Wednesday
May302012
Time to push for Hawaii's bones to be designated a gamefish: UPDATE below
Wednesday, May 30, 2012 at 12:00AM 
A pissed off Coach Duff posted this pic of a commercially harvested Hawaii bonefish on his Facebook page.
Josh Owens followed up with this disturbing image.
Time to mobilze the troops.
UPDATE: Sign the petition to stop gill netting Hawaiian bonefish.
tagged bonefish, fish pics, salt water fly fishing in Species
bonefish, fish pics, salt water fly fishing in Species
Reader Comments (37)
And people wonder why fly fishermen are considered to be elitist jerks......
We believe netting should stop inshore fully but that Hawaiians should be able to harvest slot limit bonefish with rod and reel only. The Hawaiian people had their language stolen, their HULA stolen and their land and kingdom stolen. They gained alot with our presence but lost alot too, some culture that was lost forever. We have to honor that. We think they should be able to keep tradition but by making the O’io a gamefish it can’t be sold anywhere, which will curtail alot of the illegal netting done by crystal meth addicts and make it a bigger crime. Catch and release is a management tool, often screamed for by fly anglers who have their own agenda (catching more fish), it is not a higher consciousness. Our solution is much like the Bahamas which in case most of you don’t know, have bonefish in many of their homes as the traditional Bahamian Christmas dinner. Coach Duff
As for the internet "badass" comment by Mr. Dee, I've been in two full on fistfights, had a knife pulled on me, had my tires slashed 3 times, have had 11 illegal netters arrested, once carrying out the agent in my skiff marking me forever as a target, and have gone long spells carrying a bat in my skiff in case they come at me in numbers. Thiis aint the Big Horn pal, Now if your comment was tongue in cheek, ha ha but I've more than answered the bell in protecting these fish in an environment where most people are scared to face the druggies who do the illegal netting. In fact illegal nets are seldom seen anymore in Kaneohe Bay in daylight hours. Now I might not be a badass, but I walk the walk, when most folks sit on their computer on crap flyfishing forums spouting off at the mouth and doing nothing but bitching. It might take years, but we will win this war.. Coach Duff
Just as a matter of interest Mr Duff, do you pay a resource rental or some other resource fee in order to access the resource from which you derive your income?
Would it be reasonable to assume Mr. Duff that your rant is more about protecting your own financial interest rather than promoting conservation in a widest context.
If he is an outfitter, then of course he pays to access the resource. If he is only a fisherman then he pays for a fishing license.... Unless he is one of those meth heads in the picture who are depleting THIER resource for short term monetary gain. You're the one sitting on a high horse and acting like a douche-idiot, or idiot-douche. Either way, you get the idea...
Sean does not know his ass from a hole in the ground. The net is designed with larger meshes ahead of the bunt (bag holding the weight of the fish for lifting) that alows undersize fish to escape as the seine is closed. All fish in the net are mature size. See any small ones Sean. The local fisherman are not idiots like you are.
Fact is Hawaiians dont give a shit about preservation or sustainability. Those "Hawaiians" that you see harvesting those fish are probably all 3/4 Filipino. The second they get off the boat they claim they are King Kamehameha's grandson. My family is from there and I lived there and I have seen it time and time again.
I love how people always side with these stone age cultures. If Hawwiians hadn't been ignorant of steel then maybe we'd all be wearing hula skirts right now. Fuck them! We tell them not to throw virgins into volcanoes anymore so we damn well are going to tell them how not to fuck up their resources.
The interesting thing about the net Mr. A, ohh....
(by the way, what does the "A" stand for? Could it be for Asshole?... Anal?...Attitudinal?.... ahhh I finally got it, I guess youre just trying to be A nonney mouse which just goes to show what a small little Asshole you are after all.)
Well anyway, some of us here on this site arent Americans and we dont live in America hence the interest in understanding what the resource access rights are. What I dont read in this rant is anything about resource conservation such as environment degradation, habitat depletion, high grading, purse seining Tilapia to the point of collapseand on and on.. nor do I see anything relating to protecting any other fly caught or non fly species. Its just about the Bones baby, just the bones.
What I read instead is a guy masquerading under the banner of environmental protection whilst making racist statements on something which could potentially hurt his vested financial interests. What we have is a guy trying to make some bones out of the resource whilst butting heads with a group of other guys trying to do the same thing. Seems like the only one who doesnt get the idea is you.... Tight lines Mr. A.....
"We think they should be able to keep tradition but...."
Coach Duff, there's always a "but". If you really care about the natives and their traditions, let it go. You don't care if they are netting non fly fishing targeted fish, do you? It's only when they are netting fish you ALSO gain income from, then you have issues.
One or the other Duff. You stop all netting or allow all netting, game fish or not. No "buts"
Crack-heads steal copper from telephone wires and shock themselves to death for drugs, of course some meth-heads are going to throw out a net and try to sell fish for some drugs elsewhere, it's much safer. I don't understand the native comments, that is clearly not traditional and that one guy doesn't need to eat that much. Props to Duff for actually doing something, how many of you know anything more about this issue than this picture? Drugs.