Re: Think we will see Whiting in our lifetime?
I grew up on the LB pier in the 50's and 60's and some 70's. The first fish of the year board in the tackle shop (which I made in 1962 for a striper, ironically I was fishing with herring strips for whiting) . 75 cents got you bait and a day's fishin. I owned the baseball home run derby pinball on really cold nights. George's clam chowder is still the standard I use. Having to "earn" your way onto the NE corner with the regulars as a kid was no small accomplishment. Once there, the old timers considered you one of their own. Offers of a whiskey spiked coffee "warmin-up" to a twelve year old wasn't even given a second thought. Gone are the days of whiting on the shore. I witnessed first hand, as many have, offshore, miles of juvenile spikes and ling floating and dying behind multiple trawlers . Were the nets full or were these crushed before getting squeezed through the large mesh? This waste is out of control. Larger mesh only works in the early set. Once the floor is covered everything gets pressed in. It's my belief that the winter fisheries we grew up with don't stand much of a chance of returning even with tighter restrictions imposed.
Global warming will move everything north, just as the southern summer fish species we see now in numbers.
|
