Quote:
Originally Posted by capt coonassty
While I have nothing to back this up. I would imagine that without by catch mortality it would open up more forage for the fish mentioned. I'm sure most people have seen the thousands of fish washing up on the beaches after inshore season opens up.
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I don't know how much that is true, most times im out the fish don't make it 500 yards from the boat under any circumstances between birds and the fish having a field day eating them but I suppose if a large commercial trawler was near shore they might was up on the beach.
most times birds follow trawlers like flies on turds so anything floating in the water instantly gets eaten and not wasted but I would rather them get returned to the water alive if there was a "reasonable" way but they never do anything "reasonable" with regulations or gear restrictions.
the bycatch question is a tough one because the never ending question is how do you find a way to let 2"-3" fish get out easily but not let 2"-3" shrimp be able to escape at the same time?
short of forcing trawlers to raise the nets every 15 minutes and exclusively use salt barrels (fish float, shrimp sink) instead of dumping the catch on deck or in picking boxes, I don't know how you can keep the bycatch from drowning in the trawl on you