Public Hearing On January 2-interstate Fishery Management Plan For Herring

[Brandon-K]

PUBLIC HEARING ON JANUARY 2 ON PUBLIC INFORMATION DOCUMENT FOR AMENDMENT 2 TO THE INTERSTATE FISHERY MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR SHAD AND RIVER HERRING

DURHAM, N.H. -- People interested in river herring (alewives and blueback herring) and those who fish in New Hampshire state waters for river herring may be interested in attending an upcoming public hearing regarding management of the fishery. The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department will hold a public hearing on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's Public Information Document for Amendment 2 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan to Shad and River Herring on Wednesday, January 2, 2008, at 7:00 p.m. at the Urban Forestry Center at 45 Elwyn Road in Portsmouth, N.H.

Stocks of river herring have been declining or remain depressed at stable levels. River herring stocks are a multi-jurisdictional resource occurring in both rivers and coastal waters. Four states (Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and North Carolina) have closed their river herring fisheries.

The Public Information Document was developed to address concerns about whether the management program is adequate to ensure survival and enhancement of depressed stocks or the maintenance of presently stable stocks. The scheduled hearing will be the initial phase of information gathering and public comment.

Copies of the Public Information Documents can be obtained by contacting the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission at 202-289-6400 or via their website at http://www.asmfc.org under "Breaking News."

For more information about the hearing, please call the N.H. Fish and Game Department's Marine Fisheries Division at (603) 868-1095.

The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department is the guardian of the state's fish, wildlife and marine resources and their habitats.

[Riverjim]

Thank you Brandon-K for making all of the posts on the local environmental issues.

This one could be important guys. Even if you don't fish for the herring, the local striper population is quite dependant on them, so I am hoping others might join me there.

Jim

[Brandon-K]

I try to post stuff that I feel is important, so I'm glad members are reading it.

[Merrillizer™]

I think they can start by shuttin it down. But I think extra patrols at each head-of-tide during the Spring Run could be a start. I see plenty of ignorant *******s illegally snagging up alewives on wednesdays in May and June. Nobody does nuttin'. And I have seen some illegal netting of alewives without a permit as well. Nobody does nuttin'. And dont forget the heroes in canoes that go up into the fishladder under the cover of dark. the legal folks get some eels and leave, which in itself should be illegal anyway, but the lawbreakers come back down with a buck of alewives they snagged up with weighted trebles. People do whatever they want because there is barely any consequence or repercussion. I say we start by pumping up fines and patrols. NH F&G complains about lack of funds, pump up da fines. Too bad the liberal judges wont uphold them though. Instead of those lotteries and trying to raise money off of killing things, maybe the F&G should concentrate more on raising some funds by protecting these invaluable resources. Or maybe we could just sit around and let the losers rape and loot the fishery till there is nuttin' left and the fishing sucks again like it did in the 80's when I was a kid

[Coalman]

What ever we think of protection and enforcement means all the more a group of guys dedicated to fishing for striped bass would want to attend a meeting that may have impact on us all.
I have attended a few. They do listen. See you there 7 PM tonight. Anybody need directions?

[Riverjim]

It was great to see a couple of Marshmarauders at the meeting Wednesday night, but I must admit that I was disapointed.. Only three, that I was aware of, out of a 184 person membership showed up.....Pretty sad!!!
How many of you entered a give away for a free plug in December?

Sorry to call you guys out on this, I hope I don't make any enemys, but I always like to be honest and "say it like I see it."

the way that I see it is this:
Either you don't care....You were too busy.... you feel that your voice or opinions don't count..... or you don't realize the importants of this issue to the sport we all love.

Remember, as we are aproaching election time... america is by the people and for the people, but not if you don't get involved.

We, as a group, have the ability to make a difference, even more than as individuals...let's not squander the power of a groups voice to be heard more loudly. John set up this great spot, were we can make friends with a common intrest. A by -product of that could be the power of an organization. In the future let's get more than 2 percent of the membership to attend a meeting which could have a significant impact on your fishing success in the future.

If you don't have the balls to show up at a meeting with a bunch of officials, don't come crying to this website if the herring population has a complete colapse. Don't come crying that the fishing sucks. Don't come crying that the fish are smaller. Don't come crying that the government, the fish and game dept. or mismanagement were the cause. Don't blame others,
because this is America, BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE

Jim

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJYGJ...galliance.org/

http://www.herringalliance.org/content/view/17/32/

http://www.choircoalition.org/

http://www.herringalliance.org/content/view/14/27

[Riverjim]

well?

[Riverjim]

I have made many posts on environmental issues related to bait populations and their effect on our entire fishery since I joined the site back in September. These issues are not only important, they are vital to stripers.

Of all the posts that I have made, I have barely had a reply. If you disagree, thats cool, I'm an adult and can easily defend my positions, but to see the fact that almost no one posts on these issues makes me question;

whether you are all thinking about the issues.

whether you are disregarding me, or the importance of this.

or whether you are a bunch of hipocrits that love nature, but think it's someone elses job to defend it.

For the Marsh marauders to set up a site for "Serious Striped Bass Fisherman" is great, For you all to not get involved with protecting the fishery is sad.

This is just one statistic meant to verbally smack you all who don't get involved.

The River Herring returning to your home waterway of the Taylor River to spawn in five year increments.

1976- 450,000
1981- 94,060
1986- 117,000
1991- 46,362
1996- 10,113
2001- 7,065
2006- 147


Wake up folks, before it's too late.

Jim

[Merrillizer™]

Wow, that sounds a little harsh, to say the least. I'll start out by saying that all we can do here on this forum is post the info up for folks, we cant make them go. I can always count on Brandon to post up those types of news articles, updates, meetings and events etc. He's on top of it. But we cant strong-arm people to appear.

This particular issue I happen to take very seriously. I can often be seen "letting it all hang out", as seen above, and sometimes grandstanding seems the only way to cure the frustration over these issues. However I try to refrain from browbeating members, or, potential members. Unfortunately for me, I have to work every chance I can during my "busy season", my "downtime" occurs between may and oct, so I do the duties during the late fall, winter and early spring so that can fish hard during the bass season. I wanted to attend that, but I was unable to for work related reasons.

With that said, I'll speak for myself when I say that my feelings are clearly stated here. And as a local citizen, and member of this local forum, I believe it counts for something. I try to make up for missed appearances by putting work into this local site/forum. I am quite sure some of the folks at that meeting have been here. And if they haven't, I believe at least the officials should be paying attention to NH related forums, blogs, sites etc.

Lastly, maybe some recruiting might be in order. I would also like to see a larger turnout at events and hearings etc etc. Thats the next step in continuing to grow this online community. May I ask if you referred anyone to this local site while there? If not, it might've been a good idea. I try to steer people here to this corner of the net whenever I can.

[Riverjim]

I had been thinking of how to address the situation even before the herring meeting was announced by Brandon-K, and had mentioned to one of the moderators months ago that I was discouraged by the lack of response on something that I thought was key to the Stripers, our success as fisherman, and to the site... In addition, I agree, it was quite harsh, and it was meant to be. I ask the membership to Look again, at the numbers at the bottom of my post on the seventh and really think deeply about it.

I don’t enjoy having to take the stance of possibly making enemies by being so vocal, or being the “bad guy”, but “The facts is the facts,” only 2% of the membership went to the meeting…. Just mentioning the meeting is all Brandon -K can really do since he is a moderator on the site and I fully respect that, but the result was 2%.

I agree that the people running the site can not “browbeat” the members so I will step up to the task. I agree that I am passionate about this and frankly don’t care about how many people find it offensive for me to be so blunt. It might be the only way to wake folks up to this important issue. Maybe it would have been nice to have others as passionate back in the days when the rivers were first dammed and the native species populations started crashing????
If I can get people to realize the major effect this issue has on our fishing, and can encourage 10% of our membership to be involved rather than just 2 % and loose a few potential friends in the meantime, I will be happy… If we had 10% of the membership there, our voice as a group would have been heard loudly, and our turnout would have dominated the meeting, at which time I would have proudly, publicly, proclaimed that we were there as a group to help defend our common interest. I hope you can see in this statement that I am defiantly pushing the inherent value of this site. . In the fifth paragraph of my post on the fourth I try to show my respect for you in setting up the site. I believe that it and others like it , can have a huge impact because of the power of a groups voice to be heard much louder than an individuals, but it does not work if people are just here for a free ride, and expect the other guy to fix the problem.

I think that you will notice that I was less harsh on my first post that I made on January 4. The third paragraph summed up my honest opinion. In fact, I mentioned that some might have been too busy to attend; we all do have lives other than fishing.
I hope you saw that I complimented you and Brandon-K on the posts I made, and in no way are my comments made to single out any individual.

I was forced to make the post on January 7.After a couple days of no answer again from my post on Jan. 4, even though I thought I had added some great links to help explain the situation.
I felt that it was necessary to shake things up a little because of the cumulative effect of making many posts on the issue in the past with almost no reply. It was not because of just this one meeting. I think the current political atmosphere where many blame our politicians for the problems we face rather than getting involved in correcting the problems also had an effect on my rant.

Jim