Thread: Proposed "Pompano as new game fish."

Dear members,

On March 10, the Alabama Conservation Advisory Board will vote on a resolution to make pompano a game fish. We urge you to support this resolution. Pompano have come under increased pressure by gillnetters on the beaches in Baldwin county. If pompano becomes a game fish, gillnetters will not be allowed to harvest them commercially. We feel this measure will further conserve our precious marine resources for years to come. Commercial fishing interest will have a presence at this meeting. We need to have as much support as possible by letters and/or attendance at the meeting to represent our side of the issue. If you feel strongly about this issue, you can testify at the Capitol Auditorium on March 10th. You must sign in by 8:30am that Saturday morning. We also encourage you to write a letter to your Conservation Advisory Board District Representative before the meeting. These letters will be submitted at the meeting. The representatives are listed below by Congressional District.



Congressional District 1- Dr. Bob Shipp University of South Alabama, Dept of Marine Science, LSCB 25, Mobile, AL 36688

Congressional District 1- Bill Hatley, 639 Estate Drive, Gulf Shores, AL 36542

Congressional District 2- Grady Hartzog, PO Box 787, Eufaula, AL 36072

Congressional District 3- W. Grant Lynch Jr., PO Box 777, Talladega, AL 35161

Congressional District 4- Austin Ainsworth, PO Box 447, Guntersville, AL 35976

Congressional District 5- Dr. Warren Strickland, 930 Franklin Street, Huntsville, AL 35801

Congressional District 5- Raymond Jones, 401 Franklin Street, Huntsville, AL 35801

Congressional District 6- Dan Moultrie, Board Chairman, PO Box 188, Verbena, AL 36091

Congressional District 6- Joseph Dobbs, Jr. 3601 Parkwood Rd SE, Bessemer, AL 35022

Congressional District 7 - Vacant

We thank you for your past and present support for CCA Alabama. We remain committed to fighting to conserve Alabama's marine resources.

Below is a link to our website to join CCA and help us continue our mission.

http://www.ccaalabama.org/join.html

Coastal Conservation Association Alabama | PO Box 16987 | Mobile | AL | 36616

Wouldn't it be nice to have several thousand more Pompano along our beach?!

I'd love to see this happen, that would be one step forward on the rec. fishermans!

Thanks for the info BD, I'll defiantly write and voice my opinion.

I bet every gill netter on the Alabama Gulf Coast is going to be there.

Many thanks for bringing this to our attetion, BD.

Messages have been sent.

[quote author=bottomdweller link=topic=667.msg6112#msg6112 date=1330392576]
Wouldn't it be nice to have several thousand more Pompano along our beach?!
[/quote]

I dont know anything about gill-net so please enlighten me.

If the fish get caught in the gill net wouldn't they eventually die? :cry: how do you exclude a specie from the net.. I dnt think you can just put a "NO POMPANO ALLOWED" sign on the net and solve the problem. oke1:
Wouldn't the gill-netter just throw away the carcass of any Game Fish that got caught in the net? if that is the truth then there wont be several thousands more LIVE pompano swim to the beach :cry:

[size=12pt]What we need is two big azz NO GILL NETTING SIGNS![/size]

[img width=720 height=585]http://i1102.photobucket.com/albums/g446/finchaser1/Forum%20Only/NoGillNetting.jpg[/img]

[quote author=FinChaser link=topic=667.msg6147#msg6147 date=1330461174]
[size=12pt]What we need is two big azz NO GILL NETTING SIGNS![/size]

[img width=720 height=585]http://i1102.photobucket.com/albums/g446/finchaser1/Forum%20Only/NoGillNetting.jpg[/img]
[/quote]

+1 :headbang:

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2...ks_limits.html

[size=14pt]Conservation board oks limits on sheepshead and tripletail[/size]
Published: Sunday, March 18, 2012, 5:16 AM
By Jeff Dute al.com

Alabama's Conservation Advisory Board voted to approve Marine Resources Division proposals affecting recreational sheepshead and tripletail size and bag limits at its March 10 meeting in Montgomery.
MRD director Chris Blankenship said the board endorsed biologists' recommendations to set a 12-inch minimum fork length and 10-fish daily bag limit on sheepshead.

They also voted to increase the minimum size limit on tripletail (blackfish) from 16 inches to 18 inches total length. The daily bag remains three per person.

At the February meeting, Blankenship told the board the new sheepshead limits were necessary to proactively deal with a two-year trend that saw significantly reduced total recreational harvests.

Blankenship noted that annual recreational landings plummeted from more than 1 million pounds in 2007 and 2008 to 506,000 pounds in 2009. Landings actually increased during the oil-spill year of 2010 to nearly 600,000 pounds.

A large portion of that catch likely came during the late-winter to early-spring period when sheepshead move inshore to spawn.

Blankenship said the new daily bag was based on dockside surveys that showed roughly 3 percent of fishermen ever returned to port with more than 10 fish.

Commercial fishermen are not subject to the daily bag limit. Anyone who wants to keep more than 10 sheepshead a day can do so if they purchase a commercial hook-and-line license, Blankenship said.

He added that dockside surveys revealed that 10 percent of recreational and 15 percent of commercial sheepshead landings measured fewer than 12 inches.

Blankenship said the new regulations would likely be signed into effect in about a month. Afterward, Blankenship said MRD officers would begin a public-education campaign for a certain amount of time before writing tickets.

"We're reasonable," Blankenship said.

Citing a need for more information and time to study the issue, the board also decided to put off until its May 19 meeting a vote on designating pompano as a game fish, said District 1 board member Dr. Bob Shipp.

"The motion is on the table for the May meeting and I anticipate bringing it up for a vote," Shipp said Saturday.

That meeting will be held in the auditorium at the Five Rivers Delta Resource Center on the Mobile Bay Causeway.

[size=12pt]
Hmmm, guess I missed the part about the official request that Jim submitted in person at the February meeting in Montgomery. Oh well.
[/size]

[quote author=FinChaser link=topic=667.msg7292#msg7292 date=1332100632]
[size=12pt]
Hmmm, guess I missed the part about the official request that Jim submitted in person at the February meeting in Montgomery. Oh well.
[/size]

[/quote]

Under the rug I tell ya...
The beaurocrats just want issues like that to "go away". :