine resources will produce, regardless if it commercial or recreational.

As far as you snapper hypothesis, to make the claim you are making you would have it assumed that there where no other pressure on the resource, just that of a shrimp trawl, which I can not imagine interacting well with a platform. Besides, you left an out in your statement "...I know as the summer progresses, the red snaps go to the open water..." Are they gone from the rig because they are on open water, or caught?

The over reliance on a poor hypothesis regarding shrimp trawl interactions with snapper is why we are in the position we are in now.

[iridered2003]

here we go again!

[CoastalOutfitters]

a few points

1 snapper do move around , due to spawning and water temps

2 Commercial fishermen did not mysteriously save the snapper and create a bunch of fish.
removing their #2000 pound trip limits did, some could make 3 runs a day, they started shallow and worked their way out to conserve fuel and make more runs.


3 comms target small fish, they want a plate sized snapper 13.5-16" , big fish have lower sale value

4 the oil spill closure did not create large fish, they simply moved in to the area due to no pressure, snapper don't grow to 8-10 pounds in a year

4 the reason why we have alot of large fish being caught by recs. is #3, which will backfire on the fishery in a few years because the comms are removing several age classes of small fish and this will create a gap