Recreational vs Commercial Fishing Limits

2974 Views 31 Replies 7 Participants Last post by BeachLife, 7 mo ago

BeachLife

Theres so much wrong with the current situation involving recreational vs commercial fishing regulations that I dont even now where to begin.

Lets start with North Carolina but keep in mind that this situation is the same in every state, with some being worse than others.

Ive read several articles in the past regarding how much money a typical fishermen spends on a normal fishing trip, with the majority of that going to the local economies. It varies tremendously depending on the situation but collectively its substantial.

Apparently NC recreational fishermen are restricted to a 1 month flounder season, with a limit of 1 per day. While commercial fishermen are limited to 100lbs per trip. Even more disturbing they can have even more flounder on their boat than the legal limits "if they were caught" in a neighboring states waters.

Ive been told that one can buy frozen flounder fillets at Walmart now for $5.00 per lb. Ive also seen flounder served at some all you can eat $29.99 buffets. So theyve taken the average Americans access away to our own resources and allotted them to the commercial fishing companies, most of which are probably foreign owned at that.

So our resources are sold off for a fraction of what they'd be worth locally both from direct sales & incidental benefits to local American towns and communities. Every commercial fishing operation takes money directly from the mouths of local gas stations, hotels, marinas, convenience stores, restaurants, and others who used to benefit from recreational fishing.

I might be kind of jumping around here, but just wanted to mention pound nets before I forget. These are like mazes made from nets. Theyre installed at the mouths of bays, and rivers in the primest of positions to intercept a large percentage of everything that swims in and out of these areas. You can even find online pound net maps for each state to see where these nets are currently located for yourselves. Up until this past year I don't think commercial flounder fishermen even had a trip limit, it was a free for all, first come first serve, with 70% of the entire state allotment given to the commercial fishermen (its still 70/30% as of the date of this post, 10-08-22). So although the recreational season is over, and the commercial mobile device season is over, commercial pound nets are still being used right now to haul in as much as 1000 lbs a day in just one management sector alone. And during the exact time that big egg laden, egg laying females are amassing and easily targeted in large numbers by commercial nets.....so much for "reducing limits to restore a sustainable population".

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BeachLife

Discussion Starter · #3 · 8 mo ago (Edited)

Garboman said:
If you knew anything about Pound Nets you would realize that if there is a trip limit for the Pound Net Operator, then he will only remove enough Flounder from his net that the trip is allowed and let the rest of the Flounder in the net take a break until the next time the fisherman comes out to harvest.

Last time I was around Hatteras Commercial Fishermen, they were the ones buying gas and diesel from the local operators, the Marina and gas station owners likely as not were both their neighbors as well as their relatives.

Situation is not the same in every State. The only Flounder in Ohio are on the $29.99 all-you-can-eat-buffet.

Well then help us understand. What constitutes a "trip". How may "trips" can a commercial fisherman make in a 24 hr period? How long is the pound net season? I know its still in full swing even though recreational fishermen were shut down 9-10 days ago.

And if laws exist stating that commercial fishing boats can be carrying limits from other states on boats within NC waters, that suggests that these are large commercial operations, like global orgs rather than local guys.

As for the the commercial boat operators buying gas from local marinas, im sure thats the case, but one boat full of gas doesnt equal 35% of the recreational fishermen in the country noy buying gas (bait, hotel rooms, meals, tackle, ice, marina fees, etc) that have completely given up on fishing because they cant justify dropping $500 on a weekend fishing trip for 2 fish.

I would agree that not all states are the same. As rotten as NC laws are, some states are even worse. I spent some time doing the math on MD creel limits a few years ago. Between the various species and seasons, one commercial boat might pay $1000 in license fees (the equivalent of 35 rec fishermen), but could take 100s of 1000s of fish in a given year.

Research online pound net maps. If the location and number of these doesn't piss you off then nothing will. Pound nets are like mazes that are setup in key transit areas. Theyre place on the bottom like a series of walls, and once a flounder enters it cant get back out, it winds up in a big box at the end of the maze to be scooped up 100s of fish at a time.

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BeachLife

Discussion Starter · #5 · 8 mo ago

Garboman said:
I only know a few commercial fishermen, most of the ones that I fished with are now in their graves. I do remember them though and I enjoy my memories of them. These dead Natives of Hatteras and their kin are ingrained in my History of the Island. So its tough for me to take offense at what the Hatteras People do for a living.

A trip is a recreational fisherman who comes to Hatteras expecting to catch a lot fish when he scheduled his fishing trip months in advance without having a crystal ball for weather. The trip does not practice to be the best he can be, the trip depends on others to guide him to the hot spot and if he does not put the work on the fish, complains that the fishing is ruined by some other group other than himself and his fishing buddies.

I think the figure was around 2 million visitors to Cape Hatteras National Seashore each year for the past couple years. Some of these people probably brought a rod or two with them. Even if they did not they came down and enjoyed themselves on land that was given to the Federal Government by the Families that operate the Pound nets you seem to be keying in on.

Perhaps some of those 2 million annual visitors caught the fish you are worried about?

There is almost 60 some miles of Hatteras Island that never gets fished by Recs because they are too lazy to hump it a mile or two from Route 12 to the Pamlico...so they pull right up in a parking at Canadian Hole and then they complain about the Canadians who do not pay taxes who come down every year and steal the wind.

"Commercial" fishing was once an honorable profession. But just like everything else that modern man stands by and allows our politicians to manage, its just turned into another giant corrupt rape fest with no concern for the future.

As for the generous families that gave back land that the pope doled out to his cronies from thousands of miles away hundreds of years ago. Good for them. The public should be able to enjoy our countries resources too. Or if youre suggesting that these commercial fishermen somehow managed to acquire hundreds of millions of dollars worth of prime coastal real estate while the rest of us can barely afford gas for our vehicles, then that itself should illustrate the obscene nature of the industry.

That comment makes me think of the situation with the trillion dollar marijuana industry too. For 60 years there was a global moratorium on all research even by academia and the medical cartels. Yet while liquor enthusiasts enjoyed their freedom, and middle eastern criminal syndicates were locking down thousands of valuable and illegal US Gov Patents, no one else even got a crack any of those treasures.

I'll tell you another secret that most people arent aware of, and again i'll go out on a limb and assume that many other states have similar policies. But did you know that in Maryland that many commercial crabbing licenses have been in the same families for generations? And when they decide that theyve taken enough they get to sell ownership of the licenses to whoever they choose as if the license is a personal asset? Since when did it become acceptable behavior for the federal syndicates to deem Americas natural resources and the licenses to harvest them the personal property of private families?

As for "being too lazy to hump a mile" with 30 lbs and two armloads of gear, perhaps these federal syndicates should have taken some of our license fees and built some access roads for the people that fund them.

I'll bet I could fill 100 pages with examples of the peoples wasted money and resources that could have been used for better things.

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BeachLife

Discussion Starter · #6 · 8 mo ago

Garboman said:
I only know a few commercial fishermen, most of the ones that I fished with are now in their graves. I do remember them though and I enjoy my memories of them. These dead Natives of Hatteras and their kin are ingrained in my History of the Island. So its tough for me to take offense at what the Hatteras People do for a living.

A trip is a recreational fisherman who comes to Hatteras expecting to catch a lot fish when he scheduled his fishing trip months in advance without having a crystal ball for weather. The trip does not practice to be the best he can be, the trip depends on others to guide him to the hot spot and if he does not put the work on the fish, complains that the fishing is ruined by some other group other than himself and his fishing buddies.

I think the figure was around 2 million visitors to Cape Hatteras National Seashore each year for the past couple years. Some of these people probably brought a rod or two with them. Even if they did not they came down and enjoyed themselves on land that was given to the Federal Government by the Families that operate the Pound nets you seem to be keying in on.

Perhaps some of those 2 million annual visitors caught the fish you are worried about?

There is almost 60 some miles of Hatteras Island that never gets fished by Recs because they are too lazy to hump it a mile or two from Route 12 to the Pamlico...so the
y pull right up in a parking at Canadian Hole and then they complain about the Canadians who do not pay taxes who come down every year and steal the wind.

"The Trip" refers to commercial "trips" Not recreational trips. Recreational regulations specify creel limits per 24 hour period. Commercial regulations use a more obscure time frame, regulating creel limits per "trip" rather than per day or specified time period.

If a commercial fishermen is limited to cherry picking 100lbs of flounder of his pound nets on every "trip" and the commercial fishermen lives 2 miles away from his nets, then how many "trips" can a commercial fishermen make in a 24 hr period?

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BeachLife

Discussion Starter · #7 · 8 mo ago

Garboman said:
I only know a few commercial fishermen, most of the ones that I fished with are now in their graves. I do remember them though and I enjoy my memories of them. These dead Natives of Hatteras and their kin are ingrained in my History of the Island. So its tough for me to take offense at what the Hatteras People do for a living.

A trip is a recreational fisherman who comes to Hatteras expecting to catch a lot fish when he scheduled his fishing trip months in advance without having a crystal ball for weather. The trip does not practice to be the best he can be, the trip depends on others to guide him to the hot spot and if he does not put the work on the fish, complains that the fishing is ruined by some other group other than himself and his fishing buddies.

I think the figure was around 2 million visitors to Cape Hatteras National Seashore each year for the past couple years. Some of these people probably brought a rod or two with them. Even if they did not they came down and enjoyed themselves on land that was given to the Federal Government by the Families that operate the Pound nets you seem to be keying in on.

Perhaps some of those 2 million annual visitors caught the fish you are worried about?

There is almost 60 some miles of Hatteras Island that never gets fished by Recs because they are too lazy to hump it a mile or two from Route 12 to the Pamlico...so they pull right up in a parking at Canadian Hole and then they complain about the Canadians who do not pay taxes who come down every year and steal the wind.

Another intriguing question about the pound net situation. If commercial fishermen are permitted to hold fish in their pound nets for what seems like an indefinite period of time, then how could they not harvest 100% of their qouta every single time?

When do they finally release all of these captive wild fish from their nets? Does this occur during or after the recreational season has closed? What affect does holding 100s of 1000s of fish captive have on their reproduction rates? Are concessions or special rules in place that would demand the release of these fish early in the event of unusual weather events and anomalies? Wouldn't the fish know better when they need to leave, or amass, or migrate off shore?

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BeachLife

Discussion Starter · #9 · 8 mo ago

Garboman said:
Commercial fishermen in NC only have the quotas imposed on them recently, before then and especially when I was wearing White Boots and riding out each morning at Dawn to our sets, we killed whatever hit the net. No doubt even though I have not killed a Flounder in 20 years, I have killed more than my share in Life as well as the shares of everyone on this board was shipped out to Fulton Market and came back in the form of a check made out to my Captain from Tillman's Fish Company in Avon. So I personally give the Flounders a break these days and only fish for Drum and go offshore once in a while. I was not involved in Pound nets back then we used Flounder nets which killed a lot of Sting Rays and unfortunately a lot of Turtles.

Pound net is a little more selective, you do not have to kill everything that swims, you can release the Turtles.

This Pound net fishery on Hatteras and Ocracoke is a essentially one or two guys in a 20' Privateer getting a couple hundred pounds here and there, not this industrial slaughter you are crying about. You need to rail against the Draggers that set up all winter long in the Hook.

Likely the chief reason the people of Hatteras gave up the National Seashore Lands was they were too poor to pay the property taxes, this was during the Depression, before the Bridge. Most of them are still kinda poor, only a few figured out to lay waste to the Tourist Dollars.

Take a drywall bucket, a cast net and one rod and some Deet and wear long pants, if you insist on carrying 30 pounds of gear then you are an idiot, its a long walk to the Secret Spot.

You know what happens when the people don't "rail" and "cry about" corruption and issues that affect their own lives?

You get fluid gender dog boi's running the countries nuclear energy facilities and his "sister" running the health asylums.

A backpack, a cast net, and a couple of handfuls of pyramids and you're already halfway to 30lbs. And an idiot i'm not.

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BeachLife

Discussion Starter · #13 · 8 mo ago (Edited)

Garboman said:
Why do you need to tote a backpack full of pyramid sinkers to walk out to the Sound to fish with? What are you planning on catching with a bottom rig in the shallow waters of the sound? Are you targeting Blue Crabs? Stingrays? You planning on backlashing a lot?

Im not familiar with your area, but im normally fishing in the surf. I have several backpacks decked out for different scenarios, including a light weight bag as you described (jigs, plugs, some leader, and grubs).

And just for the record, my original comment wasnt focused on just pound nets, but the commercial fishing situation in general. Im familiar with "draggers" and its my understanding that in some places theyre even allowed to use this equipment in estuaries and other nurseries, beginning their destruction at the very beginning of the reproductive circle.

I'd suggest that more of you start standing up and whining with me. Even better, become physically involved, claim a local office, any local office, and then surround yourself with more of your own kind. That's the difference between "them" and "us". The families responsible for ALL of this hell are all raised in political families to be warriors and activists before they even start walking. While the rest of us raise ours to be passive, complacent and obedient patsies and fools.

This stupidity with the flounder situation is a "10 year plan". It could fixed in 2 years with a complete moratorium on all commercial flounder fishing, and a total ban on draggers operating within our estuaries and at the same time millions of recreational fishermen could still enjoy the fisheries and with more reasonable limits.

In NC 70% of the flounder (as just one example) qouta is allotted to commercial operations with 30% going to recreational fisherman, many of which are never harvested. The 2019 commercial harvest on the other hand exceeded the qouta by 300,000lbs (this on top of the legal qouta), 2020 was at least the same or worse (making this a 12 year plan now). And no concessions were made either year to make up for the overharvesting. How is it even possible that over harvesting is being permitted as recreational fishermen are being shut out of their own resources? How could anyone take the clowns that's making these backroom deals seriously at this point?

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BeachLife

Discussion Starter · #14 · 8 mo ago

BeachLife said:
Theres so much wrong with the current situation involving recreational vs commercial fishing regulations that I dont even now where to begin.

Lets start with North Carolina but keep in mind that this situation is the same in every state, with some being worse than others.

Ive read several articles in the past regarding how much money a typical fishermen spends on a normal fishing trip, with the majority of that going to the local economies. It varies tremendously depending on the situation but collectively its substantial.

Apparently NC recreational fishermen are restricted to a 1 month flounder season, with a limit of 1 per day. While commercial fishermen are limited to 100lbs per trip. Even more disturbing they can have even more flounder on their boat than the legal limits "if they were caught" in a neighboring states waters.

Ive been told that one can buy frozen flounder fillets at Walmart now for $5.00 per lb. Ive also seen flounder served at some all you can eat $29.99 buffets. So theyve taken the average Americans access away to our own resources and allotted them to the commercial fishing companies, most of which are probably foreign owned at that.

So our resources are sold off for a fraction of what they'd be worth locally both from direct sales & incidental benefits to local American towns and communities. Every commercial fishing operation takes money directly from the mouths of local gas stations, hotels, marinas, convenience stores, restaurants, and others who used to benefit from recreational fishing.

I might be kind of jumping around here, but just wanted to mention pound nets before I forget. These are like mazes made from nets. Theyre installed at the mouths of bays, and rivers in the primest of positions to intercept a large percentage of everything that swims in and out of these areas. You can even find online pound net maps for each state to see where these nets are currently located for yourselves. Up until this past year I don't think commercial flounder fishermen even had a trip limit, it was a free for all, first come first serve, with 70% of the entire state allotment given to the commercial fishermen (its still 70/30% as of the date of this post, 10-08-22). So although the recreational season is over, and the commercial mobile device season is over, commercial pound nets are still being used right now to haul in as much as 1000 lbs a day in just one management sector alone. And during the exact time that big egg laden, egg laying females are amassing and easily targeted in large numbers by commercial nets.....so much for "reducing limits to restore a sustainable population".

Look at the date of these other threads. Then look at the current situation with our fisheries. Does it look like these clowns are doing their jobs or does it appear as though they work for the commercial fishing conglomerates?

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BeachLife

Discussion Starter · #15 · 8 mo ago

retired said:
I have family with commercial license, I have mentioned it in the past. They skirt the laws on having the license. One is a contractor. First thing to say is there is NO enforcement of the laws. If so part of my family would be in jail. I was around when you could actually surf fish and do OK. It may come back but not in my lifetime. I've said about all I'm saying on the matter. NC has let the commerical industry rape our resources........

Im not ragging on commercial fishing in general, just the corrupt state that its involved into. Our "leaders" have sold us out to global interests. Commercial fishing has be converted from a sustainable local economy that supports our own towns and communities, into one that benefits foreign interests and globalized commercial fishing monopolies.

You seem to be right about the enforcement aspect of it. I found an article on a NCGOV site last night that mentioned that commercial fishermen were permitted to overharvest 300,000 extra lbs of flounder (300,000 15" fish) in 2019 alone with a suggestion that 2020 was even worse, and yet no one was penalized, and no adjustments made to the next years qoutas to make up for it, except for the qoutas of recreational fishermen which had nothing to do with the over harvesting.

This could all be fixed in just 2-3 years with a complete moratorium on commercial rape vessels operating in our waters and especially in our estuaries. But it wont be unless the people being harmed by this all stand up and start fighting back. The same applies to every other obscene & corrupt situation in our country.

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BeachLife

Discussion Starter · #16 · 8 mo ago

BeachLife said:
Theres so much wrong with the current situation involving recreational vs commercial fishing regulations that I dont even now where to begin.

Lets start with North Carolina but keep in mind that this situation is the same in every state, with some being worse than others.

Ive read several articles in the past regarding how much money a typical fishermen spends on a normal fishing trip, with the majority of that going to the local economies. It varies tremendously depending on the situation but collectively its substantial.

Apparently NC recreational fishermen are restricted to a 1 month flounder season, with a limit of 1 per day. While commercial fishermen are limited to 100lbs per trip. Even more disturbing they can have even more flounder on their boat than the legal limits "if they were caught" in a neighboring states waters.

Ive been told that one can buy frozen flounder fillets at Walmart now for $5.00 per lb. Ive also seen flounder served at some all you can eat $29.99 buffets. So theyve taken the average Americans access away to our own resources and allotted them to the commercial fishing companies, most of which are probably foreign owned at that.

So our resources are sold off for a fraction of what they'd be worth locally both from direct sales & incidental benefits to local American towns and communities. Every commercial fishing operation takes money directly from the mouths of local gas stations, hotels, marinas, convenience stores, restaurants, and others who used to benefit from recreational fishing.

I might be kind of jumping around here, but just wanted to mention pound nets before I forget. These are like mazes made from nets. Theyre installed at the mouths of bays, and rivers in the primest of positions to intercept a large percentage of everything that swims in and out of these areas. You can even find online pound net maps for each state to see where these nets are currently located for yourselves. Up until this past year I don't think commercial flounder fishermen even had a trip limit, it was a free for all, first come first serve, with 70% of the entire state allotment given to the commercial fishermen (its still 70/30% as of the date of this post, 10-08-22). So although the recreational season is over, and the commercial mobile device season is over, commercial pound nets are still being used right now to haul in as much as 1000 lbs a day in just one management sector alone. And during the exact time that big egg laden, egg laying females are amassing and easily targeted in large numbers by commercial nets.....so much for "reducing limits to restore a sustainable population".

Related Article:

"Trip limits for the other pound net management areas will begin at 12:01 A.M. Friday, Oct. 7, as follows:

Pound net harvest in the Pound Net Northern Management Area will be limited to 250 pounds per day

Pound net harvest in the Pound Net Central Management Area will be limited to 2,000 pounds per day.

Gigs and hook-and-line in the Northern and Southern Management Areas reopen at 6 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 9 with a 50-fish per person per day trip limit.

Commercial flounder season closing statewide for mobile gears; trip limit established for pound nets in Northern Management Area | NC DEQ

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BeachLife

Discussion Starter · #18 · 8 mo ago

BeachLife said:
Theres so much wrong with the current situation involving recreational vs commercial fishing regulations that I dont even now where to begin.

Lets start with North Carolina but keep in mind that this situation is the same in every state, with some being worse than others.

Ive read several articles in the past regarding how much money a typical fishermen spends on a normal fishing trip, with the majority of that going to the local economies. It varies tremendously depending on the situation but collectively its substantial.

Apparently NC recreational fishermen are restricted to a 1 month flounder season, with a limit of 1 per day. While commercial fishermen are limited to 100lbs per trip. Even more disturbing they can have even more flounder on their boat than the legal limits "if they were caught" in a neighboring states waters.

Ive been told that one can buy frozen flounder fillets at Walmart now for $5.00 per lb. Ive also seen flounder served at some all you can eat $29.99 buffets. So theyve taken the average Americans access away to our own resources and allotted them to the commercial fishing companies, most of which are probably foreign owned at that.

So our resources are sold off for a fraction of what they'd be worth locally both from direct sales & incidental benefits to local American towns and communities. Every commercial fishing operation takes money directly from the mouths of local gas stations, hotels, marinas, convenience stores, restaurants, and others who used to benefit from recreational fishing.

I might be kind of jumping around here, but just wanted to mention pound nets before I forget. These are like mazes made from nets. Theyre installed at the mouths of bays, and rivers in the primest of positions to intercept a large percentage of everything that swims in and out of these areas. You can even find online pound net maps for each state to see where these nets are currently located for yourselves. Up until this past year I don't think commercial flounder fishermen even had a trip limit, it was a free for all, first come first serve, with 70% of the entire state allotment given to the commercial fishermen (its still 70/30% as of the date of this post, 10-08-22). So although the recreational season is over, and the commercial mobile device season is over, commercial pound nets are still being used right now to haul in as much as 1000 lbs a day in just one management sector alone. And during the exact time that big egg laden, egg laying females are amassing and easily targeted in large numbers by commercial nets.....so much for "reducing limits to restore a sustainable population".

Related Article:

"For the 2021 fishing seasons, the coastwide commercial quota has been set at 11.53 million pounds, approximately a 49 percent increase over the previously-set 2019 quota"

North Carolina fishermen coping with drastic cuts to flounder quota | SeafoodSource

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BeachLife

Discussion Starter · #19 · 8 mo ago

Garboman said:
Where I am referencing is the Pamlico Sound and because you have to walk to it in most spots, no one really pressures the fish much.

More folks like to ride up to a bait shop, pick out some bait and ice it down and then head to Ramp 44 and then fish right in front of their Truck in a campsite type environment, setting up a perimeter boundary with a mass of sand spikes.

When I was 10 years old a man I call the Flounder Man would walk the beach in front of our house in Kitty Hawk. He was old perhaps in his sixties, same age as me now. But his legs and face were tanned and taunt from walking the beach bare footed every morning.

The fisherman used a light spinning rod using an egg sinker and a Carolina rigged three inch strip of Flounder belly and he carried a burlap sack looped around his belt.

Whichever way the current was running he would walk with the current and just let that Flounder belly cut in the shape of a baitfish flit about and most of the Flounders that took his bait were right at his feet in the first drop.

I never saw the Flounder man without a Flounder stashed in that wet brown burlap sack which kept the fish cool enough before the Sun came up enough to shut down the morning bite.

Usually he only kept just one fish a day, just enough for Lunch and fresh Belly for the next mornings fishing and the walk that kept him young.

Sounds like a smart guy. I save my founder bellies (in brine) for the late autumn, early winter when its too cold to throw a cast net and nothing to throw it at even if I wanted to. I normally catch small flounder and big red drum on them at that time of the year.

Im about 10 years behind you but old enough to remember the mile long schools of baitfish moving up the DE, MD & NC beaches with more choppers & stripers underneath them than you'd even want to catch in a day. I spent a lot of that time down at Indian River Inlet. We used to have a place behind the Old Indian River Inlet Bait Shop.

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BeachLife

Discussion Starter · #20 · 8 mo ago

BeachLife said:
Theres so much wrong with the current situation involving recreational vs commercial fishing regulations that I dont even now where to begin.

Lets start with North Carolina but keep in mind that this situation is the same in every state, with some being worse than others.

Ive read several articles in the past regarding how much money a typical fishermen spends on a normal fishing trip, with the majority of that going to the local economies. It varies tremendously depending on the situation but collectively its substantial.

Apparently NC recreational fishermen are restricted to a 1 month flounder season, with a limit of 1 per day. While commercial fishermen are limited to 100lbs per trip. Even more disturbing they can have even more flounder on their boat than the legal limits "if they were caught" in a neighboring states waters.

Ive been told that one can buy frozen flounder fillets at Walmart now for $5.00 per lb. Ive also seen flounder served at some all you can eat $29.99 buffets. So theyve taken the average Americans access away to our own resources and allotted them to the commercial fishing companies, most of which are probably foreign owned at that.

So our resources are sold off for a fraction of what they'd be worth locally both from direct sales & incidental benefits to local American towns and communities. Every commercial fishing operation takes money directly from the mouths of local gas stations, hotels, marinas, convenience stores, restaurants, and others who used to benefit from recreational fishing.

I might be kind of jumping around here, but just wanted to mention pound nets before I forget. These are like mazes made from nets. Theyre installed at the mouths of bays, and rivers in the primest of positions to intercept a large percentage of everything that swims in and out of these areas. You can even find online pound net maps for each state to see where these nets are currently located for yourselves. Up until this past year I don't think commercial flounder fishermen even had a trip limit, it was a free for all, first come first serve, with 70% of the entire state allotment given to the commercial fishermen (its still 70/30% as of the date of this post, 10-08-22). So although the recreational season is over, and the commercial mobile device season is over, commercial pound nets are still being used right now to haul in as much as 1000 lbs a day in just one management sector alone. And during the exact time that big egg laden, egg laying females are amassing and easily targeted in large numbers by commercial nets.....so much for "reducing limits to restore a sustainable population".

Related Report with commercial vs recreational fishing harvest reports for 2020 & years prior. Several things to keep in mind when reading these numbers is that the commercial harvests shown are only those that are reported, And the recreational harvests are estimates and completely useless. The creel limits are determined by the qoutas set for each year, and according to how much of the qouta is alloted to recreational vs commercial fishermen. The current qouta for flounder is 70/30 with commercial getting the lions share and harvesting every last bit of that and then some (300,000lbs more than they were supposed to in 2019 alone),

https://files.nc.gov/ncdeq/Marine-Fisheries/science---statistics/fisheries-statistics/fisheries-landings-bulletins/2020-Annual-NC-Landings-Bulletin--7-19-2021-.pdf

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BeachLife

Discussion Starter · #32 · 7 mo ago

The commercial "draggers" and the process has to be the most destructive method of "fishing" that ive ever read about. its mind boggling that this is actually permitted anywhere on the planet.

"A 10 ton steel bar is attached to the front of the net that holds it open and flattens out the ground (kiIIing everything in its way on the process) and indiscriminately scoops up everything in his path, including baby fish. Everything in the net dies from the pressure and what they dont want they just toss back in the water dead,

This link is about the situation in Canada but it describes the process, and this method is used all along our own coasts including in the estuaries (the fish nurseries) in the Carolinas.

Draggers in Canada Ravaging the Fisheries (d-p-h.info)

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