[Sea King]

IMHO - I think many might be missing the real issue here. The overall health of the bay and it's fish has little to do with Omega and much to do with pollution as a result of industry & maybe irresponsible development in the entire Chesapeake watershed. A huge, fast growing area.

There was an ad campaign this year addressing this issue but I'm not sure it got enough traction/exposure. There seems to be a lot of energy expended piling on Omega, maybe some deserved, but if you really want to make a difference I'd use that energy to generate and support ideas to reduce pollution levels.

If Omega were gone tomorrow what percentage of the problem would be fixed and what other problems would be created?

 

[Sea King]

Since everyone seems to like to repeat their position over and over, I'll do the same. The top 3 issues in the bay are pollution,

1. from actual development and the result of development (more people) erosion, runoff from roads, lawn chemicals, etc.

2. from agriculture, fertilizer and animal waste runoff from farms. Aren't there a bunch of chicken farms in MD??? No one seems to want to talk about losing MD jobs to clean up the bay do they?

3. Sewage Treatment plants at/beyond capacity, every time we get a big rain it seems there is some spill in DC that is in the millions of gallons, hmmm... this sounds like a big problem!?!

Toying with the idea that Omega is somehow killing all the rockfish seems somewhat silly to me especially since there doesn't seem to be any scientific evidence to support that. Menhaden are not endangered and you could almost walk across the bay and rivers on the backs of trophy rockfish this past Spring. You can still catch dozens on any given day in the river and the bay even in July and I have not seen a sick rockfish this Summer, haven't even heard too much about them this year! If everything in the bay dies there will be no menhaden or rockfish, not to mention crabs, perch, croaker etc. I am not an activist, just one more big mouth with a different angle to ponder.

 

[Sea King]

In my opinion there is no comparison between the effect pollution has on the ecosystem and the impact Omega is having on the health of the bay.

The pollution issue is the 800 lb Gorilla. Omega's fishing, I acknowledge is a problem, but is yet a small fly on the Gorilla's back. In no way shape or form are these issues equal in size or complexity. If you want to be an activist for the bay and all of the individual species residing in it, your energy would be better spent on reducing pollution.

 

[Sea King]

[Q]captaingeorge originally wrote:
[Q]Sea King originally wrote:
If you want to be an activist for the bay and all of the individual species residing in it, your energy would be better spent on reducing pollution.
[/Q]Unless, of course, one is really less concerned about the bay and mostly concerned with catching rockfish.[smile]
[/Q]
Capt, I am not sure there has been a better year for catching rock than '05, not in my lifetime. Catchemup! [wink]

 

[Sea King]

[Q]captaingeorge originally wrote:
I also think the rockfishing is fine and that the excessive attention on the bunker is good energy misspent.
[/Q]

Amen brother! Good luck fishing!

 

[Sea King]

JIm,
I do think that you are taking this personally. Please check your b-mail.
PD