A plan for the ethical and honorable treatment of fish

Posted on by Chris McCaffity

Our fisheries are being mismanaged. House Bill 353 is not the answer.

I am a commercial fisherman who believes fish are gifts from God that should be treated with respect. …

We could make wise use of God’s gifts by almost eliminating the regulatory discards that waste our resources, destroy our businesses and restrict the public’s access to local seafood. Please consider the following proposals with an open heart and mind.

Remove all size limits. Would Jesus have discarded dead and dying fish because Caesar said they were too small? Many of the undersized fish slowly die from stress, infection and decompression damage after being discarded. How sad and wasteful is that?

Set annual quotas on all recreationally and commercially targeted species. Existing quotas could be increased by about a third if our fishery managers didn’t force us to discard and waste literally tons of undersized fish every year.

Properly manage the quotas with split seasons, bag limits for recreational fishermen and trip-poundage limits for commercial fishermen. The possession limits should be set high for the first 75 percent of the seasonal quotas and be adjusted to a level that would fill the seasonal quotas without any long closures for the remaining 25 percent. Catch-and-release limits should be set at twice the legal bag limits to avoid waste.

These commonsense solutions would allow fishermen to keep what they catch until the possession limits are met. We could make wise use of every fish and count all of them against the quotas. Our fishery managers could turn their attention from creating one bad law after another to collecting accurate data for the proper management of quotas and possession limits.

We should set aside some of the quota for citizens who cannot catch their own fish or afford to buy it. Recreational fishermen could donate any unwanted fish to the less fortunate.

The fish police could lay down their guns and pick up fillet knives to clean fish for the needy.

— Chris McCaffity
Moorehead City

SHARE

Thanks for reading through to the end…

We share your inclination to get the whole story. For the past 25 years, Xpress has been committed to in-depth, balanced reporting about the greater Asheville area. We want everyone to have access to our stories. That’s a big part of why we've never charged for the paper or put up a paywall.

We’re pretty sure that you know journalism faces big challenges these days. Advertising no longer pays the whole cost. Media outlets around the country are asking their readers to chip in. Xpress needs help, too. We hope you’ll consider signing up to be a member of Xpress. For as little as $5 a month — the cost of a craft beer or kombucha — you can help keep local journalism strong. It only takes a moment.

About Webmaster
Mountain Xpress Webmaster Follow me @MXWebTeam
View all posts by Webmaster →

Before you comment

The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.

One thought on “A plan for the ethical and honorable treatment of fish”

Leave a Reply

To leave a reply you may Login with your Mountain Xpress account, connect socially or enter your name and e-mail. Your e-mail address will not be published. All fields are required.