I used to fish commercially in New York back in the sixties. Rod and reel only! There was no creel limit for anyone back then, commercial or recreational. There was a 16 inch size limit. I believe you when you stated that thousands of fish were left to rot on the beaches of Long Island since that was the way it was done with seine haulers. Their nets could be a mile long. I was just wondering why they would leave fish, that could be legally sold, to rot on the beach. Maybe things were far worse than I can imagine. Perhaps since the larger bass would have brought a few cents more per pound, and they exceeded what their trucks could hold if they took everything, so they simply might have gleaned all of the biggest fish until they could not put any more on their trucks and left. Another problem I have with the film clip is not only are the shorts likely to die because of the time element in cleaning up the mess created and getting them back to the water (I doubt that they would even bother), but once a fish gets dragged any distance over sand, there has to be sand trapped in its gills and that would likely make its recovery questionable at best. Too bad that film clip did not show what was remained after the seine haulers had left the scene. The only argument I can see in the defense of the commercial sector is if they would claim nothing was wasted (which I do not believe for one second). Should every fish caught had been logged in, shorts returned safely to the sea, and everything kept would eventually be sold to the public, then there is an argument that the means could justify the end. What probably happened is, they gleaned the shorts out and dumped them into the ocean with little chance of recovery assuming they just did not leave them on the beach to rot. There is something that just has to rub any fisherman, commercial or recreational, the wrong way when we see that. I played that film clip as least ten times, and it still gets me sick. Those regulators responsible for allowing this to happen should be made to watch these operations up close, so they can see what damage their foolishness is incurring. And if they still think it is fine, then tar and feather them! |