http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2012/jan/01/tagged-yellowfin-recaptured-after-11-years/ - http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2012/jan/01/tagged-yellowfin-recaptured-after-11-years/

we tagged a YF behind the Mokes many years ago..  only a 10kg one...  

wish there were a few still left for us rec guys..

 

Yet both have been VERY backward in coming forward wrt the current state of the yellowfin fishery.

 

New Zealand's economy benefits when 32,000 (yes there's some duplication in that number)  members of the Sportfishing council are buying tackle, gas, boats, accomodation in their pursuit of yellowfin that most people used to be able to catch during the summer months.

 

More needs to be done to bring the Yellowfin population back to where it was such that we have them back in New Zealand for all to enjoy.

Not sure if you are serious or not???? That was what our local tuna fishermen were saying before they realised that they couldn't catch tuna anymore and had to start catching heaps of Broadbill 'bycatch' to pay the bills. Bottom line is that these unregulated migratory stocks are getting rapidly fished to commercial extinction. It is just a race to see who can become the richest before the stock is gone. Unfortunately, recreational 'extinction' has already occurred in some places like NZ. I caught my last YFT 5 years ago. Chances are my son will never see one in the wild. I can't see how the short term feeding of a relative handful of families for maybe 5 - 10 more years is more important than the imminent destruction of a fishery once enjoyed by 100's of thousands of recreational fishermen.

 

Didnt Australia a decade or so ago put a ban or severely restrict the commerciual and recreational catch for a couple of years to get that East coast stock happening again after it was pretty much wiped out ?

 

Just upsets me when I hear heaps of **** thrown at guys who choose to fish for a living when they are legally allowed to. have you ever taken the time to call them up while there out to have a yarn. They are a great help when you are loooking for fish. E.g. current lines temp breaks and even fish seen from where they sit 12 to 15 mts out of the water.

From my charter operation I even see just the ordinary bloke take fish after fish and not throw any back.

One trip we were out we had one of those days where all the fish that came on board none were under 15 lb. I said to one old lady who had caught 8 fish over 18 lb that would you like me to take your photo of you holding that fish and then put it back to spawn. She said what is wrong with it. Nothing I said but maybe if you put it back your grand children will catch its offsring. I took her photo and then she told me to put it in the bin. Bag. But we are all guilty.

 

Bloody, boats target by catch, and are prepared to pay, foreign vessel with cheap labour.

 

Not breaking the law, but quota is not working in this instance.

 

Sorry a bit off subject,

I know of a tagged tuna in whakatane that go recaptuerd of the coast of aussie.

 

 

Like I said ealier in this post Kezza, the governement and the Sportfishing council were pretty happy to do it in the 90s for Billfish, are we saying Marlin are less migratory? Or are we saying Yellofin aren't worth the effort?

 

So to what do you attribute the recovery of the Hauraki Gulf Snapper population?  Does anybopdy remember that it was almost gone during the 80's?

 

Crazy Horse, whilst having 8 fish over 18 pound should be enough for anybody to considering releasing the remainder of the catch. The bigger question is how many times per year did that old lady fish on your boat or catch a limit bag of snapper? the reality is the quanity of fish caught per say 80% of anglers per annum would have to be bugger all I would have thought.

It just mystifies me about why Tuna seem to be sooooo much harder to manage than billfish. Get yourself a copy of the Agenda for this weekend's meeting of the NZSFC management committee, you may not be surprised to find that Yellowfin are not mentioned.

 

I have communicated to them and through our zone for quite sometime that given the crisis around the species it should be a standing item for discussion and should consume quite a bit of their management time and commitment. But alas that isn't the case.......

I am not saying the quota management system doesn't work but that government  regulation and enforcement will always be required. 

 

Marlin spend 6 months of the year outside the 200 mile economic zone.

 

The government has options , has used them before, and can use them again if the message is strong enough to make it choose to do more.

 

Gday Guys,

 

All commercial fishing/trawling was banned in Sydney Harbour many years ago. 

 

This was achieved by using some of the recreational fishing licence fees to buy out the commercial fisherman (As Tagit mentioned, less than a dozen commercial fisherman i rekon).

 

The harbour has bounced back in a massive way....fish everywhere..

 

Currently i pay $75 AUD for 3 years for my rec fishing licence in NSW

 

part of the fee also goes towards building new ramps & fish cleaning stations etc.

 

I am more than happy to pay the $75 for 3 years as I can exactly where some of the money is going.

 

Cheers

Craig

 

I seriously dont believe though that the present and /or any Govt here in NZ has the ability to take that $75.00 and utilise it in a way that could guarantee that ability to increase the population of YFT.  

 

I don't think the NZ Govt could do much about the decline in tuna stocks, even if they wanted to.

 

I think marlin was a lot easier to manage as it wasnt as big a commercial target as tuna. I may be wrong but I think there is a hell of a lot more fishing effort that goes into catching BFT/YFT than marlin. The Jap and American markets alone for tuna are monstrous. I don't know of any markets where marlin is sought after or worth as much as tuna.

 

Once the tuna are gone though then marlin will be the enxt big thing as the broadies will in all likelihood be decimated so it's only marlin left with eating qualities anything liek a tuna.

 

BBF - 

Marlin are a by-catch for seiners or a target for surface liners and more enigmatic by nature.

Granted the Billfish Memorandum of Understanding was a good thing which if nothing else increased awareness about the plight of pelagic fauna but I'm not sure you can compare the successes of that program to the tunas.....different kettle of herring as it were.

Whilst the NZSFC is a good start with a mandate base of 'only' slightly more than 30K but doesn't represent enough 'fire power' in my opinion.....I'm looking forward to what Legasea has to say once launched but I still think their campaign still won't have the 'teeth' to make in roads to what is an increasing global issue....the decimation of tuna biomass!

just my thinks mate.....

 

There in lays the problem no Government would be prepared to ring fence the money

As for trying to give me a lecture about farming get a life. I was one for 43

 years.

I am out of here. Going to have a bit of smoked BFT and a glass of wine or two

 

But overseas vessels targeting bycatch ie inshore fish and paying the deemed value because they can take it back to there own markets, proccessed onboard with cheap labour, is in my mind a breach of the current quota laws.

So they are delibirate in there intentions to fish well above the quoted amount allowed.

 

Anyway this cam from a nz trawler fisherman, I talked to at a party.

 

 

 

http://www.savethefish.org/ - http://www.savethefish.org/

 

Now to the topic. In the mag it has a special feature about Blue F T. It talks of the decline of these gaints back some 40 odd years ago. Charter fleets all left due to the decline in fish numbers. Suddenly they are back and in big numbers which the experts do not seem to be able to explain. Any way am not going to go on to much about it but if you can read the different articals in the mag. May be just may be this is what the YFT are going through at the present.

 

Food for thought!!!