So Much For "chicken Of The Sea"

[tate]

If only LMB's or SMB's would be worth this kind of money.

http://www.msnbc.msn...ic#.TwW2B_KwWIU

- Tate

[grampa1114]

at about $85 an ounce.........Wow.....

[J Francho]

Cost is $96 per ounce, but the guy that bought it is selling it in his sushi bars for $5.45 a piece.

He bought it at such an inflated price to boost the fishing economy.

[tate]

yes and I one of the folks that pays the $5.45 per/pc! oh so good though. So a 5lb bass would bring in $7,680 ....

[Jigfishn10]

You think the gut who caught the fish was using a Senko? LMAO

[fmoore]

Educate Yourself!!!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ABTA Salem NH, 5 January 2012 - The astounding news of the sale of a 754 pound bluefin tuna for US $740,000 (¥ 56.49 million) auctioned today at Tsukiji Market in Tokyo is guaranteed, as in past years, to make headlines worldwide. This singular event which has taken place in early January for the last few years is the focus of intense interest by bluefin fishermen, environmental groups and fishery management organizations worldwide. Environmentalists claim that the bluefin tuna is being driven to extinction directly as a result of the outrageously high prices paid for bluefin in Tokyo. It is commonly believed that the price paid for this fish is indicative of the prices paid at other times during the year. “The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has established recently that ex vessel price levels for Atlantic bluefin tuna are now and in recent years have been about $9 per pound to the fishermen, not $981 per pound for the fish that was auctioned in Tokyo today. To put this price in perspective, $9 per pound is less than is typically paid for sea scallops.”, states Rich Ruais, Executive Director for the American Bluefin Tuna Association. At this time of year and with the current Yen/US Dollar exchange rate a typical price paid in Tokyo for bluefin tuna is about ¥ 2,700 per kilogram. Therefore a fish of this size would normally sell for about ¥ 925,000 or about US $11,900. In past years, the “bidding-up” of the price of one fish was done as a publicity stunt by two restaurants, one in Hong Kong and the other in Japan, who bid together and shared the fish. In this year, a Japanese restaurateur has undertaken to “bid-up” the price of one bluefin as a gift to the Japanese people for the hardship they have endured in the last year. Mr. Ruais continues, “The media is largely responsible for the popular misconception that catching bluefin tuna is like winning the lottery. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our Atlantic bluefin tuna fishery is an artisanal fishery of small vessels in which every fish is caught one at a time and by hand. It is the most highly regulated bluefin fishery in the world.” For further information, contact Ralph Pratt at (781) 589-0815 or Rich Ruais at (603-490-4715 cell) (603-898-8862 office

Courtesy of the American Bluefin Tuna Association

[NoBassPro]

Cost is $96 per ounce, but the guy that bought it is selling it in his sushi bars for $5.45 a piece.

He bought it at such an inflated price to boost the fishing economy.

Its just a tradition thing to buy the first of the season at ridiculous prices. Same thing happens with the first sockeye of the season in AK, gets sold much higher than market then usually even gets a private flight to whatever restaurant purchased it. I think its more about bragging rights than economic concerns.

Edit: I guess the highest prices are usually paid at the Seattle Airport after the flight, but either way its just a competition/bragging rights thing amongst chefs imo

[Fishing Rhino]

If only LMB's or SMB's would be worth this kind of money.

http://www.msnbc.msn...ic#.TwW2B_KwWIU

- Tate

That would mark the end of catch and release, and in no time at all, the end of the smallmouth and largemouth populations.

Think about it, at about ninety dollars per pound, a five pound bass would be worth $450. A five bass limit of say ten pounds would be worth $900. I can only imagine how many more fishermen would be after them. You could pay off a forty thousand dollar bass boat in less than a year in addition to paying the bills and putting food on the table, but it wouldn't last long.

It would be a short lived boom for the boat manufacturers.

I've seen it happen with dogfish. One year they were worthless trash fish, clogging the gillnets of fishermen seeking cod. They vanish from this area in the winter, then return in the spring by the millions. Then they became worth ten cents per pound and gillnetters invaded from as far away as Maine, and from southern states as well. They would make a set during the night, then haul back at daybreak. Boats were coming in with twenty, thirty, forty thousand pounds or more for about six hours work plus another three to four hours round trip to and from the grounds. Dogfish were so prolific these catch rates were sustained for a couple of years.

Of course, this attracted even more gillnetters and in a matter of three or four years they decimated the biomass of dogfish. It took the state two or three years before they began "studying" the situation, because no one worried about the dogfish. The powerful sportfishing associations paid little attention because it wasn't a species they sought.

A few diehards tried to make a living at it, but the numbers were not there to make it profitable, plus regulations that had been enacted limited their catch and fishing days. In reality, the boom only lasted a couple of years. Then it was the monkfish the gillnetters went after. That was good for another couple of years 'til the environmental management departments cracked down on the fishery. Again, it was too little, too late.

Made me glad I was a commercial lobsterman.

[grampa1114]

I'm not positive...but...I think he was kidding.

Seeing that you brought it up....How come we haven't run out of lobsters?

[J Francho]

LOL, without getting political, some of us are currently opposing certain powers that would like to see bass reduced from it's game fish status so that it can be farmed commercially for food. What a mess.

[Fishing Rhino]

I'm not positive...but...I think he was kidding.

Seeing that you brought it up....How come we haven't run out of lobsters?

I'm sure he was kidding, but I'd bet there are some who would love to commercially harvest fresh water bass, and would do so if given the opportunity.

Lobsters are the spiders of the sea. But, the simple answer is that traditional lobstering is a passive fishery unlike gillnetting, longlining or dragging. The introduction of "escape vents", the required return to the sea of egg bearing lobsters and "shorts" (undersized lobsters) is a huge difference compared to the othe fisheries. Before the advent of escape vents traps full of shorts were not uncommon.

I've often wondered what percent of lobsters who are tossed back are gobbled up by one of their natural predators such as cod or striped bass. Traps provide shelter for lobsters that enter them. They also provide food for lobsters and provide habitat for them. Studies have been done where lobster traps are particularly thick, and have found that the traps attract and keep lobsters in those areas. When the traps have been removed, the lobsters all but disappeared from that area.

Because of the vents small (bumblebee) lobsters can enter and leave the trap easily. According to books and studies, over ninety percent of the available, legal lobsters are caught annually from the inshore (within three miles of the beach), coastal waters. In that regard, incremental minimum size increases (1/32") four times over an eight year period gave lobsters an opportunity to reproduce once or twice more before they could be harvested.

Occassionally dead lobsters will be found in a trap because they get to scrapping with each other or fish like tautog/blackfish get into the trap and kill them. That does not happen with any frequency. With other fisheries such as dragging, longlining/tub trawling, and gillnetting many of the fish are dead when they are brought into the boat. Nets, be the towed type or the gillnet type are indiscriminate in what they catch. While a particular species cannot be landed it's impossible to prevent them from being caught in the nets. Frequently, they are dead when they are returned to the sea because of size regulations or closed seasons.

There is also the matter of "ghost fishing" where lost or discarded (illegal by the way) gillnets continue to entangle and kill whatever gets trapped in them. The escape vents are held closed by biodegradeable hog rings. They will disintegrate in two or three months, and the vent will fall open, allowing even legal sized lobsters to escape. These would be replaced when going through the gear prior to setting it out for the season. After the gear had been in the water for a couple of months we'd tug on the vents to test their integrity and replace them when they got weak.

[grampa1114]

Tom:So although not perfect, the lobster fishermen got it right. No doubt, it took many years of trial and error for this to happen.

John: The thought of commercializing anything you want, strictly by legislation, is a scary thought. When would that end? We already have ranches producing Whitetails, Ringneck Pheasants, Talapia and Oyster beds and probably many more species we don't even know.