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Posts: 9,299 Admiral
County blames roe fishermen for dead fish on beach
cpr
Posts: 9,299 Admiral
MANATEE COUNTY --
Manatee County is blaming commercial fishermen for the thousands of dead fish that washed ashore on Anna Maria Island Christmas morning. But a local fisherman says he is not convinced that is what happened.
Mullet roe season is in full swing. At Cortez Bait and Seafood, fishermen bring in about 45,000 pounds of mullet, mostly females but they gladly take males as well.
However, this time of year females are worth more money thanks to their fish eggs or Red Roe.
“The male mullet right now is ten cents a pound versus a dollar a pound," said Cortez Bait & Seafood owner John Banyas.
The low price of male mullet may help explain the stinky situation that on Anna Maria Island Christmas morning.
Thousands of male mullet washed up along the beach, their bodies left decaying as visitors walked in between their dead carcasses.
“We had a west wind and 9 miles of Anna Maria beaches were littered with literally thousands of tons of dead fish primarily dead male mullet," said Charlie Hunsicker, the Director Of Parks and Natural Resources Department.
Hunsicker said because they were only mullet and primarily males he is ruling out red tide as the culprit.
Instead, Hunsicker believes that fishermen in a rush to get the roe let the males die then dumped them overboard.
Banyas is a fisherman as well as the owner of Cortez Bait & Seafood and he isn't convinced fishermen are to blame.
“I don’t want to rule out “Red Tide,” he said. “You know it’s a very good possibility, and yes the fishermen are throwing some back. Usually all our guys want to throw them back alive. They don’t want to throw any dead fish back."
Banyas said the males still have value and his company is gladly taking them.
"As you see here, we are packing females and males today,” he said.
As for finding out what really did happen last week, there may never be a definitive answer. Manatee County's has launched its own investigation.
However, it may be too late. FWC agents say they made it to the beach too late to test for Red Tide or confirm if it was in fact a fish kill.
Manatee County says the boats may need more workers and would like to see an extra person on the fishing boats whose job it is to sort the fish so that they are not being baked in the sun.
If you spot someone dumping fish into the water you should call the FWC’s wildlife alert line at 888-404-3922.
Manatee County is blaming commercial fishermen for the thousands of dead fish that washed ashore on Anna Maria Island Christmas morning. But a local fisherman says he is not convinced that is what happened.
Mullet roe season is in full swing. At Cortez Bait and Seafood, fishermen bring in about 45,000 pounds of mullet, mostly females but they gladly take males as well.
However, this time of year females are worth more money thanks to their fish eggs or Red Roe.
“The male mullet right now is ten cents a pound versus a dollar a pound," said Cortez Bait & Seafood owner John Banyas.
The low price of male mullet may help explain the stinky situation that on Anna Maria Island Christmas morning.
Thousands of male mullet washed up along the beach, their bodies left decaying as visitors walked in between their dead carcasses.
“We had a west wind and 9 miles of Anna Maria beaches were littered with literally thousands of tons of dead fish primarily dead male mullet," said Charlie Hunsicker, the Director Of Parks and Natural Resources Department.
Hunsicker said because they were only mullet and primarily males he is ruling out red tide as the culprit.
Instead, Hunsicker believes that fishermen in a rush to get the roe let the males die then dumped them overboard.
Banyas is a fisherman as well as the owner of Cortez Bait & Seafood and he isn't convinced fishermen are to blame.
“I don’t want to rule out “Red Tide,” he said. “You know it’s a very good possibility, and yes the fishermen are throwing some back. Usually all our guys want to throw them back alive. They don’t want to throw any dead fish back."
Banyas said the males still have value and his company is gladly taking them.
"As you see here, we are packing females and males today,” he said.
As for finding out what really did happen last week, there may never be a definitive answer. Manatee County's has launched its own investigation.
However, it may be too late. FWC agents say they made it to the beach too late to test for Red Tide or confirm if it was in fact a fish kill.
Manatee County says the boats may need more workers and would like to see an extra person on the fishing boats whose job it is to sort the fish so that they are not being baked in the sun.
If you spot someone dumping fish into the water you should call the FWC’s wildlife alert line at 888-404-3922.
"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function." F. Scott Fitzgerald
"Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." Niels Bohr
"Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." Niels Bohr
Replies
It's never good when fishermen get the blame. This is becoming a yearly event. Last year or so they dumped over-cought mullet offshore and it made the news.
Thank to all for the net ban. Or things would be worse.
"Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." Niels Bohr
The netters have been saying it for years. If they had a larger size mesh the smaller fish I think mostly white roe would swim through. They have said it till they were blue in the face but Florida Sportsman would rather bitc* about the dead fish than let them fish with larger mesh.
So let the males slip thru and catch the females? That makes no sense.
The gill netters slit their own throats with their greed.
These restrictions were tailored to each specific region to reflect to average size of mullet throughout that region.
BTW, that's what you sporties do when high-grading grouper/snapper, cull the smaller males in favor of the larger breeders...
I know, I know, y'all ain't gonna spend fiddy gazillion dollas to catch two small snappas when youse can brang home two big sows.
Tell me, how many small fish do y'all cull/kill to keep two 15 lbers?
...Thousands of male mullet washed up along the beach, their bodies left decaying as visitors walked in between their dead carcasses.
“We had a west wind and 9 miles of Anna Maria beaches were littered with literally thousands of tons of dead fish
primarily dead male mullet," said Charlie Hunsicker, the Director Of Parks and Natural Resources Department.
Hunsicker said because they were only mullet and primarily males he is ruling out red tide as the culprit.
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck.
It's a freakin duck.
"Net dumping" is fairly common in Pinellas and counties south, not sure if it is because of the beaches and is more readily reported but, tis the season.
Go here http://research.myfwc.com/fishkill/
Select Manatee County and net dump and the last couple of years and viola!
My posts are my opinion only.
Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for. Will Rogers
So how does a spawned mullet fetch a price? The purpose of catching mullet was for the roe!
Shows how little you know. I don't keep the big sows, lousy table fare.
The better eating snapper are the 16-20 inch fish.
The mesh sizes were adjusted during roe season to ensure a female mullet had spawned at least twice IN HER LIFETIME BEFORE REACHING A HARVESTABLE SIZE.
I know a lot about a little.
You know that MS, you ain't as dumb as some.. You also know this doesn't happen every year and you know that the infrastructure isn't in place anymore to handle the volume seen in the last couple of weeks.
Thanks for playing player.
Enjoy your RS season next year:grin
*ID Report
Number *Date
Reported City *County Call
Category *Probable
Cause Water
Body Name Specimen
Count
Comments
21123 11/24/2014 Snead Island / Palmetto Manatee Mortality - Invertibrate Other Tampa Bay - Emerson Point 100
Sea Hare
21134 12/1/2014 Palmetto Manatee Fish Kill Low Dissolved Oxygen Riviera Dunes Lake 50
Tilapia
21136 12/1/2014 Palmetto Manatee Fish Kill Low Dissolved Oxygen Riviera Dunes Lake 50
Tilapia
21166 12/20/2014 Bradenton Manatee Fish Kill Net Dump Sarasota Bay Canal 19
Mullet
21166 12/20/2014 Bradenton Manatee Fish Kill Net Dump Sarasota Bay Canal 19
Mullet
21174 12/25/2014 Bradenton Beach Manatee Fish Kill Unknown GOM - Bradenton Beach 200
Mullet
21175 12/25/2014 Holmes Beach Manatee Fish Kill Unknown GOM - Holmes Beach 100
Species Unidentified
21176 12/27/2014 Longboat Key Manatee Abnormal Appearance Disease Lagoon Off Sarasota Bay 100
Mullet
21177 12/27/2014 Bradenton Manatee Abnormal Appearance Disease Perico Island 100
Mullet
Your search results contain approximately 9 printable lines of data.
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Two unknowns of 300 fish.
Two disease of 200 fish.
Two low oxygen of 100 fish.
Comments like this is what makes you a special kind of jacka$$.
Lagerhead Fishing Team
Team Cabo Loco
& he revels in it...
That was a low blow Art:nono
No gill netters changed their mesh sizes. Maybe in S Fla. But up here it was year round. As I said before, you guys slit your own throats because of your greed.
Your area was a little different and you can thank Dempsey Barron for that.
We may have helped slit our throats but people like you did and still continue to stab us in the back.
One has nothing to do with the other.
Mine was fact, yours was just a low blow mean shot meant to kick me(and the rest of the recs) in the nutz.
Not that any of this banter changes anything
The info in 14 MUST be correct as it came from a CCA members link..
Nothing like spewing shizz to further your cause, eh Jerry?
Lagerhead Fishing Team
Team Cabo Loco
Paying attention to control dates BEFORE investing in a fishery is smart business, not paying attention or blindly hoping for the best is just poor planning.
I sold my federal permits before IFQ's for grouper were implemented, so no entitlement here.
BTW, your link directs the user to a asian website.
Last time I checked all the Gag grouper start out as females and then become males when they get older. Fish biology 101.
http://www.seagrantfish.lsu.edu/pdfs/factsheets/redsnappergrowth.pdf
Key word "SOME"
Art, you and I have been through this many times before and I don't really feel like having the same conversations again and again with you about the IFQ system. In your PM to me you said that you didn't like the system and if you were King you would not have done it, furthermore by not owning a permit or even being involved with the commercial (IFQ) fishery I really can't understand why a guy would literally post every day on this and other forums sticking up for this system unless he is either some sort of "plant" or has some stocks in the market. Either way it's America and I guess you are welcome to your opinion.
Mine is, IFQ is all garbage and so are the money grubbing people that are ruining fisheries all over the world.
SHARELORDS DONT KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A GROUPER AND AN AMBERJACK, BUT THEY OWN A HUGE PERCENTAGE OF THE TAC. WHAT A JOKE
Lagerhead Fishing Team
Team Cabo Loco