Herring regulations are coming; take action

I'm with ya' brah...we met over a herring... ...I'm ultimately for leaving us alone and better no waste or a certain human food consumption quota reg on the commercial guys?  Didn't think this one out and I am a capitalist as well so something about "freedom of profit with reasonable and agreeable boundaries" comes to mind....

Open the doc and read sections 4.6, 4.7.6, and 7.8.7. If you want to submit a comment target the unanswered/unsupported questions/claims in those sections.

https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=170124&inline

Also this from 7.8.7

This FMP establishes a daily bag limit for recreational fishing. This FMP
recommends a range between 0 and 100 lb (45-kg) daily bag limit, which is
equivalent to up to ten gallons, or two 5-gallon buckets of Herring, each
containing approximately 260 Herring. Based on input from stakeholders this is
considered to be an appropriate amount to provide a reasonable and sustainable amount of recreational harvest for participants.

"Stakeholder input",,,,, overcoming stakeholder input that's already in the FMP, Well,,,,,,,,Good Luck. Hate to be so negative but listening to public comment and input at this late date isn't the FGC's strong suit.

However don't let my defeatist attitude stop you from putting in written or public comment, you never know who will listen.

Damn. I'm afraid I may be partly responsible for the focus on 2 buckets. Roughly a year ago I attended a FMP meeting in Sausalito where a few grouchy commercial herring fishermen were arguing to the DFW that the rec fishers needed to get cut to 1 bucket. I raised my hand and argued back that 1 bucket was ridiculously skimpy and unfair and said we should get at least 2 buckets. I'm pretty sure they took that to heart. I'm sorry now I didn't say 4 buckets but it seemed at the time that such a suggestion would be seen as excessive.

I agree with Isao: Even people who don't want more than 1 bucket might support a bag limit of significantly more than that. We should try and voice a consensus, too.

Who feels that 4 5-gallon buckets would be a fair limit?

Four buckets would take care of the problem of massive overtake committed by a few individuals (pickup trucks, garbage cans, etc) while allowing people who only have the chance to go fishing once to get all they might need/want for the year.

Let's keep talking!   

I only need one bucket per year as bait, four buckets fills a chest freezer.... personally don't need that much.

Tsuri, I hear you. One bucket for bait is plenty. For those of us who would rather eat herring than the things you can catch with them (except for salmon!), one bucket is nowhere near enough.

Here is the email to send your comments to: [email protected]

Let's let "4 buckets!" be our battle cry! 

 

Damn. I'm afraid I may be partly responsible for the focus on 2 buckets. Roughly a year ago I attended a FMP meeting in Sausalito where a few grouchy commercial herring fishermen were arguing to the DFW that the rec fishers needed to get cut to 1 bucket. I raised my hand and argued back that 1 bucket was ridiculously skimpy and unfair and said we should get at least 2 buckets. I'm pretty sure they took that to heart. I'm sorry now I didn't say 4 buckets but it seemed at the time that such a suggestion would be seen as excessive.

I agree with Isao: Even people who don't want more than 1 bucket might support a bag limit of significantly more than that. We should try and voice a consensus, too.

Who feels that 4 5-gallon buckets would be a fair limit?

Four buckets would take care of the problem of massive overtake committed by a few individuals (pickup trucks, garbage cans, etc) while allowing people who only have the chance to go fishing once to get all they might need/want for the year.

Let's keep talking!   

Read pg 487-488, perhaps it was your comment, even if it was, at least you got 2 buckets instead of 1

https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=170124&inline

Let's let "4 buckets!" be our battle cry!

I've never fished for herring, but just as a negotiating strategy, maybe go for 5 buckets (a nice round number). That way recreational fishermen can look reasonable when compromising on 4...

I think 4-5 buckets is a reasonable compromise for a daily take. 

Has everybody weighed in with an email to the Fish and Game Commission? This the address: [email protected]

They do listen to the public, and my impression has been that they are being receptive to suggestions. Please send them your comments. Deadline is August 1.

4 buckets!

Alastair

I asked them to consider 5 buckets given the unique nature of this fishery. Hope it helps.

Here is my letter. I would suggest writing your own, but if you must, feel free to copy and paste.
-Andrew

Dear Commissioners,
I am writing in regards to the upcoming changes to the recreational herring fishery, specifically the daily bag limit. I am urging you to consider a daily limit of four buckets.

An avid fisherman, I started fishing for herring about eight years ago, and every year I look forward to the annual spawns. When we hear of a spawning event, we drop everything and go to the scene. If we're lucky, the spawn will still be active and we will fill two to four buckets each and call it a day. We take the fish home, freeze them in bags and eat them for months. I had herring for breakfast yesterday. It's a true local and abundant food supply.

Herring fishing is difficult to time correctly. Often we will arrive at a spawn only to find out there was never a spawn at all or that it has already ended and the fish have moved away from shore. It's likely that we will only make it to one big spawning event in a season, and whatever the daily limit is will effectively be an annual limit.

I understand that some fishermen take a lot of herring, hundreds upon hundreds of pounds, sometimes filling trash cans and carting them back to their trucks. I've seen this and I don't care for it. But reducing the daily bag limit to just one bucket per person seems like a harsh overreaction. Granting a four-bucket limit would eliminate this problem while still allowing others to take home a reasonable amount of fish for the year.

This is a fish that people should be eating more of and the only way to get it is by catching it; the commercial herring fleet catches many times more herring than the recreational fishers and most of it does not get consumed by people, an atrocious waste of a resource.

Please consider a daily limit of four buckets.
Thanks very much.
Sincerely,

Very well written Andrew. I'll use it as a template and write my own version. Thank you.

Very well written Andrew. I'll use it as a template and write my own version. Thank you.

I will write something and post it on my blog as well. Thanks for sharing the information and staying on top of this topic.  --TLA

Thanks for the reminder - just sent a letter requesting no less than a 4 bucket limit. I'll never take that many as I get tired of processing them, but I know others will put the extra limit to good use.

Cheers,
Brad

Very well written Andrew. I'll use it as a template and write my own version. Thank you.

Thanks! Glad to see members taking action.