Interesting article on mackerel stocks..

[bulletbob]

Originally Posted by dakota560

Another species depleted due to commercial over harvest. Check out the following chart regarding annual harvest of Atlantic Mackerel and there's nothing else you need to know. Not climate change, recreational fishing pressure (which for all practical purposes died decades ago), lack of forage etc. Commercial greed and a government which allows the onslaught to go unabated.

Between 1970 thru 1980, average annual commercial harvest of Atlantic Mackerel was 4.6 million pounds. From 2000 thru 2010, the average increased to 56.4 million pounds, a 1300% increase in annual commercial landings. Two years, '04 and '06. the commercial harvest exceeded 124,000,000 pounds each year. A fishery can sustain itself with that amount of pressure in commercial harvest. Not to mention the impact this has on the ocean's food chain and disruption caused to the entire ecosystem. Unless there's more emphasis placed on fisheries management and less on commerce, we're going to continue seeing one fishery after another succumb to political greed and overall fisheries mismanagement.

boy oh friggin' boy... Your graph pees me off even more than the article i linked....
thats absolutely absurd.. A little common sense and we could have mackerel back in just a few years.. problem is, years ago no one wanted to eat mackerel to any extent.. these days its a "demand" species.. If there's a few nickels to be made on a fish species these days, there are more than enough guys ready to pick up the last nickel.bob