My reaction to the soon to start netting of Yellowfin Tuna in The Bahamas
 
The Atlantic stocks seem to be in pretty good shape compared to many other fish.
 
However, there are also by-catch (turtles , sharks, and game-fish) and marine mammal considerations. 
 
These considerations are much different than open ocean netting.
 
At a place like Dutch Bar you are going to get everything that is hovering about.
 
Several places are shallow enough that it is possible for the nets to snag on the bottom, damaging the sea-floor and with very large portions of the net remaining there.
 
Many know the commercial operators from Freeport, and know they will not quit until there is nothing commercially viable left. 
 
They could hit Hole in the Wall; Andros; and Dutch Bar, once a week.  When those spots slow down they can go to Rum Cay; Long Island; and San Salvador.  They can make an ever widening circle that may be sustainable in the short term but also kill the tourism in the short term.
 
They are good fisherman and will catch them.  It is just a matter of how long they remain to be caught and how much the rest of the eco-system suffers in the period that justifies the commercial onslaught.
 
They can also sell shark-fins and wahoo and dolphin and.....
 
The tourism argument seems to be a strong one. 
 
Yellowfin Tuna fill a lot of hotel rooms and dock slips and fancy restaurants with well-off anglers. 
 
Also, this comes at a time that the Bahamas should be tightening its belt environmentally speaking, not finding new ways to decimate its appeal to an ever shrinking tourist dollar.  Cuba will be more of a competitor very soon and many other fish in the Bahamas are ever more tightly regulated leaving rod and reel large tuna fishing as a big draw economically without hurting the population stock.  My very un-scientific estimate is that rod and reel fisherman probably catch about 1% of what netting would.
 
Netting these fish that are gathering themselves into a easily targeted biomass would be very destructive in a very short time. 
 
The consequences are magnified by the taking of the by-catch that is a big part of the original lure bringing these tuna in.
 
Here is a quote from a friend of mine that used to commercial fish for yellowfin:
 
"Hi Scott, I will tell you one day about netting yellowfin tuna on the Pacific side of Costa Rico. The boat was 125' with a 15 man crew. 20,000 to 40,000 lbs a set. lots of pictures."     --Bill
 
That is as much yellowfin tuna in one set of the net as tourists and Bahamians catch at the Dutch Bar or Hole in the Wall in an entire year.
 
Please send this out to all of the people that you know that enjoy "trying" to catch a yellowfin tuna.
 
At the very least there should an informed debate about the pros and cons of this for The Bahamas.
 
Thanks, Capt. Scott Sherouse, PhD   
 
http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/fishwatch/species/atl_yellowfin.htm