Blue Spotted Jawfish from Baja

[Morgman]

Hey fellow reefers---

I figured if anyone knew this question it would in here.

What is the status in regards to the Blue Spotted Jawfish, Opistognathus rosenblatti out of Baja, Mexico?

I have heard that permits are being pulled on them. I also heard they may be illegal now.

Does anyone have some inside information on this species?

Talking to others that bought these fish it looks like that last infux of the Blue Spotted Jawfish was in September 2004.

Any thoughts or opinions would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks----


Morgan

 

[JT]

STILL illegal, not suddenly now. Permits are about as impossible to get as they are for Clarions. I doubt very much that the influx you saw in LA last year were here legally. However, someone may try to convince you otherwise. :wink:

 

[Morgman]

Thanks JT.

At least someone has some useful information

 

[clarionreef]

They often come in invoiced and declared as shark meat...
1/50 of what occurs , occurs to Fish and Wildlife.
Even less then that ocurrs to Mexican fis.......................
OOOPs...delete.............delete...........

 

[Morgman]

Now thats pretty crazy. Shark meat in a bag.

 

[JT]

Clarions listed as Juvi. Passers
Blue Spot Jaws as Shark Meat

Six in one half a dozen of the other..

Same ****, different day

 

[IslandDiver]

Jaw fish were being sold and accounted for as "Assorted Gobi's" about 200 per week last summer, all were smuggled. They should be back in 3 - 5 years when the importer is back on the street and has a new suckers name to register his business under.

 

[Anonymous]

I'll be damned. The only person I know of that has kept these fish successfully (long term) is technoshaman. Has anyone else had success?

 

[clarionreef]

A research institute in La Paz, Baja [ CICIMAR] held them for years and bred them. I saw the courtship [ on land for the first time ] and the babies being reared.
They went off to a conference to show the results and while they were gone...the caretaker accidentely killed em all.
When the permit expired to collect legally...the supply was cut off and now they have no more breeding program.
Steve
PS. Stephen Birch Aquarium in La Jolla, Cal, kept em for year til they died of old age.

 

[sdcfish]

I checked into the bluespots a month or two ago. After having two seperate conversations with US Fish and Wildlife, and Mexican fisheries people, there is a permit for bluespots and they are being LEGALLY imported.

Only wish I could get the single license holder to sell me some! Soon enough

Regards,

Eric

 

[Anonymous]

Very true Eric, but the manor of which the permit was issued and what it is for, is still basicly smuggling. They aren't listed at BSJ on the permit in northern baja Bycatch my arse!

Besides the fact that the shipper in question still has a horriable time with shipping, I mean trucking them, across the boarder. Aren't BSJ supposed to have tails and fins?

 

[Anonymous]

Oh, and what the heck does US F & W know about Mexican Fisheries. You should have seen them scramble for info when Clarion Gate went down last year :lol: one word, CLUELESS. They may know more now, but they didn't know squat back then.

 

[clarionreef]

Yes
By-catch was the cover they came in on.
Bycatch???
Only in Mexico. There are no primary catch targets that accidently find a bycatch of 100 bluespot jawfish suddenly there....somehow. :roll:
Steve
The bycatch scheme cost 3k and was shopped around to others as well.

 

[StevenPro]

I am confused Steve. Didn't you say in my author's forum on RC that you could catch 150 blue spot jawfish per day with a small hook and line?

The yellowheads are caught with quin mixed with isoprophyl alcohol because the collectors in the keys, and Haiti have never learned the simple technique of catching them with trout hooks and 2 1/2 foot underwater fishing poles.
This is how we catch the bluespot jawfish in Baja and can get up to 150 a day.
Steve

Were you just relating how it was done in the past when collection was legal? If so, you might want to clarify that in my forum so you don't get in trouble or have people think you are up to no good.

 

[dizzy]

I checked into the bluespots a month or two ago. After having two seperate conversations with US Fish and Wildlife, and Mexican fisheries people, there is a permit for bluespots and they are being LEGALLY imported.

Only wish I could get the single license holder to sell me some! Soon enough

Regards,

Eric

Well regardless if they are being brought in totally legal or not, it certainly demonstrates what an advantage it is to be able to go from wholesaler to wholesaler making these little picks at a time. It allows these select few etailers to have(offer not actually have) a variety that even the big boys like SDC can't offer their customers. I'm just not convinced having these super parasites that don't create their own customer base by meeting the public, is good for the long term health of the industry. In fact I'm pretty sure it's not.
Mitch

 

[clarionreef]

Steven,
Trout hooks are 1/3 of an inch long!
No food fish are caught with them....accompanied w/ a by-catch of jawfish.
Up to 150 a day was the truth...100 a day more normal.
And yes...the greatest period of collecting history in Mexcio didn't have all the base-less restrictions we now have and collection was perfectly legal.
Steve

 

[StevenPro]

I am sorry I was not clear. I was not attempting to argue whether or not someone could make the claim that these fish were truly caught as by-catch. I just saw you state in one thread on one message board how many of these fish you can catch and then in another thread on another message board that they are illegal to catch. Someone that doesn't know you and reads both threads could come to the conclusion that you are engaging in something illegal. I was just trying to alert you to this. You don't want to give the false impression that you are a smuggler.

 

[clarionreef]

Steven,
Thanks for the perspective.
I see a panarama of 24 years of collecting jawfish and the last 5 not.
The trick of bycatching them was clever loophole...done for cash...and works against the principal of inteligent and honest fishery management.
The recent history is all many people have and I need to remember that.
We spent years surveying these jawfishes w/ monitors from fisheries onboard only to see them banned arbitrarily for a private use and a single private business interest.
This hurt the 20 year old legal operation and gave carte-blanche to new ones.
Its hard to respect fishery policy when you are eye-witness to its scandals and unscientific behavior.
We are appealing to the powers that be now for a modicum of justice and fairness to the originators of the harmless tiny hook method.
Until then, jawfishes were always taken with drugs imported from the US.
Steve
being punished for doing whats right is not only a norm in Mexcio traditionally but in our trade as well.
So far...MAcs daddy the TNC has kept benign, net collecting out of the park where it all began.

 

[dizzy]

By hook or by crook, the little buggers just don't seem to hold up well in the home aquarium.

 

[clarionreef]

Dizzy,
Thats because they are collected and handled roughly now and transported in bags that rub their tails raw...paving the way for secondary bacterial infection.
The original fishers knew how to do this better....the new ones do not.
They could steal the permit but could not steal the secrets to handling the fish better.
Steve