Is recreational fishing technology getting ahead of the regulations that protect fish?

[agentaqua]

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/is-recreational-fishing-technology-getting-ahead-of-the-regulations-that-protect-fish-1.6053855

Technological innovations in the recreational fishing sector: implications for fisheries management and policy - Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries

Technology that is developed for or adopted by the recreational fisheries sector (e.g., anglers and the recreational fishing industry) has led to rapid and dramatic changes in how recreational anglers interact with fisheries resources. From improvements in finding and catching fish to emulating...

link.springer.com

 

[searun]

Oh boy...the next big idea from the ENGO thought leaders. 80% of the fish are still caught by 20% of the fishers, and tracking trends in the data on CPUE would have been the first bit of actual objective science-based evidence these researchers should have published instead of a gathering of pet theories.

 

[cohochinook]

Oh boy...the next big idea from the ENGO thought leaders. 80% of the fish are still caught by 20% of the fishers, and tracking trends in the data on CPUE would have been the first bit of actual objective science-based evidence these researchers should have published instead of a gathering of pet theories.

The southern resident killer whale population is trending upwards so they got to drive their donations from something new!

 

[SpringVelocity]

Oh boy...the next big idea from the ENGO thought leaders. 80% of the fish are still caught by 20% of the fishers, and tracking trends in the data on CPUE would have been the first bit of actual objective science-based evidence these researchers should have published instead of a gathering of pet theories.

I am sure Watershed is already working on it.

 

[cuttlefish]

There is no doubt that fishing technology has come a long way. Let me share my experiences from the past.

The commercial salmon troller that I first deckhanded aboard fished out of Port Hardy mostly in the Hecate Straits, on the Goose Bank and around Cape Scott and anchored out on the grounds. Most of the time on those grounds there weren’t any real features on the bottom other than an edge or dropoff and no landmarks to line up with so we had to get creative about staying on the ”spot” when we got a bite going. An oldtimer at the time once told me the way he knew he had arrived at the Goose Bank, “When we got out of Goletas Channel and over Nawhitti Bar we dropped one line down to fifty fathoms and kept running until the cannonball started to bounce. That’s when we slowed to trolling speed and dropped the rest of the gear.”

Most boats at the time had what was called a paper echo sounder, a radar and a loran. There were also radios the size of large suitcases that were mounted in the galley because they were too big to fit in the wheelhouse and an autopilot known as the Iron Mike. Don’t ask me how it got that name but it had its own compass with whiskers inside and rotated back and forth by means of a chain driven gearbox and electric motor. The chain drive was also hooked up to the steering shaft so the ship’s wheel moved back and forth when the autopilot was engaged. You had to be careful not to get in the way of the spokes of the wheel as there was no give until Iron Mike decided to rotate in the other direction.

There were special charts for the loran that were very large scale and had special numbered lines printed on them. I think there was one chart for the entire west coast of Vancouver Island and another for northern part of the Canadian west coast. The loran itself consisted of a small oscilloscope that showed a couple of pulse lines and a row of lettered and numbered dials. The operator set one dial to channel “A” and then twisted the other five dials around until the peaks of the two pulse lines lined up on the scope. The operator would write down the five numbers, then turn the first dial to channel “B” and repeat the process. These two sets of numbers derived from the loran were then located on the loran chart. Where the two lines intersected indicated the vessel’s approximate position. I say approximate postion because of a bit of a time delay in acquiring the two sets of numbers and since the lines on the chart were drawn in increments of five, there was a bit of guesswork involved.

Another young troller who we fished around was named Bruce and he was considered a high liner. Sometimes when there was a circle jerk of trollers working over a school of biting salmon Bruce would appear to tack away from the crowd and I wondered where he was going. My skipper wasn’t considered a highliner so when the opportunity presented itself four years later, I got a job deckhanding for Bruce. That is when I learned Bruce’s secret. He had two lorans! Ergo, less time and guesswork involved to determine his approximate position. So what four years before looked like Bruce wandering away from the crowd was actually the crowd drifting in the current away from Bruce who remained on the “spot”. Soon technology advanced and the new lorans evolved. There were no longer knobs and oscilloscope, only two readouts of numbers constantly blinking and updating. The operator still had to translate the blinking numbers to the chart but no longer had to spin the dials. Pretty soon every troller had one of those new fangled lorans.

The next advance was the invention of the colour sounder. This was big because it could be left on all the time. The old paper sounders had rolls of paper that slowly advanced horizontally while a stylus quickly rotated vertically over the paper and left marks when an echo returned to the transducer. One would use the sounder sparingly so as not to waste paper. The paper in the sounder had to be kept dry on deck so everyone had a sounder box in their cockpit. It was used to store all kinds of things so some were quite huge. But so were the machines themselves. The rolls of paper had to be changed but could be put back in upside down for a second or third pass if you were running out of rolls. Of course the paper didn’t always spool properly and the styli got clogged with graphite so these old machines were constantly iin need of TLC. Soon came the flasher sounder that has a circular screen like a clock with depth numbers instead of hours and a rotating light that flashed when it picked up an echo. These were popular since they didn’t need any paper. There was a radio repairman in Namu who invented a talking sounder and I remember a troller named Lincoln who had one. No paper required but the problem was everyone else knew what depth Lincoln was fishing. Whenever he talked on the radio you could hear his talking sounder in the background, “Two-one, two-one, two-two, two-one……….” These machines didn’t catch on.

 

[cuttlefish]

Then there were the two brothers from Sointula who always fished the ‘Steamer Grounds’ - the Cook Bank off Cape Scott. There are two gullies out there off Scott Channel known as the Big Finger and the Little Finger. The current is always running like a river out there but in a weird variety of directions. there are not a lot of landmarks for lining up on, only Cape Scott itself and the Scott Islands off in the distance. And it is foggy a lot of the time in the summer. It is easy to see the gullies on the fathometer but hard to stay in them because of the erratic current. But the two brothers always brought in big loads of coho from the gullies on Steamer Grounds. I finally learned their secret for staying on the spot from one of their sons.
When the bite was on, they would put a piece of transparent acetate over top of their radar screen and put a dot with a wax pencil (this was before the invention of the Sharpie) on the acetate at the centre dot of the radar screen to mark the boat and then trace outlines of where Cape Scott and the islands showed up. As they turned or moved the dot in the centre would stay the same but the outlines of the land on the radar screen would move around. To get back to the spot, they would rotate and move the acetate until the wax pencil outlines lined up with the images of the land on the screen and then troll back towards the dot in the centre of the acetate. they were back on the spot when the two dots lined up again. I still use this technique today mostly for anchoring because it will accurately show me if I am dragging. Putting dots on the other vessels who may be anchored will also show me if they are dragging.

 

[agentaqua]

There is no doubt that fishing technology has come a long way. Let me share my experiences from the past....

Thanks for sharing your experiences, Cuttle. The term that's been recently coined is called "shifting baselines" now.

To add to your post and confirm your experiences - when I 1st started going to sea - they were phasing out Decca (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decca_Navigator_System) and bringing in Loran A - as you stated, then Loran C (and you needed specific Loran C charts to plot your position, and it didn't work close to land due to bending of the lines), then Loran C that gave you Lat/Longs that you could directly plot on any chart, then SatNav as a GPS precursor where one often only got a fix every 2-3 hours in Northern Latitudes, and then finally GPS (with the Americans adding a variable time offset because they were worried about the Russians using GPS for their missiles), and the the Loran C was phased-out.

All that "IF" you even had the equipment.

Many small boats only has a magnetic compass, and a sounder - and a really basic sounder as compared to today's multibeam colour display sonars including side scan and all the whistles/bells. During non-fog days - it made sense to time your run between known points at different rpms & record the results to get speed over ground (no GPS to help then) at different rpms so that when one got fogged in or at night - one knew when to stop and have a look around so you wouldn't overshoot your turn. The whistles, gongs, and bells and fog horns on buoys and lighthouses were well used. It was navigation by audio tracking to figure out where one was. One tried to think of not ending-up going endlessly out to sea if one missed a turn, and one planned one's route accordingly.

The sounder was also used. Aim for something large - like a large shoal - and turn once you knew you were on top of it.

Fisheries Science is WELL AWARE of the assumptions around Catch per Unit Effort (CPUE), and the consequences if you don't account for changes and improvements in our ability to catch for the same level of effort - a factor not properly considered in the East Coast cod crash:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249531439_Hyperaggregation_of_fish_and_fisheries_How_catch-per-unit-effort_increased_as_the_northern_cod_Gadus_morhua_declined

Interpreting catch per unit effort data to assess the status of individual stocks and communities

Abstract. Despite being one of the most common pieces of information used in assessing the status of fish stocks, relative abundance indices based on catch

academic.oup.com

Why do Fish Stocks Collapse? The Example of Cod in Atlantic Canada on JSTOR

Ransom A. Myers, Jeffrey A. Hutchings, Nicholas J. Barrowman, Why do Fish Stocks Collapse? The Example of Cod in Atlantic Canada, Ecological Applications, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Feb., 1997), pp. 91-106

www.jstor.org

 

[ziggy]

I think these types of ENGO fundraiser sound bites are a huge part of the problem. They constantly try and convince gullible donors that they have identified the ”Silver Bullet”. In the meantime those familiar with the issue know it’s a complex problem that does not have a simple solution. The endless stream of glossy flyers produced by the woke, cancel culture, tend to deflect attention from major problems which they and the government are reluctant to take on. Non selective harvest in the Fraser River for example, why aren’t they decrying this? Rehabilitation of urban and more recently rural streams, why aren’t they donning work boots to clean up the mess?

Its pretty clear that actual work is not on the agenda of the ENGO’s and they prefer to be well paid to sit in their offices in the major urban centres and pontificate. Produce glossy handouts and live the life of the urban executive with the odd annual pleasure cruise up the coast. Ever see them on the Fraser pulling illegal gill nets? How about organizing stream cleanups or volunteering at hatcheries. Of course not!

If they are suggesting Public Fishery technology is a bigger problem than pollution, stream and river degradation, predation , climate change and salmon ranching to name a few, it’s time to go back to school and upgrade the BSc mom and dad bought them.

 

[ziggy]

Then there were the two brothers from Sointula who always fished the ‘Steamer Grounds’ - the Cook Bank off Cape Scott. There are two gullies out there off Scott Channel known as the Big Finger and the Little Finger. The current is always running like a river out there but in a weird variety of directions. there are not a lot of landmarks for lining up on, only Cape Scott itself and the Scott Islands off in the distance. And it is foggy a lot of the time in the summer. It is easy to see the gullies on the fathometer but hard to stay in them because of the erratic current. But the two brothers always brought in big loads of coho from the gullies on Steamer Grounds. I finally learned their secret for staying on the spot from one of their sons.
When the bite was on, they would put a piece of transparent acetate over top of their radar screen and put a dot with a wax pencil (this was before the invention of the Sharpie) on the acetate at the centre dot of the radar screen to mark the boat and then trace outlines of where Cape Scott and the islands showed up. As they turned or moved the dot in the centre would stay the same but the outlines of the land on the radar screen would move around. To get back to the spot, they would rotate and move the acetate until the wax pencil outlines lined up with the images of the land on the screen and then troll back towards the dot in the centre of the acetate. they were back on the spot when the two dots lined up again. I still use this technique today mostly for anchoring because it will accurately show me if I am dragging. Putting dots on the other vessels who may be anchored will also show me if they are dragging.

Ahh the Grease Pencil.

 

[cuttlefish]

I remember getting my first plotter and fishing with it off Cape St. James. It was a loran C plotter and made zig-zaggy lines like the teeth of a saw. Even so, that is when I first realized how wrong my assumption of current direction over time at the Cape really were. I thought there was one direction for flood and one for ebb when actually it is more like trolling around the plug hole of a draining bathtub.
Fisheries managers have no power to regulate technology. All the have at their disposal are input controls and output controls. And their decisions are more reactionary-based after the fact and not really proactive ahead of it.

 

[cohochinook]

I think these types of ENGO fundraiser sound bites are a huge part of the problem. They constantly try and convince gullible donors that they have identified the ”Silver Bullet”. In the meantime those familiar with the issue know it’s a complex problem that does not have a simple solution. The endless stream of glossy flyers produced by the woke, cancel culture, tend to deflect attention from major problems which they and the government are reluctant to take on. Non selective harvest in the Fraser River for example, why aren’t they decrying this? Rehabilitation of urban and more recently rural streams, why aren’t they donning work boots to clean up the mess?

Its pretty clear that actual work is not on the agenda of the ENGO’s and they prefer to be well paid to sit in their offices in the major urban centres and pontificate. Produce glossy handouts and live the life of the urban executive with the odd annual pleasure cruise up the coast. Ever see them on the Fraser pulling illegal gill nets? How about organizing stream cleanups or volunteering at hatcheries. Of course not!

If they are suggesting Public Fishery technology is a bigger problem than pollution, stream and river degradation, predation , climate change and salmon ranching to name a few, it’s time to go back to school and upgrade the BSc mom and dad bought them.

Well said @ziggy ! Its the same old crap that we're seeing pumped out by the CBC these days! I remember when they actually had decent quality news and information and not this kind of BS!