Illegalities stoke California squid fishing war – Brail-fleet members allege Canadian-built purse seiners are grabbing all the catch
Monterey County Herald – A David and Goliath battle is brewing in the commercial squid fishery, with “scoop” fishermen alleging larger purse seiners are robbing them of their livelihoods, sometimes illegally. Based mostly in Southern California, members of the smaller brail, or scoop net, fleet say they have not been allowed to fish for three years because larger purse seiners, many of them built in Canada, have pulled in the quota of 118,000 tons before the brail season becomes ripe. continued
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Mr. cappucio has very unique way of interpreting a law that is in black and white already. As he clearly states that a undocumented or abstract title vessels are allowed multiple five ton hatches. When the jones act clearly states any vessel undocumented or with abstract title can only unload 5 tons at a time period. Just because you have the proper permits issued from the fish and wildlife department does not mean you can legally operate and land more than 5 tons from a non u.s. documented vessel. This problem is happening in not only squid but sardine,anchovy,albacore and blackcod. This affects all u.s. states on the west coast and affects the existing quotas as these vessels are operating without proper u.s. documentation. Without these vessels and their landings the existing quotas would be completely different. NOAA has just completed a similar case in Hawaii just recently where the same illegal activity was going on and the violators faced forfeture of their boats and permits. The same thing has happened back east a few years ago. The real problem lies in the fragmentation of our existing government and the inability of the department of homeland security and border patrol to do their job. Enforcing the rules that have been put into place. My advice to you is do some of your own research and you will realize that the statements I have made are factual , valid and to the point. Trying to single out the scoop fishery as the “rats” is an unfair and illogical assesment. As these issues are ongoing in the west coast fishery and unless you personally participate all these fisheries you will never draw a correlation between them. Thank you for the opportunity to express my knowledge an feelings on this subject. Get ready for some sparks flying at the commission meeting on July 18th in monterey. According to my sources it has been handed to the federal district attorney of california as I write this response. Also california fish an wildlife will be assessing the squid issues by october and begin to give us some definitive answers on multiple subjects pertaining to the california squid fishery.