fred

Article is here:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0112201123.htm

"Gill nets capture large fish, leaving only smaller ones free to reproduce and pass on their genes."

It is not hard to get the general anti-fishing/hunting tilt of the article, which I don't like, but the data still has meaning.

I've believed for years that size limits onfish arequestionable as far as the lower end, they have no scientific reason as long as a bag limit exists, but releasing the large prolific breeders makes sense. The only reason for a lower size limit would be to keep fishermen from culling dead small ones from their cooler when they reach their limit.

fishFEEDER9697

Interesting article, but as you pointed out, it is obviously biased. Not only do fish smaller than the streched mesh measurement swim through the net, but fish larger than the mesh size bounce off the net. Gill nets can be used to target a specific size. Yes, there is always bycatch. There is always bycatch everytime I go bottom fishing or inshore fishing as well. Just saying. Let's keep things in pespective with open minds. :toast

I'm not trying to defend gill nets outright. I just want it to be acknowledged that the people who publish articles and info such as this are research biologist and set out to prove their thesis. They will manipulate statistics to support their claims. As we all know, that is the nature of statistics.

KEITH58

Unfortunately, people who have no idea what the situation is, will read this biased article and take it as gospel. No doubt the media is biased, there will always be people who do not abide by the size and bag limits in any situation. Those of us who had gill nets and enjoyed taking our families fishing are the ones hurt by it. I always errored on the side of caution, no fish was worth the fine, and what would you be teaching your kids. Why not a gill net permit, with length and size guidelines for those of us not in the commercial fishing industry?

P-cola_Native

The state never attempted to regulate gillnets on a recreational or commercial level, which lead to the general public voting them out of existance all together.

fred

I'm from Alabama and there never was too much anti-gillnet sentiment here until all the other states on the GoM outlawed them and the number of gillnetters here increased tenfold as did the tonnage. At that point we had something like 120 commercial gillnetters forabout50 miles of coastline.

They've got a buyout law in effect now. Recreational license fees went up to provide money to buy out gillnetters who choose to quit. Folks with a license who fish their own boat can keep their license, but cannot pass it on to their children. I think it outlaws boats where the owner is not on the boat. It's a shame to put people out of business and I won't pretend that the traditional families who netted didn't get screwed, butthe numbershad gotten out of hand.

fred

Also, I think the Alabama law allows recreational gillnets less than 300 feet in length.