February 4, 2011- Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) just announced that the current commercial gill net season has been closed until the Department determines the extent of illegal nets and their impact on the remaining quota. The announcement follows the discovery of submerged nets near Bloody Point over the past several days that held more than 10 tons of striped bass. The announcement was made by DNR Deputy Secretary Joseph Gill at an Annapolis news conference this afternoon. “Today’s announcement demonstrates that illegal fishing that steals the resource from all Marylanders will not be tolerated,” said CCA Maryland Executive Director Tony Friedrich. “The Department, Secretary Griffin and Fisheries Director Tom O’Connell are to be congratulated for their swift, decisive action. Also, the Natural Resources Police should be commended for their hard work. We look forward to working with the Department and other stakeholders to ensure the penalties for these types of crimes are strengthened and those responsible are held fully accountable.
While the gill net season would normally close at the end of this month or earlier if the allocation were reached, today’s announcement means all nets must be pulled now. The season could be re-opened later in the month if DNR determines that illegal nets nets are no longer a threat to the resource and that the commercial quota has not been caught, according to Friedrich.
Gill also announced a $5,000 reward for help in the arrest and conviction of those who have placed the illegal nets already discovered. CCA Maryland has added $1,000 to that reward.
“We encourage members to contribute to a fund that will support the reward,” Friedrich said. “Checks should be made out to ‘CCA MD’ with ‘gill net fund’ indicated on the check. They should be mailed to the state office, 701 Melvin Ave., Suite B, Annapolis, MD 21401.
Friday, February 4, 2011
And if NC is not killing them!
(from Baltimore Sun)
Quote:
| For the second consecutive day, Natural Resources Police officers pulled illegal nets from the Chesapeake Bay Wednesday filled to the brim with striped bass. In total, they have seized 10 tons of illegally caught fish, the largest haul of its type since the end of the rockfish moratorium more than two decades ago. After detecting poachers' nets Monday night, patrol boats with grappling hooks snagged nets near Bloody Point at the southern tip of Kent Island Tuesday morning, Tuesday night and again Wednesday afternoon. They pulled up 2.8 tons, 3.5 tons and 3.5 tons. In addition, an officer found a 2,100-yard submerged net Sunday in the Choptank River. It had just three fish in it, indicating it had been freshly set. The commercial gill net season opened Tuesday. Marked nets that float and are monitored by fisherman are legal; hidden, anchored nets are not. "We're going back out at first light," said NRP Sgt. Art Windemuth. "We've got officers who have been reassigned, working 18 hours a day. Any place that has water, we're looking." While the investigation continues, Windemuth acknowledges they don't know who set these nets and may never know. The discovery has unleashed a firestorm of criticism from fisheries regulators and the conservation and recreational communities. Ed Liccione, chairman of the 1,400-member Coastal Conservation Association Maryland, called the total "jaw-dropping" and vowed to ask the General Assembly for a ban on nets if the commercial industry doesn't "get its own house in order." Yesterday, the Maryland Watermen's Association added its voice to the call for action and begged watermen to turn in the renegades. "It's just a handful of bad apples. They're out of control," said Larry Simns, president of the Maryland Watermen's Association. "They don't think the laws apply to them. It's not fair to the guys who do this honestly." Poachers flood the market early in the season, causing a drop in prices. In addition, the fish seized by NRP are weighed and counting against the monthly quota. The February quota is 415,359 pounds. Simns said fed-up watermen have been tipping NRP to the locations of nets. "It's hard to catch them red-handed, but I think they will," he said. "It's only a matter of time." Striped bass is the state fish and the Chesapeake Bay is the spawning ground and nursery for about 75 percent of the stock on the Eastern Seaboard. Decades of overfishing led to a five-year fishing moratorium that ended in 1990 to give the population a chance to rebound. As a result, what happens in Maryland is of interest up and down the coast. Fishing websites are filled with the news of NRP's bust and Fisheries Service Director Tom O'Connell said he got a call from the head of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Service, the regional regulatory authority which sets Maryland's striped bass quota, asking for an update. Despite toughening regulations and penalties last year and creating with a district court a pilot program to hear natural resources cases exclusively in Annapolis, O'Connell said the poaching issue will have to be revisited. "It's become clear that the penalty isn't strong enough to deter this kind of action," O'Connell said. "We are in discussions now about legislation." Recreational fishing groups stand ready to lobby for those changes. Dave Smith, executive director of the 7,000-member Maryland Saltwater Sportfishermen's Association, said, "This has got to stop." "Recreational anglers have to get together and go to the General Assembly and say 'Let's get serious,'" he said. Drifting gill nets are legal in Maryland waters from Jan. 1 to Feb. 28. Watermen must mark their nets and be within two miles of them. The Department of Natural Resources can close the season early if its appears watermen are going to exceed their monthly quota. This year, the season closed on Jan. 17 and reopened on Feb. 1. Anchored gill nets — more efficient and deadly and harder to detect — have been illegal since 1985. If convicted, poachers can be fined $1,000 for a first offense plus $1,500 per each striped bass. The state's points and penalties system for watermen, which took effect last February, could result in license suspensions or revocations. |
N.C.
Just got this off the Outer Banks Voice.
Rob Morris | February 2, 2011
Trawlers at Oregon Inlet Thursday. (Voice photo)
State officials spotted 251 dead fish off Oregon Inlet and on the beach at Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge Thursday as the commercial season for striped bass reopened for two days under new rules meant to reduce losses.
More fish might be found in the surf and along beaches Friday morning, a spokeswoman for the state Division of Marine Fisheries said.
“It’s choppy out there, so we don’t know what’s washing ashore,” said the DMF’s Patricia Smith.
Attention has been focused on commercial fishing off the Outer Banks since a large kill was documented by recreational anglers and circulated on the Internet last month.
The ensuing uproar led to changing daily catch limits from 50 fish to 2,000 pounds. The new rule also allowed offloading excess catches to other properly licensed boats.
It was aimed at eliminating waste and discouraging high grading, the practice of discarding legal fish for larger ones to maximize poundage within limits that had been based on numbers. It was the first time the rule had been changed in 15 years.
Smith said the fisheries agency sent a plane to investigate after receiving a call about the dead fish. Officials counted 200 offshore. Another 41 were found along a four-mile stretch of the Pea Island National Wildlife refuge and 10 were in the surf, Smith said.
It was not known if any one trawler was the source, but Smith said it appeared the dead fish were the byproduct of culling. Of the 41 fish on the beach, 24 were under the legal size of 28 inches, she said.
“Culling is a part of any fishing operation,” she said.
Also not known was whether the number of dead fish would be considered within reason for culling when numerous trawlers are just offshore. At mid-afternoon, at least four trawlers could be seen around Oregon Inlet.
An overloaded fishing net was the apparent source of hundreds of striped bass seen dead in the ocean off the Dare County coast last month.
The captain of the trawler Jamie Lynn estimated that 3,000 to 4,000 fish were released from the net because it was too heavy to bring onto the boat, the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries said in a statement.
Marine fisheries issues proclamations for a limited number of days for fishing. Additional proclamations can be issued until the state reaches an annual quota
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