# Sometime i wonder where all the spots went.



## jry2598 (Jul 25, 2013)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLl4GSZLqGU


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## goldencreek (Jul 25, 2013)

Very sad


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## dlpetrey (Oct 30, 2013)

I don't have ANY idea about the ins and outs of commercial fishing but wow. I mean I love NC shrimp but that is TONS of by-catch.


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## pods (Sep 10, 2013)

I understand that making sausage is not for the faint of heart.
But this is pretty disturbing, especially when there are other ways of obtaining shrimp. This does pale in comparison to the menhaden harvest though.
Saw plenty of young flounder there too. 
If I keep one short I get fined and my stuff can be confiscated. A comm kills 500 in one trawl and it's "bycatch."
"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."


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## gshivar (Aug 29, 2006)

Yea, bycatch is and has always been a problem with trawls. I, like dlpetrey, enjoy NC shrimp. Lets jump back to say the "60's". Most salt water fish were abundant. No recreational size or creel limits. The shrimp trawlers had no bycatch excluders. Certainly trawls are not enviro friendly but were around in abundance when spot, flounder, croaker, etc were plentiful. I think this video was produced by an anti-commercial group and is not always the norm. Still a problem. Think of all the tons and tons of small fish the cormorants eat. I'm not blaming our feathered friends for the decline. The problem is very complex and is not just the trawlers fault. SOoo, when our inshore fish stocks were plentiful so were the trawlers. I do not know and no one else does either. best - glenn


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## Mumbo_Pungo (Dec 8, 2014)

gshivar said:


> Yea, bycatch is and has always been a problem with trawls. I, like dlpetrey, enjoy NC shrimp. Lets jump back to say the "60's". Most salt water fish were abundant. No recreational size or creel limits. The shrimp trawlers had no bycatch excluders. Certainly trawls are not enviro friendly but were around in abundance when spot, flounder, croaker, etc were plentiful. I think this video was produced by an anti-commercial group and is not always the norm. Still a problem. Think of all the tons and tons of small fish the cormorants eat. I'm not blaming our feathered friends for the decline. The problem is very complex and is not just the trawlers fault. SOoo, when our inshore fish stocks were plentiful so were the trawlers. I do not know and no one else does either. best - glenn


Think about it man. If you do something long enough it takes its toll. No limits on rec's and an over abundance of trawls (who were allowed up rivers until about 10 years ago) will add up. Management is supposed to be proactive, not reactive. If we wait to do something every time when we are already suffering the consequences its not very effective. Im sure there were plenty of fish around in the 60's for every one, but if you keep over harvesting or killing them for 40-50 years it wont last.


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## gilly21 (Feb 15, 2006)

The outrage only happens when it's seen on video. This is no different then the Ray Rice incident. Oh wait there actually is. Rice proactively took action to fix his problem and self regulate. 
It's like the old proverb. If a hundred fry are killed for your shrimp coctail and no one is there to see it, did those fry ever exist?

Btw...I love Shrimp and don't think about it when eating them. Just being facetiou. Haven't posted in a while and didn't want the post something soon banner.


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## Elgreco (Aug 12, 2014)

gshivar said:


> Yea, bycatch is and has always been a problem with trawls. I, like dlpetrey, enjoy NC shrimp. Lets jump back to say the "60's". Most salt water fish were abundant. No recreational size or creel limits. The shrimp trawlers had no bycatch excluders. Certainly trawls are not enviro friendly but were around in abundance when spot, flounder, croaker, etc were plentiful. I think this video was produced by an anti-commercial group and is not always the norm. Still a problem. *Think of all the tons and tons of small fish the cormorants eat. I'm not blaming our feathered friends for the decline*. The problem is very complex and is not just the trawlers fault. SOoo, when our inshore fish stocks were plentiful so were the trawlers. I do not know and no one else does either. best - glenn


That is naturally occurring predation though. That helps keep the populations in check. What humans do is on top of that. Either the fish populations will adapt to us killing millions of them or they will die off.


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## kingfish (Feb 28, 2004)

Every agenda can be justified by the protagonist. What decimates the oceans is not the fisherman,commercial or recreational, but the degradation of the environment by progress. easy to say we have recognized and protected, but reality is we have just changed the geographical location of the most detrimental effects, open ur eyes and don't be blinded by ur own selfish wants. More importantly, what can be done to fix it?


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## pods (Sep 10, 2013)

kingfish said:


> Every agenda can be justified by the protagonist. What decimates the oceans is not the fisherman,commercial or recreational, but the degradation of the environment by progress. easy to say we have recognized and protected, but reality is we have just changed the geographical location of the most detrimental effects, open ur eyes and don't be blinded by ur own selfish wants. More importantly, what can be done to fix it?


Well, there does seem to be a shift towards lower phosphorus fertilizers, so that may help somewhat. If people realized the amount of runoff nutrients that make their way into the waterways you never know. A hot spell with an algae bloom is a death sentence for most fish who cannot escape it. You see it all over the higher populated areas. I think last year there were big ones in SC near Murrells Inlet?
One of my most favorite quotes is one from V's speech from V for Vendetta: "But again, truth be told, if you are looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror."
Point being is that it is all of our faults that stocks are collapsing. 
You can say you practice "catch and release" but what about that deep hooked one? Once you cut the line and let them go you wash your hands of it.
Then there is comms.
And pig farms
And those who clear marsh grass for their development.
Or people and golf courses fertilizing.
It really is everyone's fault, but a video like this is gut wrenching. (I know, that is their point)
Most of the damage is done when you cannot see though.


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## Lipyourown (May 11, 2005)

I'm fairly certain the sound is cleaner today than it was 40 years ago thanks to more responsible farming and a ban on some chemicals and detergents.


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## gshivar (Aug 29, 2006)

Thanks folks – good thoughts. The fish we have talked about have a relativity short life span. I think if trawls were the main culprit this sharp decline would have happened long ago. And there was considerably more area open to trawling 30 years ago. NOT saying I condone trawling. In maybe late 50’s / early 60’s machine made monofilament gill netting came to NC. No longer had to make netting by hand, one knot at a time. And the mono netting was / is cheap and requires very little maintenance. Now a skiff could fish considerably more yards of net. About 20 or so years ago net reel boats came on the scene. And they are drop netting near shore in the ocean. Nets are mechanically retrieved, allowing more net to be fished. Depending on mesh size, spots, croaker, sea mullet, and the list goes on are targeted. And these fish are not juveniles they are adult breeders! Well – done with my rant. Best - glenn


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## Lipyourown (May 11, 2005)

Why does MD have bigger specs? Why does VA have bigger and more specs?- regardless of the ditch. Why does SC have bigger and more specs? Ditto Georgia, Florida, LA and Texas. Yet NC has way better habitat in the Pamlico compared to most of the other states. IMO it is painfully obvious.


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## surffshr (Dec 8, 2003)

Lipyourown said:


> Why does MD have bigger specs? Why does VA have bigger and more specs?- regardless of the ditch. Why does SC have bigger and more specs? Ditto Georgia, Florida, LA and Texas. Yet NC has way better habitat in the Pamlico compared to most of the other states. IMO it is painfully obvious.



Yes and a hard problem to fix. there is a long network of people and business making profit that would have to change.


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## Mumbo_Pungo (Dec 8, 2014)

Lipyourown said:


> Why does MD have bigger specs? Why does VA have bigger and more specs?- regardless of the ditch. Why does SC have bigger and more specs? Ditto Georgia, Florida, LA and Texas. Yet NC has way better habitat in the Pamlico compared to most of the other states. IMO it is painfully obvious.


This is the obvious thing to point out but people ignore it. NC has some of the best water ways on the east coast yet our fisheries stink compared to some other states. We are also one of the least regulated fisheries in America, coincidence?


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## Byron/pa (Mar 14, 2007)

Mumbo_Pungo said:


> This is the obvious thing to point out but people ignore it. NC has some of the best water ways on the east coast yet our fisheries stink compared to some other states. We are also one of the least regulated fisheries in America, coincidence?


Have no fear, the idea of smaller government with less intrusiveness is catching on elsewhere also, soon those other states will catch down and NC will be just as good..............


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