A little respect for the commercial fishers

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America's Most Dangerous Jobs Laura Morsch, CareerBuilder.com writer For many of us, the most dangerous part of the workday is the commute

Eisboch

<http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780140275018&itm=1>

Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky

Gordon Pass has several commercial boats that use it.

For the most part, the commercial fishing industry (down here anyhow) is mostly a parasite on the resources without contributing anything of value back to the economy.

Meanwhile, the recreational anglers created and now support an entire billiond-dollar industry...namely tackle shops, boat dealers, marinas, boat mechanics, etc.

Dr. Roy Crabtree is the NOAA Fisheries Service's Southeast Regional Administrator. He's also a shill for the commercial fisherman, and has opposed every suggestion to buy out the commercial licenses as they expire.

John H

They primarily net yellow perch and walleye.

The missing brick in the logic wall would have to be, "What has happened to the commercial fish limit?" Is it the same as ever, is it increasing while the recreational fishermen are being cut back, or are the commercial fishermen experiencing a reduced limit along with the recreationals? I certainly don't know the answer, but it could be that a scarce resource is still being distributed about like it always has been.

She was the only persons to survive a crab boat sinking. She told us about it and it was amazing she survived at all. She told us the boat was getting rocked pretty hard when a crab pot crushed someone. A fellow crew member at one point threw her overboard. She said she recalled seeing the boat roll shortly after that and could still see the skipper in the wheel hours trying to keep it from turning over.

After being in the water a short time she said she was stating to blackout and could hear voices but could not longer see anything. The next thing she knew she was on a helicopter and was being put in water that felt like fire, but was apparently icewater that was much warmer then the sea she can out of.

Her skin had a very pale tone to it, I have no idea if it was from that or not. But I always suspected it was.

Capt Jack R..

Commercial licenses are Federal permits. It's not a state issue.

Traitor.

If not for commercial interests of one type or another, there would be little support for spending on these activities.

My gold crowns have proven to be extremely durable and no mercury is involved as far as I know.

Shaun

The data is wrong for 2004.

Additionally, the commercials kill about 80% of their by-catch. Recreational kills about 20%. The quotas don't account for that either.

Most of the depletion is due to the by-catch...not the actual take.

Several hundred members and I from a fishing forum in Florida already wrote our Senator about this issue when they were trying to lower the limit on total grouper (not just red grouper) from 5 to 3. The letters were apparently successful:

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/08/09/State/Senator_protests_grou.shtml

The reason that I'm posting about the regulations on rec.boats is so that everybody else who is unaware of NOAA's unfair treatment of recreational anglers can also write a letter.

Capisce?

It's not about sustainable fisheries, it's about getting ours.

Another case of over-zealous doomsayers?

Eisboch

I wonder what the fatality rate is for solo sailers?

On an aside, i think its time for me to consider future careers. Ive been unfortunate enough to work in logging, fishing, structural iron and steel, truck driving, truck building, construction and in foundries. On top of that my hobbies include motorbike racing, rock climbing and sailing. I wouldnt class myself as an adrenaline junkie, i rarely get a rush, just the pleasant focus, and a momentum to consciousness. Isolation is sometimes its own reward ;-)

In my spare time Ive been a mountain and cave rescue worker for 5 years and a year in the new zealand coastguard. Now Im working in the mines here in australia, underground as a contractor and also part of the mine rescue team.

Im pretty proud of the fact that i dont hane too many scars, but its probably a combination of luck and caution. a lot of guys in these industries are so called 'hard man' types who look down on anyone using eye protection, gloves etc. They increase their own risk of injury. Some of these industries are inherently high risk because of dangerous processes, like hooks whizzing past your ear on the deck of a fishing boat.... but i read a statistic recently that really disturbed me; I cant remember the exact terms and numbers used, but they said that 'not so obvious' fatalities by far outnumber the 'more obvious' types by a multiple of more than 10. While getting your leg ripped off by a PTO and bleading to death is a gruesome way to go, these are nothing compared to the number of people who quietly slip away each year due to long term exposure to chemicals, gasses, heavy metals, toxins, dust and so on. Im hoping that these statistics are represented in the mian by the older generation who worked harder rather than smarter.

As for the ilness statistics.... i wouldnt pay them too much mind. Ive had quite a few of those ilnesses myself, quite often after a few too many beers, or mysteriously when the weather is right for sailing/surfing/climbing ;-) A lot of my co-workers seem to suffer the same fate; the day after pay day people are quite often feeling under the weather.

Shaun

The fishers that are in grave danger are not the guys who drop pots in the bay or net mullet in the canal behind your house. They are the ones who drop pots in the Bering sea or fish off the Grand Banks.

In fact, if that sub group were isolated from the statistics reflecting commercial fishing in general we can be almost certain the figures would be much, much higher.

(Makes a good case for the allocation style fishery rather than a defined season. Instead of saying, "Everybody go out and fish like mad for two weeks and keep everything you can bring aboard" the allocation system says "Vessel X is entitled to catch 12,000 pounds of Alaskan King crab within this 45-day window of time". Vessel X can stay in port a day or two if the weather is going to be lot worse than usual without missing out entirely on a big chunk of the season, and if Vessel X has poor luck she can sell some of her unused allocation to other boats that have hit the jackpot.)

It seems like we lose a Seattle-based boat and crew every year or two up there. Crabbers can have a high COG, especially with all the pots on deck. Then there's the ice- a lot of times there's a crewman assigned to constantly chip the ice off the boat, and he or she has to chip it off faster than it's building up.

After watching that fishing series on Discovery Channel, nobody would ever complain about the price of crab again. :-)

"Chuck Gould" <chuckgould.chuck@gmail.com> wrote in message

8 died while in office...4 from natural causes and 4 by assassination.

If you just use the number who have been assassinated, that's 4 out of 43...for a mortality rate of 9,302 (per 100,000 workers).

Average salary: $400,000.

At least it pays well.

Is Mrs. NOYB's name Marie ("let them eat cake") Antoinette? :-)

Consider this: There would be a lot less infrastructure to support sport fisheries if the same infrastructure couldn't be at least partially justified as a support for commerce. Commercial and sports fisheries, properly managed with an eye toward conservation in a perfect world, should be able to coexist.

No Alaska King Crab, Louisiana shrimp, or even tuna fish for you. :-) Bummer.

In the NE, the recreationals are constantly being hammered by the commercials to the point where recreational quotas are consistently reduced to maintain the commercial side of any fishery. Seasons are reduced on the whim of the commercials if their tonnage in any given fishery is down, size and quotas changed every year on recreationals without commercial penalty for being over tonnage, the by catch situation is getting more and more serious with virtual destruction of the eco system - in particular Narragansett Bay where you can't find bunker in the summer.

I'll give you a good example of the rape and pillage. ARC Bait out of New Jersey comes into Narragansett Bay every Spring on a permit from the RI DEM using spotter planes to "fish" for bunker - menhaden. Guess what they do with the menhaden?

Sell them back to the recreational fisherman. You can't find menhaden in Narragansett Bay after ARC Bait finishes and the net result is that there is less forage resulting in fewer quality fish for recreation.

You can't stop them because they have a commercial permit to catch as much as they can in a one week period - curiously enough, right in the middle of the major migration period. It's their "right". Last year they were caught over quota - $1,000 fine. Big whoop.

Oh, and don't ask the various Eco cops to actually enforce by-catch laws or enforce quota rules - heaven's to Betsy, we don't have the man power to do that. Instead, let's measure the fish the recreationals catch at the boat ramps instead - and fine them - oh, $1,000 or so a fish if it's 1/16th inch under.

I don't want to hear about commercials.

Just because I eat fish does not mean the commercial fishermen are not raping the waters. They sure are on Lake Erie.

So you agree with NOYB that commerical fishermen are raping the waters, but disagree with NOYB that everybody should catch his or her own fish. Thanks for the clarification.

Hope your recovery is progressing.

Funny how inflation changes things. An experienced french fry jockey, aka "assistant manager" at the local fast food joint now makes as many $$ per year as Abe Lincoln made as President. (Presidential salary was $25,000). Most white collar middle managers now outearn JFK's presidential salary, ($100,000, plus a $50,000 expense account which Kennedy refused to accept). It's doubtful the either the french fryer or the second tier accountant would think they make enough money to risk getting shot on the job. :-)

The commercial guys take 89% of the grouper out of the Gulf...yet they keep reducing the limits for recreational anglers.

That makes no sense.