Captain Jason Colby

I quote myself:"A directed, unregulated fishery until they are no longer commercially viable" (ok, so its not word for word but you get the point, KILL THEM!). At least that will trim down the numbers so groundfish CAN come back.............JC

1Bigtrouble

This may be a stupid question. What if I as a recreational fisherman killed every dogfish that I hooked?

__________________
33 Blackfin Combi Volvo diesels
28 Mako 250 Verado's

Captain Jason Colby

Hell, it costs more to produce ethonal than the price of gas, it isn't good for our engines, gets poorer performance and yet "our goverment" subsidizes the producers so we can stretch our oil supply (I'm sure they have a "darker" motive). Perhaps the same people who thought that up could put all that brainpower to work subsidizing commercial fishermen to catch dogfish. I heard that people in North Korea are starving, why don't we give them a bunch of free, low cost protien (dogfish) so they don't produce atomic bombs?...JC

Possum

Well, if we got every recreational guy to do it, and did it for 20 years, we wouldn't dent the population. Personally, I take the bastards off my hook with a knife. It gives me a quarter of a second of satisfaction, until I drop again to catch another one of these spiny bastards.

What do we do? The only thing we can, continue to pressure the regulatory agencies, albeit likely in vane. Being responsible fishermen these days requires political action if we want any type of fishery available for our children.

__________________

chainsaw42

I guess that was what i was trying to get at though...i don't think killing the dogfish will do anything other than kill the dogfish. this in itself doesn't bother me, but it also is not going to bring back the cod. that's my point...dogfish are here because cod (for example) aren't...not the other way around. at least that's my impression.

here is the bottom line question...do you think if you snapped your fingers and made the dogs vanish the cod would then come back? why?

Captain Jason Colby

************************************************** ***********

Because the dogfish are CONSUMING the codfish (and 80% of all other groundfish too).............JC

74Formula233

Exactly! AND because they are "protected"......totally backwards!

After this past year's offshore season, sharking, cod-fishing....everything, couldn't keep a bait in the water! They eat everything in their path! And they "blanket" the ocean floor! :cwm21:

__________________

chainsaw42

i am not debating that there are tons of dogfish and you can't chum for anything without being surrounded by them. i think we can all agree on that.

what i'm saying is what is the root cause? Capt Colby says the dogs eat all the cod. this would be news to me (i am in no way saying it isn't correct, just saying i have never heard this before). it seems to me that this is a 'recent' problem, i.e. something has changed over the past 50 years to cause the problem, and until you correct that, you haven't done anything other than kill the dogs. which might make you feel better but not solve the problem? i am admitting ignorance on the subject and i'm trying to become educated...if the dogs are (only recently) eating all the cod, why? why didn't they eat all the cod 500 years ago? it seems like we're missing the root cause.

Captain Jason Colby

************************************************** ******

I should stop at your "admission", but in case anyone else is "confused" I will give some details:
1.Groundfish (including cod) are at historical lows in abundance. The "fishacrats" allow the commercial sector to continue wiping out all they can/put more restrictions on recreational anglers.
2.A few years back (7 or 8?) our "fishacrats" figured that because dogfish were at a "low", they completely shut down the commercial fishery. The doggies, as we all know, rebounded fameously.
3.(2006)Scientists evaluating the Gulf of Maine estimate that dogfish are eating about 80% of all juvinile groundfish.
4.500 years? The timeframe for all this is NOW........JC

74Formula233

Your first 2 points are the KEY to the problem!

Which is what I was getting at in my post a couple above this.

__________________