(Originally published January/February 2014)
Clean up the radio language, folks!
by Capt. Tred Barta
Quick announcement! I now have a full page in the Big Game Fishing Journal. I certainly don’t need to make an announcement and I certainly don’t need an introduction as I have been fishing the Northeast canyons for more than 40 years.
This summer I have been invited to Fish Wiz Sam Gershowitz, owner of Star Island Marina and of course his boat, Marlena. I also will be spending quite a bit of time in Shinnecock as well as Nantucket. After all kind of medical work-ups, chanting, voodoo by other people as well as my belief in Christ, the fact remains I will be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life. No big deal, I’ll just deal with it.
OK, let’s go to work and let’s get right to the point. The language on the VHF from the Fish Tail to the Hudson Canyon is atrocious! It is sacrilegious; the poorest of taste, against the law and it is literally ruining the canyon experience. No less than 10 private owners have called me and told me that they are embarrassed to take their family and small children offshore.
The F bomb word is being used on the VHF constantly. I want to make it perfectly clear I abhor this behavior. I do not condone it under any circumstances and I cannot comprehend why, when all of us have the privilege to see the miracle of life, the literal unfolding of life itself as raw Gulf Stream water slams against the Continental Shelf, pushing fertile cold water toward the surface as the sun literally explodes a bloom of life. Hey everybody this is a privilege to witness.
Tuna and marlin are truly pelagic. These fish travel literally thousands upon thousands of miles, some touching the European coast and the deepest reaches of South America and then in a flash moment they explode on your spread of lures. This experience is why you should go to the canyons, not to outfish each other, not to cut off each other’s lines, not to use cuss words and even unacceptable sexual comments on the VHF so that a family with three young children can hear it. Let me make myself perfectly clear, if you think I am wrong on this subject not only do you not know Tred Barta but I truly don’t want to be in your company. The language in the canyons must stop!
I have it by good knowledge that the FCC through the Coast Guard may start enforcing this infraction. I am not asking you. I am begging you. Let’s police our own and make the Northeast canyons what they are, a true miracle of our natural world and a place where we just honor the fact that we are being there in the first place. I can truly say that if you don’t like my message politely said too bad. If the shoe fits, clean it up and put it back on again.
I just want to make a plea to the charter boat community who are the actual moral fabric of our sport, charter boat captains both inshore and offshore earn their life and support their family on the sea: Please be an example and speak up against this bad language. I am asking my good friends aboard the Canyon Runner to lead the way. What an incredible bigeye bite this year and what an incredible bluefin finale in the Hudson.
As we all know the Big Game Fishing Journal is owned by its employees. I am asking every subscriber to get five new subscribers. The Big Game Fishing Journal is our magazine. Let’s help them grow.
Till Next Tide
Tred’n Water
Capt. Tred Barta
