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Any of you actually read any articles on this monument? Or have any experience in the area? They had Capt. Keith who I respect on there spreading a little misinformation. The notion that commercial fisherman have the interest of maintaining their fisheries especially in New England is only partially true, in that most of them couldn't give two shits about the next generation or leaving anything for the rec fisherman. I have been to many new england fisheries management council meetings and watched as our catch rates of stripers dropped precipitously and our herring population was thown into a moratorium but continued to be killed by pair trawlers. Every time the subject of reducing the take was brought up on both the commercial and rec side, comms along with party and six pack boats pitched a fit and got the new regs delayed for years. My catch rate in 3 years went from say 20 fish a day to maybe 2 if I was lucky, while they continued to crush our spawning stock(big female breeders prime for the commercial market). The biggest threat to our fisheries in the northeast is shortsighted commercial fisherman.
Particularly, the most dangerous of the commercial fleet are midwater pair trawlers and bottom draggers. These are the most likely to be affected by this new monument and are owned by huge corporations. Imagine two 130 foot boats, with a net spread between them about a half mile apart with the aid of a spotter plane and advanced sonar scooping up everything they can get in their path and discarding the thousands of dead fish they aren't allowed to targer. I have personally seen miles of breeder sized striped bass dumped by these boats.
The draggers are also brutal in that they cover up the bottom section and destroy all the critical habitat our groundfish feed in. The fact that they closed an area to these guys and gave the lobster and crab guys 7 years to find new water, or a new fishery is no skin off my back. They worked on this for a while to maximize the benefit of these nursery and spawning areas and minimize the hit to the comms. Obama didn't just all of a sudden decide he was going to close a large swath of ocean. I should also note, these are facts from my personal experience and research on the subject. I'm not a fan of either the democratic or republican party and I think they both need to be disbanded for the public good so don't go throwing around the crazy left thing because I'm capable of seeing both sides of the coin. Furthermore, nobody should believe anything they see on fox news, go out and do your own research.
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