am going to tell you, what I saw today was extremely upsetting to me!
I was on the American Princess Cruises whale and dolphin watch today Thursday August 30th. We had a great day and sighted 11-13 humpbacks, possibly a Minke whale, 20 dolphins and a few sharks. That’s all great but it could be the end of seeing the whales and dolphins in our waters! The day I have been dreading is here! The large Omega Protein factory purse seine net ships are taking our local Bunker fish aka Menhaden by the millions!!!!
Why is this happening and how is this happening? A few bills failed to pass in the NYS Assembly that protect our precious Menhaden AKA Bunker fish. "Assembly Bill A10506A" would have banned industrial purse seining in New York Waters. Now, any commercial fishing vessel, who buys a permit, can come into our waters and take our menhaden fish legally!
Today, a state-of-the-art menhaden killing machine called the "Rappahannock" cleared out a large section of the ocean of menhaden right in front of us! The Rappahannock drove the whales inshore looking for food, this is total BS!!! It’s a wakeup call to all NYers who love the ocean, because the Rappahannock and ships like this are going to clear out ALL the menhaden, if we let them! They did in the Chesapeake Bay, they destroyed that bay now they are up here doing the same to this area! The whales, dolphins, bass, blues, sharks and everything else that eats them will be gone. Fisherman should be up in arm, almost all the fish they catch eat menhaden! When the menhaden is gone the fish are gone!
