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Laughable.
The cardinal rule guiding striped bass management is that the only good fish is a dead fish.
Under current management targets all large fish should be killed as soon as species sustainability is ensured.
Species sustainability is ensured by the large 2011 year class, therefore the ASMFC is working hard to find ways around the cuts (which they now consider unnecessary) mandated by the current management plan.
Once that is accomplished then they can next work on changing management mandates to allow harvesting of smaller fish which will be in the 24-26" class by the time the larger fish are gone.
If the 2011 YOY class did not exist things would be different, but because they do exist the current ASMFC discussions have nothing to do with improving a fishery they know will be sustained. Rather they have everything to do with avoiding an inconvenient pre-existing mandate that will force restrictions on short term economic gains of their primary "customers", the commercial and charter industries......... and short term ego gains by the "look what I killed" recreational community.
Pretending or hoping anything different is going on is sadly naive.
Improving (or even preserving) the quality of the non-charter recreational fishery is not a priority or goal of the ASMFC.
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