Avoiding those Pesky Nets

[Bad Obsession]

In my area the commercial fishery for striped bass saturates the river when the season is in. It is a pain in the butt to dodge all of these damn nets and you can never keep a true course. A friend of mine was transporting a boat from Kinesale to Colonial Beach and it added 2 hours to his trip just to dodge all of the nets.

It is an absolute shame that all of these nets are out there. The striped bass population is in decline so they add more and more nets. This makes no sense. The recreational fishermen and the recreational boater pay a huge tole as there are less fish and more nets so the recreational fisherman has less to catch and the boater has to avoid all of these hazards. You can not steer a straight course when they are in full force.

Maryland and Virginia should consider making the Striped bass a recreational species and not allow this commercial fishing to continue.

Does anyone else have experiences like this?

http://vimeo.com/32209893

 

[shemandr]

Commercial and recreational fisherman have been at odds - to put it mildly - here for decades. I thought they had achieved an uneasy peace. Maybe not. Much of that footage was from Montauk.
The commercial practice of Haul Seining was prohibited some time ago. The fishery did recover and last year the bass fishing was excellent. I understand that this year it isn't. It seems like there isn't any bait in the water. Some of this has to do with natural cycles.

Read more from 1972 here: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1086723/2/index.htm

As far as fish traps go, they are charted in our sailing area. You need to be aware of them but they don't pose an obstacle to navagation any more than do the local rocks.
Anyway if you want to get rid of the nets convince the public not to purchase Striped Bass. I do my part.

 

[shemandr]

Here's the Baymen's way of looking at the issue:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0CE7DF1039F935A1575AC0A9629C8B63&pagewanted=all

 

[Gunni]

The illegal gill nets found off Bloody Point, MD this past winter were sunk below water level to hide them. The 5 tons of dead Rockfish maxed the quota and immediately shut down the season for the watermen. Then a week later NDR found another illegal net at the mouth of Eastern Bay. We've got a $10,000 reward out for the scum doing this to the fishery. Keep your eyes peeled, I suspect they're setting these nets during the night.

Catch-a-Poacher Hotline at 800-635-6124

Chesapeake Bay Rockfish Poachers

 

[Bad Obsession]

The fish traps that are marked on the charts aren't a problem. In my area they are in shallower areas. The problem is the nets attached to the floating buoys that span 100s of feet between the buoys.

I read about the poachers. They were greedy people looking for a quick dollar. i hope that they are caught as there is no room in the water for people like them.

I personally know a few watermen and I grew up with them in a small waterman's town. Well, it use to be a waterman's town at one point in history.

We are overfishing these waters. We are taking more than nature can put back and it will eventually destroy the area.

The immediate snap back for us is playing dodge net in the river. I hate it and they leave no room to sail.