Beautiful Video Clip: Baitball, Mahi and Seal Feeders, and Stripped Marlin

By Jim Field

I am experimenting with attaching video clips to blog posts and haven't figured out the automated technique yet. But I may have been able to do it the old-fashioned way--by having you click into a link. So give this a try. The video is awesome. Click here

What Have We Done to So Anger the Fishing Gods? Are We Not the Chosen Ones?

By Jim Field

Clearly not...the chosen ones. Captured below, the story of our fishing lives this fall and winter, copied straight off of the Diamond Shoals buoy forecast. Weather unfishable Saturday and Sunday. Then changing to a perfect day on Monday--when we smucks return to our desks.

How often does this hhave to happen?! Wha-Wha! Is there no justice in life? Wha-Wha! Can't we ever get a break? Do we not live worthy lives of toil and sweat earning a living for our families, putting ourselves second always? How have we failed? Who have we wronged (i.e., pissed off)?

AMZ152-154-070315-
S OF OREGON INLET TO CAPE HATTERAS NC OUT 20 NM-
S OF CAPE HATTERAS TO OCRACOKE INLET NC OUT 20 NM
INCLUDING THE MONITOR NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY-
1024 AM EST SAT MAR 6 2010

SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT THROUGH SUNDAY EVENING

THIS AFTERNOON
N WINDS 20 TO 25 KT...DIMINISHING TO 15 TO 20 KT
LATE. SEAS 6 TO 9 FT DOMINANT PERIOD 12 SECONDS.

TONIGHT
N WINDS 15 TO 20 KT. SEAS 5 TO 7 FT DOMINANT PERIOD
11 SECONDS.

SUN
NW WINDS 10 TO 15 KT...DIMINISHING TO 5 TO 10 KT IN THE
AFTERNOON. SEAS 4 TO 6 FT.

SUN NIGHT
W WINDS 5 TO 10 KT...INCREASING TO 10 TO 15 KT AFTER
MIDNIGHT. SEAS 3 TO 5 FT.

MON
NW WINDS 5 TO 10 KT. SEAS 2 TO 4 FT.

MON NIGHT
N WINDS 5 KT. SEAS 2 FT.

Now I lay me down to sleep, and pray the Lord my soul to keep.......

Commercial Shipping Captains Not All That Happy--Keep Your Distance!

By Jim Field

Keeping us up-to-date on the global shipping industry--those merchants we observe and navigate around as sportfishermen--Maersk shipping lines reported 2009 financial results that under-impressed as a result of the recent and ongoing collapse in global trade. Their annual report revealed some interesting facts about their business that we might appreciate (in our quest for knowledge about all things aquatic):

- Maersk is the world's largest freight shipping company, founded in 1904
- It's container shipping business lost $2.1 billion in 2009
- Like other carriers, Maersk invested heavily in new ships during the boom in the 2000s
- Now it has a surplus of ships, contributing to a global oversupply at a time when trade is undergoing its worst slump since WWII
- - The industry has laid up ships, reduced staff, and cut costs in various ways, including avoiding the Suez Canal and reducing cruising speeds
- About 12% of the world fleet is idle
- Financial recovery for the industry is predicated on decommissioning ships and therefore reducing supply
- Maersk also wants to do more "backhaul" business--lower paying work involving shipping empty containers back to exporting nations
- The "fronthaul" business, in contrast, is more profitable but also more competitive

Photo for the Day--Keeping Our Minds on Fishing Days to Come

By Jim Field

Thought we could all use a visual reminder of what lies just ahead with the warmer weather and, ideally, fairer winds and seas this spring. Also, with the Sea Ya Bea's return to Hatteras Village, upcoming access to Bottom Fish. Yeah!

What do we have in the photo below? Well, it's Dan performing weight-lifting reps with a double-header of blue-line tilefish. Fran (Sr.) provides backup should Dan's guts wind up on the deck due to invoking a massive hernia. Seriously, let's look beyond the tasks at hand and make an effort to get some time where we belong--on the big blue highway!

Will Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Survive? Fate Currently at Stake. Tracking What's Happening

By Jim Field

We currently are living in a window--measured in the span of a few years--when the fate of the Atlantic bluefin tuna will be decided for all time. In the last year, I have started to read articles about this catastrophe in the newspapers, learning just enough to know that man is fiddling while Rome burns. Starting today, I will post everything on this topic that I come across. Most of the information is fascinating--details about the fish and their populations that you would think sportfishermen would want to know. It is also fascinating in a macabre way--like watching a car crash: you don't want to see it happen but you can't turn away. Through ignorance, greed, manipulation, the effects of poverty, and the apathy of government officials worldwide, the bluefin tuna have been decimated around the globe, numbers plummeting in the last decade in particular.

In the text below, I've reproduced a news release from the U.S. government on its position relative to international efforts to protect bluefin tuna. Forget the bureauctratic details and maneuvering, look for the facts about the fish themselves, the good and bad guys, the state of the fishery, and the probable implications for all of us.

Here's a primer to help make sense of it all:
- There are two international bodies holding the fate of the tuna
(1) CITIES--don't know much about this group
(2) ICCAT--a weak entity constantly caving in to interests--especially European interests
- There are two populations of tuna being managed (that's a leap of faith) separately:
(1) the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean
(2) the Western Atlantic
- There are good guys: Western stock fishermen (our guys keeping to the quotas)
- There are bad guys: Eastern stock fishermen (the no good cheating Europeans)

Okay, here's the announcement from Tom Strickland, an Assistant Secretary of the Interior over Fish, Wildlife and Parks:

Part I: the Bureaucratic Setup:

Strickland Announces Continued United States Support for International Proposal to Protect Bluefin Tuna

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United States will continue its support for a proposal to ban all international commercial trade of Atlantic bluefin tuna at this month’s meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wildlife Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Doha, Qatar, Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Tom Strickland announced today.

Strickland, who will head the U.S. delegation to the 15th Conference of Parties (CoP15) of the 175-nation treaty, initially announced support for the proposal last October, but left open the possibility that the United States could modify its position if the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) adopted significantly strengthened management and compliance measures during its November 2009 meeting. “Under the leadership of NOAA, the United States entered the meeting seeking the strongest possible agreement for the conservation of eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna. We recognize that the parties to ICCAT took some unprecedented steps,” said Strickland. “However, in light of the serious compliance problems that have plagued the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean fishery and the fact that the 2010 quota level adopted by ICCAT is not as low as we believe is needed, the United States continues to have serious concerns about the long-term viability of either the fish or the fishery.”

Part II: The Decimated Stocks
The Atlantic bluefin tuna is highly prized, especially for sashimi, and a single fish can be sold for tens of thousands of dollars. (Photo at left of Japanese fish market.) The Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean stock is threatened by overharvesting, which includes illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing. In the Atlantic Ocean, bluefin tuna are managed as two separate stocks, an Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, and a Western. The Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean stock of the Atlantic bluefin tuna has declined steeply during the last 10 years. Based on estimated catches, scientists estimated the spawning stock biomass in 2007 to be 78,724 metric tons. This contrasts with the biomass peak of 1955, at 305,136 metric tons. The decline over the 50-year historical period ranging from 1955 to 2007 is estimated at 74.2 percent, the bulk of which (60.9 percent) took place during the last 10 years.

The Western Atlantic spawning stock has declined by 82.4 percent from 49,482 metric tons in 1970 to 8,693 metric tons in 2007. During the past decade, the Western stock has stabilized at a very low population level. Many experts correlate this stabilization to adoption of rigorous science-based catch quotas and other management measures together with effective monitoring and enforcement. Such measures ensured strict compliance with ICCAT’s ruled by the U.S. fleet.

Strickland noted that the parties to ICCAT took positive steps at the November meeting. These steps included a commitment to set future catch levels in line with scientific advice, to shorten the fishing season, reduce fishing capacity, and close the fishery if the stocks continue to decline. However, in light of the serious compliance problems that have plagued the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean fishery and the fact that the 2010 quota level adopted by ICCAT is not as low as needed, the United States will support the proposal to list Atlantic bluefin tuna in Appendix I at CoP15 [meaning a ban on all commercial trade]. If the bluefin tuna is listed under Appendix I, commercial fishermen in the United States could continue to sell western Atlantic bluefin tuna caught in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)domestically. Fishing in the EEZ is tightly regulated in the United States to ensure that it meets the ICCAT science-based quota. The United States is both a consumer and a net importer of Atlantic bluefin tuna. Strickland indicated that the United States will explore measures to assist fishermen if international trade is restricted.

“We understand the frustration of our U.S. fishermen who have followed the scientific recommendations and regulatory provisions of ICCAT for many years while their counterparts in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean have often overfished and engaged in ineffective management,” Strickland said. “The U.S. government is committed to working with our many international partners to continue to rebuild Atlantic bluefin tuna and ensure sustained conservation and management of the species into the future.”

When you read this, you have to wonder: what chance do the fish really have?

New Boat Search Is On: Formal Announcement of Intentions (Yes, It's Crazy)

By Jim Field

Today I am formally undertaking a 2010 initiative to find and acquire a new boat. (Let's see how long it takes for Diane, my wife, to pick up on this.) Don't get me wrong, I love my Cabo 35, and would be more than happy to own it for the remainder of my fishing days. But that said, change is good in life; a challenge is good in life; and every once in a while you have to mix things up. At least, that's what I'm thinking (I don't assume every reader will agree, if you get my gist). But what the hell, sometimes it's just time to do something different. Okay, radically different.

Five years into fishing now, and owning and running a boat, and looking at other boats doing the same thing, what I've come to realize is that bigger is better, up to a point, for a host of different reasons that we should all know and appreciate. Also, as with other high-ticket items, new boat prices have a huge built-in premium, which for most of us translates into a smaller boat for what we can afford to shell out.

Alternatively, one can find used boats of a good length for a reasonable amount of money. The equation: affordable length is inversely proportional to age of boat. Also, as I understand now, and only with the benefit of time on the water, if you wish to pursue sportfishing seriously, there are some incredibly cool boats out there for doing this--particularlt custom Carolina-design boats that, for me, set the mark. Period; say no more.

We see these boats down south, and we consider them to be the ultimate fishing machines. We fantasize about fishing on one. Sure, we say, maybe in another life. Well maybe so....but today I'm going to start down the path of looking for one, and see how it goes. Maybe it doesn't work out. Maybe it does. We'll just have to go for it, and see what happens. Better to be in the game than on the sidelines. May fair winds prevail.

Here's what I'm after for an upgrade: (none of the criteria are negotiable)

- a working sportfishing boat, which may or may not look "shiney"
- length at waterline >45 feet
- between 10 and 15 years old
- price <$450,000 (ideally <$400,000)
- custom-built in North Carolina
- mechanically rock solid

That's the sum of it. Sounds straighforward, right? Also, it's got to be a contingency sale, i.e., I have to sell mu current boat before moving into the new one. So a double-deal necessary.

I'm currently working with a very motivated broker in North Carolina. Yesterday he sent me a few boats that he thought met my crtieria and he wanted me to look at. I've posted their photos below.

54' Jarrett Bay Sport Fisherman
• Year: 2000
• Current Price: US$ 359,000 (10/09)
• Located in Atlantic Beach, NC
• Hull Material: Composite
• Engine/Fuel Type: Twin Diesel
• YW# 1842-1816150



47' Buddy Davis Convertible
Year: 1996
Current Price: US$ 419,000
Located In Fort Lauderdale, FL
Hull Material: Fiberglass
Engine/Fuel Type: Twin Diesel
YW# 1359-1807787

Success in Bahamas--Government Rules Against Purse Seine Fishing

By Jim Field

Chalk one up for the fish....for now. Confronted by a wave of resistence to a petition to allow purse seine fishing--a method involving the dragging of nets at deep depths, catching anything in the nets' path, indiscriminately, producing, predictably, a huge bycatch of billfish and other endangered species--in its waters, the Bahamian government decided to reject the idea. May the record show that I, your humble writer, did send an email to Minister Cartwright (his portfolio??), asking him to demonstrate courage in the face of commerical fishing interests and think instead of the fish--and, oh yes, almost forgot, also the BIG BUCKS that flow into his country from tourism and sportfishing!

Here's the celebration message form the Billfish Foundation:

The Billfish Foundation wishes to thank all of you who spoke out against the issuance of a permit for purse seine or net fishing to operate in Bahamian waters and to applaud the Bahamian government for rejecting the petition.

A public meeting was held Monday evening (March 1, 2010) and the overwhelming majority of those present spoke out against issuing a permit. After the meeting, the government issued the following statement:

"Having regard to the importance of sportfishing to the Tourism Industry...legislation will prohibit the use of purse seine or net fishing to ensure that all fisheries resources, including migratory fish, are maintained at a sustainable level."

TBF President Ellen Peel and scientist Russell Nelson sent a strong statement that was read during the course of the meeting. Peel and Nelson both argued against the possibility of authorizing the use of purse seine gear or net fishing in the waters of the Bahamas. They cited not only the irreparable harm such practices would cause to billfish resources and other marine species, but also the negative impacts to sportfishing tourism.

A job well done to the TBF folks. If I had real money, I'd quit my current job and go do what they're doing for the planet and our sport.