Ban Gill Netting in the Chesapeake

[Southerly]

it's been awhile since civics in high school (and i may not have been there that day) so i'm a little confused about the political process as regards a petition.

i've always assumed petitions either 1) showed intent of 'a bunch' of people to be used as part of some attempt to get the attention of lawmakers, but were not politically/legally binding in any real way, or 2) could be used to get an issue placed on the regular ballot as a process of law.

is one, or other, or something else the case now?

[crabby and son]

Originally Posted by Southerly

it's been awhile since civics in high school (and i may not have been there that day) so i'm a little confused about the political process as regards a petition.

i've always assumed petitions either 1) showed intent of 'a bunch' of people to be used as part of some attempt to get the attention of lawmakers, but were not politically/legally binding in any real way, or 2) could be used to get an issue placed on the regular ballot as a process of law.

is one, or other, or something else the case now?

You are correct in your assumption Southerly. MD has about 6 million people and even if 5 million signed it, it would not be law. It is an attention getter by the people to the legislature. It is a lobby which is also big business in MD.

Net fishing is also a business that does involve many different industries. We are attempting to change one aspect of that industry. Netting. Fish will still be caught, transported, processed and sold. This change is not a battle or punishment against commercial fishermen, it is a conservation issue to protect a fishery. We are giving this petition to the MD legislators, not he DNR. This is a legal process and bargaining is involved. Hopefully the end result will be a conservation of our fishery. It is protecting the commercial fisherman's future also.

[Fish Nut]

Reds, The numbers I posted were from DNR they are the number of licenses for commercial fishing in 2009. Posted for a request From Hockleyneck . At this time I believe it is time for the discussion about gillnets in Maryland. As with all of these discussions hopefully the resource will be better in the end. I am not anti watermen. My close family works the water they Crab, run eel pots and net perch. With the past and current events of illegal gillnetting it is apparent that the state agencies have extreme difficulty policing and regulating the gillnet gear type in Maryland. Hopefully, the current concerns and petition will create a situation in which the state will give proper resources and or rethink the standards operating procedures for the gillnet fishery. I think we both can agree that procedures can be changed to make the managing of the gear type more robust. The commercial industry in Maryland has always denounced poaching but on this front they have been unable to police themselves. It is time for something to be done to control outlaw poaching. Poaching with gill nets due to their efficiency, takes fish from the public resource at an exponential rate. This is what has concerned the citizens of Maryland. Unfortunately, when the picture of the tons of illegal rock fish were shown on local and mid Atlantic TV the entire gillnet fishery came under scrutiny. The initial feelings from me and most was if DNR can’t control poaching during the legal gillnet season then it needs to be closed until they can legitimately demonstrate control of the poaching. The reason I say this is, Poaching / using gillnets is occurring under the umbrella of the legal gillnet season. When this gear type is used in a highly regulated fishery such as Gill nets it is impossible for DNR to manage the fishery based on quotas for the fishery. Therefore DNR need to step up to the plate and fix this problem. Who would have thought that the fishery sting we had a few years ago was huge sweeping all the way into the fish retail& wholesale food markets. What we have seen over the past few years with illegal gill net seizures WE AKA Maryland have a huge problem.

As far as social economics of Striped Bass we can agree to disagree.

Some more facts.

Main , Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey & South Carolina Have no commercial harvest Of rock Fish.
Massachusetts Has a Hook& Line fishery ONLY
Rhode Island has a Fish trap and hook & line Fishery
Delaware has a Hook & line & a Gillnet Fishery
Virginia has a Hook & line & a Gillnet Fishery
New York has Hook & Line Pound Nets Fish traps Gillnets
Maryland has Hook & Line Pound Nets Gill Nets Haul seines
North Carolina has everything
Potomac River Hook & Line Pound Nets Gill Nets.

5 states Under the striped bass managment of the ASMFS allow gill netting and one more for the Potomac fishery
7 States don’t allow Gillnets.