Rockfish closeure in SE Alaska

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Mr. RC. Doesn't affect me, at all but the article mentions the cause(s) of the decline are, as yet, unknown. I'm out of the loop regarding oceanic temperature changes on the west coast but is such a change happening and might this be one of the causes of the drop in rockfish reproduction? Thanks.
 
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This will affect the resorts and guides in SE AK, which seem to target these fish especially when salmon are scarce.
 
This will affect the resorts and guides in SE AK, which seem to target these fish especially when salmon are scarce.

To add affect to your observation Ken, within Ketchikan, and I would suspect other ports, theindependent charger boat with 4-6 customers and the guided outfitter operating fleets of small 50-90 hp skiffs running within 20 miles of Ketchikan every day have depleted the rock fish population to the point that I as a life time resident, don't even make the effort. There are at least 5 such fleets running between one and 10 such boats.
Salmon. a international treaty fish (Canada and US) along wtih halibut are on the decline even with hatchery salmon included, The halibut quota is in flux over charter fishers and the true commercial fleet. Really a bad situiation.

Yes, I know where to go to catch a cook fish, but it will take travel time and planning. Actually the challenge provides a excellent opportunity to plan a voyage with a true purpose vs, just getting out in the boat.

Don't know if you intend to come North this summer Ken, keep me posted.
Regards,
Al-Ketchikan
 
Don't know if you intend to come North this summer Ken, keep me posted.
Regards,
Al-Ketchikan

Yes Al, we will be up your way in early June. I will PM or call you. :thumb:..Ken
 
The problem is over fishing and the fact that is takes so long for these fish to grow to maturity. One of those yellow eye ( red snapper) that weighs 10 pounds may be 75 years old. The charter boats will come in with a boat load of them day after day.

Much of the Inside Passage thru BC is closed to rock fish and has been for many years because the commercial fisherman switched over to catching them when the salmon fishing slowed down. I don't expect it to be open ever again in my lifetime.

In Washington state most bottom fish have been closed for many years because of over fishing.
 
The problem is over fishing and the fact that is takes so long for these fish to grow to maturity. One of those yellow eye ( red snapper) that weighs 10 pounds may be 75 years old. The charter boats will come in with a boat load of them day after day.

Much of the Inside Passage thru BC is closed to rock fish and has been for many years because the commercial fisherman switched over to catching them when the salmon fishing slowed down. I don't expect it to be open ever again in my lifetime.

In Washington state most bottom fish have been closed for many years because of over fishing.


It is pretty refreshing for me to read these common sense answers in response to this rockfish situation.
It seems in public policy we look for some derivative to the mostly likely answer to the decline in wild fish populations. It is the dams or the farms or rec boaters dumping their sewage when instead it seems so obvious that there are too many of us eating too many of these wild fish.
It makes absolutely no mathematical sense to me that the number of human inhabitants on this planet can still expect to feed themselves on these wild fisheries. They are just not up to that level of productivity.
If we are going to eat fish, we will need to farm them in some safe and sustainable way in my view. As in meat or even plant based foods, the level of production that is normal in nature could never sustain current populations. Only modern farming systems can do that.
It always amuses me when driving up the Columbia River with a city dweller who is explaining how the dams are annihilating the salmon populations while driving by the net buoys that span the entire river.
The rockfish are gone, the lingcod are gone and the halibut are gone and they do not use the rivers.
I think they are gone because we ate them......just like the salmon. To be clear, I doubt that rec fishing has a very big impact on this. It would take a pretty massive number of rec fisherman to equal even a single commercial boat I expect.
 
I had a talk with a man who participated in the bottom fishing industry during it's hay-day in BC. He owned three boats at the time. There were a couple of guys per boat, each using a rod with about 6-8 hooks on each line, and electric reels. They would bait up each hook and send them down. Sometimes there would be a fish on each hook. They kept the fish alive in large holding tanks below deck. All of these fish were sent overseas alive. He said they made thousands of dollars per boat each day. There were hundreds of boats doing this. It took a few years to discover what harm they were doing but by then the damage was done.
 
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