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Originally Posted by PBangler
Kensdock,
Approximately what percentage of weakfish would still be killed by commercial discarding under a moratorium?
I had read that by only moving gear out of areas would there ever be any substantial savings of weakfish by commercial fishing.
Since I know you extensively campaigned over websites for just simply a weakfish moratorium, what did your research on the savings find?
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A lot less, an experienced commercial captain with modern equipment can easily identify a school of weakfish. The problem with a bycatch is it will become a fishery as demand increases. Many small gillnet operations use small boats that are inexpensive to run, they also fish near shore areas giving them the ability to make multiple trips a day. All they needed is the ability to sell the weakfish the rest of the law can be circumvented.They will be permitted to fish in the spawning areas during the spawn. Now multiply the bycatch by the amount of commercial fishing operations on the entire east coast, at this point you can clearly see why a moratorium was the best option. Be that as it may, the weakfish have a better chance of recover than they did prior to addendum IV.
