Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Blue Planet
Posts: 1,084
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No, it certainly would not be a good thing to happen, for an awful lot of people. Let me clue some people in to this: RISAA, a large recreational group here in RI, are looking to get the pogie bait boat from ARK, and all other pogie seiners out of RI.( currently no other seiner has access or is fishing these waters)Ark has been supplying RI lobsterman and rec fisherman with fresh pogies for a long time, and anyone out on the water knows that any boat can pull up to them while they are fishing and get a free of charge load of fresh, wriggling pogies. Again, they do this free of charge!! Now the House Bill No. 5165 and Senate Bill No. 0311 currently proposed threatens this.
When they first started fishing, Ark Bait fished seven days a week with open access to all areas of the bay. The last several years, Ark Bait has negotiated in good faith with the recreational sector and DEM. They no longer fish weekends or holidays, have agreed to not fish in East Greenwich Bay, can't fish in the Providence River after Aug.15th, (which in the beginning of the agreement was no fishing in the Providence River, but had access to Greenwich Bay, then two years later the recreational people asked it be changed, which Ark Bait did), no fishing south of Prudence Island from the southern tip of the T-warf to the northern tip of Jamestown over to Quonset Point near the airport, from the beginning of the season until Aug. 15th. They have also agreed to take observer in the plane anytime. In short, they have done everything they can to be up front, open, hand honest about the fish harvest, and most importantly they have been responsible.
Now let me paste a copy of an email sent to the SNESA and others from the official spotter working with Ark for over 26 years now:
My name is Everett Mills I am the spotter pilot who has worked for Ark Bait Co. since the early 80's. In fact I volunteered to monitor the Bay for Trudy Cox in the 80's watching for raw sewage, oil spills or anything I thought Save the Bay should be aware of back then.
In my 26 yrs flying over our Bay I've witnessed many changes, I've predicted fish kills resulting from Algae blooms from nutrient rich storm water runoff, I've seen the Bay full of menhaden and I've seen the bay void of menhaden, I've watched fish come and go and have caught many pounds of pogies used by our local lobstermen for bait.
But what I have noticed most in the last three years is how clean the Bay is today. Years ago when there was millions of pounds of Menhaden in the Bay the Bay was filthy, I could hardly see bottom in shoal areas around the shorelines. My point John is to address the seemingly renewed interest and need in filter feeders to clean an already clean bay which has been void of a significant amount of Menhaden for the last 10 yrs.
I mean I can see the rock northwest of Rat Island in the Sakonnett River, I can see the wreck southwest of Hope Island marked by the red can, and the bottom along the shore where in previous years all I could see was brown water. The bay is cleaner today then I have ever seen it in 26 years. Why, not because of Menhaden, maybe its because Save the Bay is working or maybe its because of the increase in the bay oyster population an excellent filterer in it self, maybe its because of the tightening of septic systems around the bay, but its not because of menhaden. Besides John there's scientific proof that large adult menhaden are poor at filtering zoo and phyto plankton as well as detritus particles , the smaller fish are better because of their fine gill raking ability.
The bottom line John is the Bay is cleaner today then I have ever seen it and without the presence of Menhaden.
I think John, Save the Bay could better serve the bay preventing storm water runoff and controlling the hot water released by the Brayton Point power plant.
That being said if I can be of any assistance to Save the Bay in the future please let me know.
Everett Mills
This letter points out the main arguement and reasoning behind this push for bills in the state senate and congress of RI; "the pogies clean up the bay" by filtering the water......What a crock
These same anglers from RISAA are the first guys lined up at the boat to get there free pogies, and the first guys to bitch and moan when the baitshops don't have fresh pogies for them. I have personally seen many registered and vocal RISAA members at the boat getting pogies, and Ark bait itself has many pictures of these guys in the act of participating in what they call a fish slaughter. There is no real data or scientific research behind the ban, nor has any real world study been done in RI by any qualified organization in regards to the specific fishery and Ark baits role in the fisheries sustainability.
To cut them out of the bay would place 9 immediate families in RI out of full time work, another 6 families out of part time work, will absolutely devastate the already troubled lobster fishery by taking away its cheapest, most effective, readily available bait, and will put a hurting on each and every bait and tackle shop that caters to saltwater anglers. Charter captains will now be forced to spend even more money and time procuring their own baits, and the price of pogies on the whole will rise dramatically, putting a hurt on the 9-5 recreational angler who wants to do a bit of bait dunking on a friday afternoon in June.
I really don't think anyone who is on the side of RISAA and pushing for the ban has stopped to figure out what it will accomplish or who it will effect. The fact remains that menhaden are harvested in huge amounts elsewhere, and in 2007 it was determined that Menhaden stocks were not depleted, and NOT being overfished. The majority of Pogies harvested annually end up as fish oil or in perfume, while the ARK boat ONLY fishes for bait.
I myself have written a individual letter to every state rep and congressman in RI, in support of ARK bait and against the move to ban pogie seining in the Bay. |