Virginia Bunker Boats Off NJ Coast

[Gerry Zagorski]

http://newjersey.news12.com/story/39004713/advocate-worries-overfishing-could-affect-new-jersey-ecosystem#.W4mw5hnVV5M.twitter

[team heat]

Fresh bunker going for 2dollars and 50 cents apiece at 2 local bait shops in seaside park.I was there in late July

[hammer4reel]

have been hoping the abundance of bait that's been around would have made for a great fall fishery.

Figures with us just a month or two away from the bass returning these guys will deplete the bait stocks quickly .


This is NOT the first time this reduction boat has been in our area, and im sure it wont be the last

[Gumada]

I would say they certainly affected the ocean fishery for stripers this spring....

[Foul Hook]

Boycott Omega protein products

[Pennsy Guy]

Back in the late 40's-early 50's the fleet regularly came to within 1/4 mile of the beach in lower AC(Chelsea section)---3-4 grey bunker boats---never will forget that...could have swam out to them(was a strong swimmer) & got shot? They still haven't wiped 'em out but, by God, they're trying...given half a chance, they will.

[dakota560]

Gerry thanks for posting the link and article and Capt Eidman thanks for your effort bringing it to the public's eye and fishing communities attention. Read the attached link https://omegaprotein.com/cooke-inc-agrees-acquire-omega-protein-corporation-22-00-per-share/. Omega Protein is owned by Cooke Inc who is a Canadian based company, acquired in October '17 in a deal valued at approximately $500,000,000. This isn't about netting Menhaden "bunker", it's about every salt water species being sold to the highest bidder, NMFS and our beloved ASMFC endorsing it while implicitly expecting recreational anglers to once again fund the tab and pay the ultimate price. How can one FOREIGN conglomerate be given rights to deplete a public DOMESTIC resource that multiple thousands of recreational anglers are entitled to, multiple businesses depend on for their survival and in this case is arguable the most important forage resource in the local marine food chain.

The system is broken, the people running it are corrupt or incompetent or more likely both and we're suffereing the consequences. This is as clear an example of one resource being managed without regard for the entire ecosystem. A well funded commercial lobby effort and political greed lies at the center of all our fishery management issues. The equivalent of opening up cod fishing to Russia years ago until the cod stocks eventually collapsed within a relatively short time frame.

At this stage the recreational community needs to be organized no different than the labor movement of years past......and no I'm not a Union Member and never have been. Organized is the operative word. Point is we need funding, legal representation and for people to work together to save the public salt water resources we're losing. RFA, SSFFF, recreational anglers, marinas, sport boat manufacturers, hotel chains, tackle manufacturers etc ALL need to anti up and we need the brightest and most influential people on our side to overhaul the system. Jim Hutchinson, Jr, Greg Hueth, Jim Donofrio, Ron Santee, Ray Bogan and as many of the brilliant and deicated Doctors and Marine Biologists we have fighting for and representing our rights need to form a coalition and that coalition NEEDS to be well funded. There should be a fund raiser (and I'm not talking about selling hats, tee shirts and raffle tickets) to raise money. I'm talking about engaging the services of a reputable fund raising company to initiate an on-going campaign to save our fisheries and preserve our God given rights to equally share and harvest the ocean's resources. No one group should be allowed to decimate a resources at everyone else's expense. In 2017 alone, $410 billion was donated to charities! That's not a typo, $410 billion last year alone was given to charities. I have to believe if approached this way, there are very high net worth people and businesses who would support such a campaign to lobby Federal and local governments in a manner similar to how foreign countries and commercial interests do today. If Commercial opertors want to join the coalition to save the resource, they're an ally and welcomed. If not, they're a threat to every recreational angler, party boat, for hire charter and peripheral business dependant on the resorces the ocean provides us. It's that simple. If ancillary businesses to these fisheries don't support the funding, don't support their products. Berkley alone with their sale and prices of Gulp could probably fund this effort themselves but funding shouldn't fall on any one group's set of shoulders. Companies or businesses don't want to join, don't support their products and in todays world of social media I guarantee they'll eventually come around.

We're losing the battle. We can whipe the dust off our "Enough is Enough" tee sirts from a few years ago but we blinked once, we'll blink again. If the paradigm doesn't change, neither with salt water fishery management legislation and we'll sit by watching one company after another dependent on the ocean's resources fail while the resource itself is taken from us. NJ / NY finally have late season bunker in good quantities and both states sit by as do the governing fisheries management bodies while one or a few conglomerates whipe them out. Even worse, they sanction it. All so the Cooke's Inc. Executives of the world can make their fortunes, pets can have shinier coats, people who consume Omega protein tablets (more than half of which are probably on Xanax, Adderall, Valium, Vicodin, Percoset or Oxy) so they feel like they're living a healthier life and if all else fails use Menhaden as fertilizer. Have to love the logic behind decisions our government and fishery management councils are making.................money and greed it's that simple.

Was out last week fishing and saw blues, bass, whales, porpoise, about a 150 lb. hammerhead and even a small mako all within three miles of shore feeding on the massive schools of bunker. They'll all be gone when the bait is and who knows how many will be killled in the process of harvest.

[WESTWIND]

Thought the bunker quota was met in N.J.... what the hell are they doing here if our guys are tied to the dock...

[JeffZ]

Man, it's tough to read this thread. Hear is part of omegas response to the concern expressed to their boats being in the area.

"Of the tens of millions of fish spotted in the region, the F/V Rappahannock caught just a very small percentage, leaving the vast majority to serve their role in the ecosystem," the company said in a statement."

We all know they will be here until they take all the bunker.
Not leaving until they vacuum them all up. And like posted above killing off massive "bycatch" species.

[dakota560]

Just a small taste of the capabilities the ocean's fisheries are up against. Click on the image to enlarge. Boat in the background I believe is Rappahannock or part of Cooke Inc's sizeable fleet. Tell me how many non target fish are caught in those nets and how many fish are being harvested as politicians pockets are lined. And recreational anglers are told we can retain 3 fluke and 2 winter flounder.

[AndyS]

I see cuts for the recreational fishermen coming real soon !