Saturday 8/27/22 Species Report
2 humpback whales! 🐋
10 bottlenose dolphins 🐬
Dozens of cownose rays
4 blacktip sharks 🦈
1 osprey 🦅
I took it easy photographing the whales today, our dear friend Ann Maries , who sell all the merchandise on board for us has been sick> I could tell I have been in charge of the shirts for the last week or so as they were a mess so i concentrated on getting everything organized on the boat while all the passengers enjoyed the whales and shark and more lol
Legality aside, two major factors are “overlooked” by managers: localized depletion which can ruin fishing nearby and the role of menhaden in the ecosystem providing nutrition for the marine food web.
It would be a different story if the boats were smaller and family owned like they used to be. Back then, private commercial fishing boat owners would head out for the day, take 50,000 or so bunkers for trap bait and head back to the dock, offload and have a beer. Things have changed, not just for the menhaden fishery, but for fisheries all over the world. The little guys are out, and massive industrial scale vessels now rule the sea.
