Rockfish

The following post may be fictional, though it is written in the first person, say for dramatic effect. Also, no real or fictional characters' identities will be revealed. I'm still researching some legality issues.

I may or may not have gone fishing for striped bass this weekend, and this may or may not be what happened when I did or didn't go fishing.

We left late, it didn't seem necessary to push it. The ramps were crowded, the fish had been thick for about two weeks. Rock fish aren't the easiest fish to catch. Not like Tuna, for example, which are essentially a swimming mouth. But, the fish were so plentiful, everybody was catching them.

So, after an hour long steam out of Oregon Inlet North up the coast we arrived at an undisclosed location off of Kill Devil Hills. It was however, not a secret. We were sharing this stretch of water with no less than one hundred thirty small boats, and two commercial boats dragging trawls. It was, in a word, ridiculous.

In spite of what we will call "pressure on the stock," people were still hooking fish. We were not.

However, our attention was drawn to an area of activity, and as we focused our efforts there we notice some rock fish that appeared to be dead, floating on the surface. They were not dead--well not quite. They were dying, some bleeding from the gills, some with disfigured fins, some just looked stunned. We pulled a couple out of the water for a closer look. They were bycatch. They'd been discarded by one of the commercial boats in the area.

Now I don't mind fishing. It can be fun. However, I prefer catching, and what I really prefer is eating. As a sort-of-mostly-vegetarian, I love fish, and I eat a lot of it, because I cannot find any health or moral concerns in eating fish harvested with a hook and line. So, when I saw several semi-live fish that looked exactly like what we were expending quite a bit of effort and fuel to catch, I said to myself, "get that fish!". I had to play it cool however, my companions really enjoyed the art of angling, and the method mattered to them as much as the meat.

Upon inspection, we determined that the floaters were alive, and encounters with trawlers notwithstanding, healthy. As we pulled in and measured the second fish, we simultaneously hooked two fish. We lost one, and reeled in the other. It was right at the twenty eight inch limit, so we threw him back, not too much worse for wear, I might add.

After that, we didn't hook anymore fish for a while. And a trawler cruised right through the middle of the entire fleet. Just as he cleared the crowd, he pulled up his trawl, and proceeded to dump maybe one hundred dead or dying rock fish over his stern. And so my buddies and I were at a moral crossroads. Well, they were. I'd moved onto figuring out how I was going to cook the fish I was definitely not too proud to take second hand.

And so the fiasco began. We caught our limit, in a manner of speaking. Beautiful, powerful, majestic yummy fish, cast aside by stupid fisheries regulations. We proceeded to pick the largest fish we could find, filled our fish box, and enjoyed the rest of the day. We even hooked another fish, reeled it in, removed the hook, patted it on the ass and sent it home to get bigger for next year. That is of course unless it's murdered by some trawler.

The bottom line however, form the perspective of the hippie eater (me), or the conscientious anglers (my friends), is that this is more than sad. It is a shame. Certainly we are all part of the equation.

So, with brevity and nuance, I conclude. Commercial fishing is a way of life, fine. From the research I've read, sport fishing is not putting undue pressure on stocks. The problem is in the commercial method, and the regulations. Trawl nets are efficient alright. Efficiently destroying habitat and fish stocks. And for what, greasy bait fish for pet and livestock feed, and god knows what else food scientists can sneak it into.

Fishing, commercial or otherwise, may need to be done exclusively with hook and line, and I'm not talking about long line. Let the boat drag as many hooks as her crew sees fit to untangle from stern and outriggers. That would drive the cost of wild caught fish sky high. Fine. So be it. You want cheap fish, farm it. Get a fishing license. What about the animal feed. Cows do not naturally, and should not eat fish, or corn for that matter. They also shouldn't eat the ground up brains of other cattle, but that's a whole other issue. Cows eat grass. If that makes their meat unpalatable or expensive so be it. We've convinced ourselves that we are owed the luxury of cheap meat. The habit is not only killing us--heart disease--but destroying our environment.

I'm not so naive to think that I have all of the answers, and I'm not sure what the answer is. I do know though, that fisheries regulations that create a situation like the one I may or may not have participated in this past weekend, are bad regulations. Of that I am convinced.