Concerns for baitfish?

Many people have been saying that the Covid situation may be a good thing because of the lowered fishing pressure. While I believe this is true as well I’m also beginning to worry it might have the opposite affect on baitfish populations as there are going to be more, larger fish feeding since they aren’t being caught.

I just wanted to start a discussion on everyone’s opinions on this? Do you agree, disagree, etc...

I may also be going crazy and overthinking this because I have nothing else to do

This post has been edited by Kyfish on May 06, 2020 - 11:42 am

To be honest, I think so...

I don't know about the larger and more plentiful fish having an impact... But I will say that the cormorants have been out of control so far this year. There are 6 or 7 of them fishing in the Bay right in front of my place at this moment. And there are a whole bunch more in the river near by. WAY more birds than years past. I think the lack of boats and anglers is keeping them super active.

I don't think that

as they need to eat anyway, regardless of the presents of anglers and boats, but definitely they now get their meal more easily. Rather opposite, they can be a bit more relax now...
BTW, is it reasonable and ethical to suggest boaters to run into cormorant flocks whenever possible to at least make there life a bit harder?

Am I allowed to use the cormorants to explain why I haven’t caught anything yet this year? Love on the bay as well and have managed to launch the boat a couple of time’s and need an excuse for me not catching anything so the family stops making fun of me

This post has been edited by Kyfish on May 07, 2020 - 05:55 pm

You are probably over thinking it a bit here. Some guys have still been getting out and getting lots of fish. I also heard the commercial guys have started laying nets as of yesterday afternoon helping reduce the fish population.

Are the commercial guys in owen sound.

Mother nature can manage just fine w/o our "help"

If we would talk seriously here, then if you look at the planet biological history and evolution a bit deeper you would see that Mother Nature could devastate their own creature quite hard and ugly. And it's our personal and social choice to decide if it is "normal" natural process and we have to leave it alone or we need to fix it and adjust according to our human values.
In case of cormorants I personally think that human adjustment is well and long time needed.

I think I definitely was overthinking woth the original question. Especially given the timeframe but not sure I agree Mother Nature working out without our help because it’s usually is that originally cause the problems, especially in the case of invasive species, in recent memory round gobies and zebra mussels, it has a tough time dealing with them once they’re here

If we would talk seriously here, then if you look at the planet biological history and evolution a bit deeper you would see that Mother Nature could devastate their own creature quite hard and ugly. And it's our personal and social choice to decide if it is "normal" natural process and we have to leave it alone or we need to fix it and adjust according to our human values.
In case of cormorants I personally think that human adjustment is well and long time needed.

I was talking seriously----if you look into it a bit further you will see that nature can get along a lot better w/o us trying to save it or 'adjust' it to suit our needs. A very serious subject indeed!!

yupppp. baitfish populations will do just fine. put em back fellas.

Mother nature does not need our "help" ( spell interference ) That includes having foreign countries ruin our natural environment with invasive species.....cormorants, starlings, gobey, Ash borer, etc., etc. Having said that, there should be a continuous, unrestricted, open season on the cormorants. Shoot on sight.
I've seen how a flock of them completely devastate a small island. Every single piece of vegetation dead. Just a s--t spattered lump of rock left. This is just what we see...........like someone said, what about the baitfish they destroy????

agree---except to say that cormorants are native.

Sorry, have argue. You a bit shallow here. If you look a bit deeper or learn more about earth natural and evolution history you would easily see that a lot of real but natural disasters happened in the past. If you call it "adjustment" and "better" I will not argue - it's matter of personal choice.
However, all the world around is very concern now about climate change, even though everybody is supposed to know that we are living know just after the end of geological period called Little Ice Age. And the average temperature on the planet in the past was much higher than it is now.
For example, they now extract oil in the permafrost, meaning that there was a jungle forest during millions of years.
And while humans do tremendous harm to the planet, the climate change is very minimal of humans impact. Researchers, who follow the scientific evidence rather than social hype realize very well that while alternative energy is right way to go and is extremely important it will not affect ongoing climate changes.
So a lot of changes on the planet should happened naturally - thousands of species would extinct, for example. Some of them are very cute, as polar bear and penguin. Are you OK with that or we have to try to save them?
While it is obvious that nowadays most ecological disasters are human made, the nature is not perfect. Besides cormorants issue now there is ongoing problem with snow geese who devastate their breeding range area. Sure, over dozens or hundred years these problems will be vanished. Bur should people wait for that or they should help the nature to speed up the balance? In case of cormorants I would say yes.