"The American fisherman is not the bad guy."
I don’t often interview people but when I do, it’s… better than what I normally do. Random hot takes on beach-adjacent lifestyles, books about radical Islamic terrorism and bank robbery, snowboarding etc.
Ugh.
But you have, by now, certainly been made aware of our World Surf League’s most recent virtue signal 30 x 30.
A push to get professional surf fans to sign the 30 x 30 petition in support of AB3030 which pledges to fully protect 30% of the oceans, worldwide.
Wonderful?
Certainly, theoretically, but ill-considered?
Let’s do what the WSL didn’t and talk to a 4th generation commercial fisherman and vibrant personality Tommy Gomes.
The San Diego native has long been fixture in the seafood scene, from education to advocating sustainability to running a non-profit culinary program. He knows his fish, and his fishing, so what does he think about the World Surf League’s new advocacy?
Chas Smith: So what is this AB3030 business all about?
Tommy Gomes: Bait and switch, change country of origin and all that. Bring in more unregulated, unreported seafood by the Chinese and Taiwanese. If you go on vessel locater there is 127 Chinese boats less that 1000 miles from San Diego. To shut locals out is just ridiculous. Just another ploy to get money and funding and keep these environmental organizations going, keep them going but what they’re doing is crushing the last bit of the left coast commercial fishing operations. More imported, unregulated fish that’s chemically enhanced, that’s all 30 x 30 will do. The American fisherman is not the bad guy. Those paying for this sort of thing is ConAg and Monsanto or fish farming operations or wind farming conglomerates.
The money funding this 30×30 thing is coming from somewhere.
But this World Surfing League? Where the fuck they come from? I took Gerry Lopez out fishing off the Cortez Bank, I never heard of no fucking World Surf League. I’m a 4th generation commercial fisherman. This seems like just another tactic to shut down fishing and it doesn’t make any sense. We’re all watermen. No fisherman out there wants to kill the last anything. We all want to conserve, be sustainable. We’re doing everything we can. Now all of a sudden here comes this World Surf League who is probably getting money from… somewhere.
Chas Smith: Dirk Ziff. He’s a co-Waterperson of the Year.
Tommy Gomes: (Silence)
But there we have it and, seriously, how stunningly embarrassing is the ELo era?
Ugh.
I see Seaman Staines becoming overly predominant.
Cuz they are running the WSL so damn well… now they want to get into telling fisherX what to do. Don’t surfers like to eat fish?
Pro surfers might have one of the most negative impact on the environment of all professions. They fly around the world constantly, They go through a fuckload of boards made from poison that just ends up in landfill, They just buzz around on jetskis for shits and giggles, But they blindly asked us to sign a petition so i guess that makes up for it…
whats that fish Tommy is holding?
Looks over cooked whatever it is.
Monchong. Tasty deep water fish. Also known as a sickle pomfret outside of Hawaii.
So onolicious. My kukuwahine would bake it with ginger, garlic and sesame oil. Kinda like Opah but more sweet.
Please tell me this isn’t a soft launch for RodGrit.
hahahahahah
Remember the segment we had on Master-baiters?
I’ll bet Tommy knew Gerry was known as Mr Pipeline but didn’t know that
nowadays he is better known as “Gerry – The Endorser !”
Go to Youtube and search Chinese fishing boats.
I have at least one new video pop up a day where Chinese fishing boats bum rush some other countries waters with a massive fleet.
At best the local patrolling ships seize one boat as the rest of the fleet gets away.
Not to mention, China is sending fleets of ships to dredge sand from the waters around Taiwan, doing massive damage to their reefs.
Sweet and sour cunts!
Hello? Human population elephant in the room?
We could carve a few steaks from that pesky tusker
Come, oh friendly asteroid.
Its overdue
I just had it in my head that they’d divvy up the woz’s 30% of the ocean – approx 96,300,000 sq miles – and have the surfers look after it like a veggie patch?? Only 3,009,375 sq miles each on a yearly rotational basis??
This WSL 30×30 is weak sauce.
Gotta be the most uninspiring name for an initiative I’ve ever heard.
Asking a commercial fisherman about what the fishing regulations should be is like asking Bex Vidina what the Beachgrit commenting regulations should be.
Wrong. Grossly uneducated you are on the subject. This is how it’s done stupid. I’m probably pushing a rope uphill here, but I don’t care. Stupid….and nobody can fix it.
I should have added ‘Only…’ to the start of the comment.
Commercial fisherman understand the state of their part of the fish stocks better than anyone. They have their own vested interest, which removes impartiality.
For the record i think the massive fishing companies and their fleets, i don’t care who owns em, can fuck right off.
If ya want a wave, go get one yourself. If ya want a fish, go get one yourself.
But you didn’t. You shot from the hip, as most do, when it pertains to a resource. You can thank your law makers for the massive fishing fleets as that’s the result of catch quotas. (Mostly democrats). I really don’t care to go into the full explanation of how all of it works, simply for the sake that my time is more valuable. All I care to end on is buy, locally caught, sustainability harvested, fish. Catch them yourself when possible, practice catch and release, listen to the big bad commercial fisherman, and abide by the law. Good day!
“We’re not the problem – it’s them who have messed everything up”