# Louisiana redfish killed by menhaden boars



## Pole Position (Apr 3, 2016)

Wanna vomit???

https://www.sportfishingmag.com/sto...n-boats/?utm_source=internal&utm_medium=email

“By conservative estimates, as much as 140 million pounds or more of bycatch are harvested and destroyed by these menhaden harvesters annually,” Macaluso says. That includes both vital forage species and prime game fish that support the state’s recreational-fishing industry.

“Seeing hundreds and sometimes thousands of large, breeding-size redfish killed in pogy nets along the beaches where they’re eating and spawning every summer and fall is gut-wrenching,” adds Macaluso, a lifelong Louisiana resident and angling enthusiast.


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## Smackdaddy53 (Dec 31, 2012)

Bycatch is and always has been very prevalent.


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## crboggs (Mar 30, 2015)

Where do people think all the Omega 3 fish oil pills and etc come from?

I give my wife crap every time she buys it...


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## Fishshoot (Oct 26, 2017)

crboggs said:


> Where do people think all the Omega 3 fish oil pills and etc come from?
> 
> I give my wife crap every time she buys it...


Exactly!! And all that fish meal in pet food. They are now even selling krill oil. Going to the very base of the food chain.


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## Half Shell (Jul 19, 2016)

and I thought I was in a good mood tonight


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## DBStoots (Jul 9, 2011)

Overfishing for Menhaden has ruined the fishery in the Chesapeake Bay.


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## jmrodandgun (Sep 20, 2013)




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## TidewateR (Nov 11, 2009)

currently reading a book called The Most Important Fish in the Sea by H. Bruce Franklin. Highly recommend.

The pogie boats rape LA/MS and others every summer and fall..such a depressing sight to see the spotter planes flying around...and the subsequent aftermath. If enough sportsman can get together something can be done! East coast seems to be much better organized and equipped to fight at this point, which is bad news for us. As the east coast tightens regulations guess where Omega will make up for its losses?


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## Zika (Aug 6, 2015)

Chris Macaluso definitely knows the scene in coastal Louisiana. 

Money talks, sadly, and until conservationists force the regulators to say enough to Omega and other factory machines, the sea will continue to be strip-mined.


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## Caleb.Esparza (Jan 31, 2016)

My heart drops every time I see one of those floating Death Stars. Hundreds of dead breeder redfish are a not uncommon sight around here on a summer island trip. Wonder why there’s no longer a historic tarpon population in Mississippi..


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

For every coastal state... protect your baitfish stocks - or lose the fish you want to target, period. Over here in Florida we went through it for years -watching specie after specie go into decline, then collapse... We lost every conservation battle we fought back in the seventies and eighties (the commercial industry, from the fish houses on up, owned our state's legislature back then...). Every attempt at reasonable regulation failed and we all got motivated...

Finally with the help of the FCA (the forerunner of the CCA) we were able to get organized and stop inshore netting here forever...

You've got a long road ahead of you and a lot more friends than you know of so keep at it.... I used to contribute a fishing trip for auction every year to the Houma chapter of the state's CCA and I'll be glad to do it again even though I'm not likely to ever fish over that way (I like my Everglades too much...). This sort of stuff needs to be fought and beaten if our grandkids are ever to see the fishing we have now... Protect your fisheries or lose them - that's the deal everywhere...


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## dranrab (Oct 9, 2016)

You see, it's complicated.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HRG_Group

"originated from an oil company (Zapata) started by a group including future U.S. president George H. W. Bush."

https://www.oaklins.com/us/en/deals/3462/

"After the transaction, *Zapata will* continue to *own* 5,232,708 shares of*Omega* Protein common stock, or 33% of the company."


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## KurtActual (Sep 25, 2017)

dranrab said:


> You see, it's complicated.
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HRG_Group
> 
> ...


What is complicated about what a holding company does? 

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/holdingcompany.asp

Also, George H. W. Bush left Zapata in 1966, 6 years before Zapata entered the marine protien industry.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2916479/Glazers-fishy-family-business.html


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## windblows (May 21, 2014)

That's pretty disgusting. I get disgusted enough by the bycatch the shrimpers produce over here and it's nothing compared to that


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## Tailwaters (Apr 9, 2019)

Once or twice a year I will fish a couple hours west at Cape San Blas / Mexico beach. Just outside the bay they have a couple large net ships catching some sort of baitfish. I had thought it was illegal in FL but they must have some sort of exemption. Anyone know what they are targeting and what type of by-catch they have. It looks like a pretty big operation.


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

Contact your local CCA - they'll probably be able to fill you in on what's happening... By the way -for anyone not watching closely - the real value of the CCA is that they fund a full time rep to our legislature here in Florida and to attend all the meetings of the FWC and other rule making bodies... 

In short they provide us with a voice where it's needed... Are they perfect? Of course not, but they've done a lot of good over the years from my point of view...


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## LowHydrogen (Dec 31, 2015)

Tailwaters said:


> Once or twice a year I will fish a couple hours west at Cape San Blas / Mexico beach. Just outside the bay they have a couple large net ships catching some sort of baitfish. I had thought it was illegal in FL but they must have some sort of exemption. Anyone know what they are targeting and what type of by-catch they have. It looks like a pretty big operation.


Not the same thing at all, and not illegal. That's Raffield's out of St. Joe, they're fishing cigar minnows, ballyhoo, sardines, . Their bigger boat Capt Salty was also used for catching jellyfish. I've been out on their boats before, they typically spot the bait-fish from the air and are pretty good at getting what they're after. I am not saying there are never other fish caught, but by law game fish are released. I have never seen big Reds caught or any big fish floating around behind them. They've been fishing that area for about 100 yrs.


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## Smackdaddy53 (Dec 31, 2012)

All about the money. Oyster boats strip our reefs and drag them flat in a few days then move on. None of these dipshit biologists care they just keep taking money and letting the bay get raped and in turn increase regulations on the fishery acting like they are helping. 
Here is a video I shot a couple of years ago when there were still reefs in that area. They dragged two miles of reef flat before TPWD closed the area and opened others to be raped.


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## redchaser (Aug 24, 2015)

Smackdaddy53 said:


> All about the money. Oyster boats strip our reefs and drag them flat in a few days then move on. None of these dipshit biologists care they just keep taking money and letting the bay get raped and in turn increase regulations on the fishery acting like they are helping.
> Here is a video I shot a couple of years ago when there were still reefs in that area. They dragged two miles of reef flat before TPWD closed the area and opened others to be raped.


Calcasieu Lake got stripped bare of oysters by boats with dredges. They finally put in Hand Tong only regs.


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## CoolRunnings (Oct 18, 2012)

Pole Position said:


> Wanna vomit???
> 
> https://www.sportfishingmag.com/sto...n-boats/?utm_source=internal&utm_medium=email
> 
> ...












Guide friend took this pic. This is in Mississippi. He has a lot of pictures of areas where floating Bull Reds are prevelant left behind by pogie boats. They are raping the fishery.

I can't post the pic for whatever reason but he ran across some dead floating Tarpon. Here's a link https://www.sunherald.com/news/local/counties/harrison-county/article91750632.html


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

Seeing a big kill of the fish we target (particularly when they're just being wasted...) will get everyone's attention -but the real deal is simply that the fish will go where the food is - and leave areas without the food they need. 

Anyone making excuses for this sort of stuff (even if it's been going on for years and years...) is kidding themselves. I meant every word that I said in my first posts. Protect the food the fish need and your areas will stay fat and healthy. Allow netters to take the bait (particularly with spotter planes...) in your areas and you can come fish with me over in the 'glades where such things haven't been allowed for years and years...

The big surprise for all of us when we finally stopped the mullet netting by high roller rigs... is just what that was doing to our trout, pompano, redfish, and everything else - and how quickly our fisheries came back after our net ban... The solutions we found here were only the beginning of efforts we're still engaged in around my state - and the only thing keeping things going is the willingness to keep up trying to make things better. The moment any of us slacks off - the folks with money will find people who should know better willing to "ease up a bit" -and it will all go downhill again...

Each area has to come up with it's own solutions but you have to get going or all too soon the things we take for granted will just be gone....


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## ifsteve (Jul 1, 2010)

The MS Commission on Marine Resources did not adopt quota regulations for our fishery so these azz hats can continue to rape the baitfish with no limits. Shameful.


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## TidewateR (Nov 11, 2009)

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ou...ap-proposed-for-mississippi-waters/ar-BBY3eFx

will see how this shakes out


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## TidewateR (Nov 11, 2009)

"The Atlantic counterpart of the GSMFC ruled the industry was overfished in 2011 and set caps. Our pogy fishery has no cap. Since 2011, the industry here has doubled its take from Mississippi waters, according to numbers reported to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) by the fishery: 184 million pounds of pogies brought into Mississippi in 2014 — up from 100 million in 2011."

and this is what happens when East Coast States impose caps...


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## ifsteve (Jul 1, 2010)

TidewateR said:


> https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ou...ap-proposed-for-mississippi-waters/ar-BBY3eFx
> 
> will see how this shakes out


Tide this is what I was referring to. The commission voted NOT to adopt the proposed cap.


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## Fishshoot (Oct 26, 2017)

ifsteve said:


> Tide this is what I was referring to. The commission voted NOT to adopt the proposed cap.


Damn that sucks!!


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

You have to push, poke, and prod to get the needed changes for your state(s) - or get used to watching it all disappear on you.

In fact that dreaded word “politics” comes to mind. This is exactly why folks in my state (Florida) worked so hard to get an inshore net ban in place back in the early nineties. It has made a world of difference.


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