Killing Tarpon...

[bman]

This article on the killing of tarpon in Louisiana really bothered me...
While I am normally against regulation this seems pointless.


http://flylifemagazine.com/conservation ... ooks-like/


I did find this response to the article on a spearfishing board:
http://www.spearboard.com/showthread.php?p=1812802

Thoughts?

[RCS]

IMO, spearing a tarpon for the "fun" of it is no different than shooting a deer and leaving it in the woods to rot. I also have a big problem with this:
Cash Prizes for Tarpon...$100 for the largest, $100 for the smallest, and $300 for a "spawning capable" female. I can understand the need to harvest the occasional tarpon for research purposes, but I don't agree with slapping a bounty on them.

[Chalk]

[captkeyser]

[charlie tuna]

Everytime i look at the picture i get sick !! What a waste and it takes zero skill to shoot tarpon, they come right up to you !!

[MuleTrainGA]

Not sure how they thought what they were doing was "tolerable". Complete idiocy.

[Dubble Trubble]

From one of the posts....
-----
Tarpon fishermen off of Boca Roton catch an estimated 100,000 tarpon a year with a mortality rate of 20%.

The Hell Divers and various clubs in Louisiana kill about 10-15 a year. And provide research that has determined that Louisiana has its own seperate spawning aggregate of tarpon in the western gulf.

You do the math and see who kills more tarpon!
-----

He DOES make a point, plus from what I gathered, they use the meat to make fish balls to eat.

I also saw in the article they saidd around 800 were killed per year there. Now if the 20% mortality for the sport fishing is true, that would be 20,000 a year killed by catch and release methods.

Although the "intent" is good, the facts seem to be more are killed by catch and release sport fishing.

Kind of reminds me of the "Do as I say and not as I do" cliche.

Not taking any sides, just making a point.


Dubble

[MudDucker]

We don't need to be standing with no PETA type folks! If they separate us with miniscule issues such as this one, they will conquer. We need to see that our fishing tradition is being attacked in the name of the "New World Order".