Thread: WE NEED TO TAKE ACTION !

Thanks Guys for going to the meeting, I wish we could have been there, we do apprciate your efforts.

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

[size=14pt]Alabama Conservation Advisory Board hears fishing proposals[/size]
Published: Sunday, February 05, 2012, 6:30 AM
By Jeff Dute al.com

The meeting also dealt with concerns about dumping fish carcasses and leftover bait off the Gulf State Park Pier.

Fishermen are not permitted to clean their catches on the pier and throw the carcasses back into the Gulf, nor are they allowed to discard unused bait.

State Parks director Tim Wisham said state engineers are working on plans to build fish-cleaning stations in the parking lot and avenues to dispose of carcasses and bait on site.

Blankenship said the Alabama-Mississippi Sea Grant program is working to find a company to take the refuse and turn it into fish meal or use it for other purposes.

Jim Egbert, who regularly fishes the pier, said the current 25-year-old regulation prohibiting such discards was intended to prevent shrimping bycatch from washing up on Gulf beaches. The current regulation prohibits such discards within 3 miles of Gulf beaches and within 500 feet of inshore shorelines.

He asked that the regulation be clarified and changed to specifically take into account the impact current law may have on use of the pier, especially among tourists who mostly have no place to clean fish caught there.

"I appreciate the fact that Marine Resources and State Parks is seeking to find a remedy to this problem," Egbert said.

"We hope they make changes in the code that will make it easier for everybody to understand what is expected of them."

Egbert said pier prohibitions are further confusing because fishermen can dump fish pieces into the water as chum to attract sharks as long as they are at least 300 feet from the beach.

Also discussed:

New sheepshead size and bag limits, the blackfish minimum size and declaring pompano a game fish were discussed at Saturday's Alabama Conservation Advisory Board meeting.

Alabama Marine Resources Division Director Chris Blankenship said his staff proposed a 12-inch minimum fork-length size and 10-fish recreational daily bag limit to address what have been decreasing sheepshead catches over the past few years.

"We don't think the sheepshead stocks are in trouble, we're just trying to be proactive to make sure it doesn't get imperiled," he said.

"With the 12-inch size limit, biology suggests this will give sheepshead the chance to spawn at least once before they're harvested."

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

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.

Over that same period, commercial landings averaged 191,500 pounds in 2007 and 2008, then fell to 146,000 pounds in 2009. Commercial take increased slightly in 2010 to nearly 200,000 pounds.

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.

District 1 member Dr. Bob Shipp, who is the head of marine sciences at the University of South Alabama, said declaring pompano a game fish will be a win-win for recreational and commercial fishermen.

"It's a no-brainer," he said. "It'll reduce the friction between gill netters and the public because the major frustration people have historically had is seeing a gill net on the front beaches.

"They'll be targeting Spanish mackerel off the beach and leaving pompano alone, and that can't help but improve surf fishing."

Shipp said he also plans to introduce a motion to increase the tripletail (blackfish) minimum size limit from 16 to 18 inches.

"Over the past several years, blackfish have become increasingly popular and fishing pressure has increased," he said.

"This increase will guarantee they will at least survive through one spawning season."

:yippee: :fishing:

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When I told ‘em about Rich1 driving around like criminal trying to find a place to dump the remains, Bill Hatley (one of the board members) said he must have found the dumpster at the condo next to his house, cuz he was familiar with that smell.

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Thanks to all who went and thanks David for those articles. Glad to see they are at least talking about solutions.

[quote author=FinChaser link=topic=328.msg5245#msg5245 date=1328453666]
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When I told ‘em about Rich1 driving around like criminal trying to find a place to dump the remains, Bill Hatley (one of the board members) said he must have found the dumpster at the condo next to his house, cuz he was familiar with that smell.

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??? Oh well, I guess it had to be close to somebody's house.

Pescador is my new hero. LOL! Was anything more said about the bucket of guts?

I had a woman sitting next to me ask was that a real fish, I said yes She said '' well it stinks", and I replied, " that was kind of the point.

LOL :

Thats funny! I wish I could have seen that sight!

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Jim had two or three more buckets full in his car in a cooler and no ice. I suspect if we had carried all of them in, we would have probably cleared everybody out of the auditorium. That stuff stunk.

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