Sustainable fishing increases fish catches

Critics of conservation often portray as a zero sum game, saying trying to conserve stocks of fish will diminish the catches of most fishermen.

Nevertheless as Bubba Cochrane said, depletion of red snapper fishing stocks just a few short years ago threatened the likelihood of all who relied on the snapper for a living.

A catch as catch can system with seasons made captains race to catch as much and as quick as possible as they could.  This glutted the market and actually depressed prices.  With a new quota system captains could plan their seasons and hopefully get their catch.

Just 15 years ago, over fishing threatened to wipe out red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico.  This pained me personally because my mother's standard restaurant order was red snapper.  You can find few things more delicious than broiled red snapper.  They be damn good.

Conservation and common sense saved the fish for all of us.

Under the old management system, commercial fishermen raced to catch all the snapper they could during the government mandated seasons, which some years lasted only a few days. That resulted in a lot of dangerous fishing, wasted fish and huge market swings for customers. Sometimes fresh Gulf snapper was available only a few weeks a year. 

The new approach allows commercial fishermen to pace themselves throughout the year, putting less stress on the stock and injecting some predictability into the market. Now, Gulf red snapper are more plentiful than ever, and customers can find fresh snapper at the seafood counter or on the menu nearly year-round.
https://www.sharethegulf.org/stories/77

Update: "Often, commercial fishermen are perceived to be a group of people focused on taking as many fish as possible as quickly as possible. This simply isn’t the case. We are business owners, we are problem solvers, but at heart, we are conservationists."  (Emphasis added)
https://shareholdersalliance.org/who-we-are.php

Gulf Disaster Harming Food Chain

Let me get this straight, drilling for oil in the Gulf only produces 8% of US fuels used but it has to go on to keep people employed even though drilling killing fishing careers for generations in perhaps the whole Gulf of Mexico.

Hypocrisy, thy name be Bobby Jindal.

[NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Scientists are reporting early signs that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is altering the marine food web by killing or tainting some creatures and spurring the growth of others more suited to a fouled environment.

Near the spill site, researchers have documented a massive die-off of pyrosomes - cucumber-shaped, gelatinous organisms fed on by endangered sea turtles.

Along the coast, droplets of oil are being found inside the shells of young crabs that are a mainstay in the diet of fish, turtles and shorebirds.

And at the base of the food web, tiny organisms that consume oil and gas are proliferating.

If such impacts continue, the scientists warn of a grim reshuffling of sealife that could over time cascade through the ecosystem and imperil the region's multibillion-dollar fishing industry.

Federal wildlife officials say the impacts are not irreversible, and no tainted seafood has yet been found. But Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who chairs a House committee investigating the spill, warned Tuesday that the problem is just unfolding and toxic oil could be entering seafood stocks as predators eat contaminated marine life.

"You change the base of the food web, it's going to ripple through the entire food web," said marine scientist Rob Condon, who found oil-loving bacteria off the Alabama coastline, more than 90 miles from BP's collapsed Deepwater Horizon drill rig. "Ultimately it's going to impact fishing and introduce a lot of contaminants into the food web."

The food web is the fundamental fabric of life in the Gulf.] emphasis added


[Toby Dalton takes on another kind of work. He's been out checking boom, suggesting spots for extra protection against the impending oil slick.

The third-generation oysterman is on the front lines in the fight for the sensitive estuaries that spawn oysters in a Gulf community where water is the region's lifeblood.

``We're the first responders,'' said Dalton, 28, standing on the edge of his small wooden skiff, a pile of oysters at his back. ``We know the sensitive areas that need tending to.''

In a county of 12,000 people, where the economic engines of fishing and tourism are intertwined, the steps to guard against the oil have meant a fight for not only livelihood, but identity....

``My granddaddy done with push pole, back before they even had motors, he push poled out,'' he said, talking about his time as an oysterman. ``If I can't work on this bay, I don't know what else to do. It's all I know. I lose this bay, I lose 90 percent of my life. Ninety percent of my memories are on this bay. If we lose this bay, this town will lose a heritage.''] emphasis added
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/14/1729203/apalachicola-bay-oystermen-fight.html