Flap, from your post is why I think the status quo should remain as is and the resource be shared equitably by all.
Flaptail said:
"My point is this. The letting out of licenses to people that have jobs onshore already and make $38.00 an hour fitting pipes or selling cars etc.is wrong. If your going to sell Bass then you should make your entire living from commercial fishing, year round.
I have said this a thousand times but how would you like it if somone showed up at your job, pulled up alongside and said to you that from now on for the next 8 weeks or so he is going to get a share of your salary? That's what is going on with anyone getting a license for selling bass as of this moment. Not fair."
You would first have to decide who is the "real commercial fisherman". Do you pull 1040 Tax Forms? Does the guy have an inheritance? How about if his wife brings home a salary? Do you disqualify him if he has a side job? Lots of things to think about.
Is a lobster fisherman or a dragger captain more entitled to sell a bass than a guy working in a Seven Eleven who doesn't make much more than minimum? And really anyboby in industry can grab your whole salary at any time. They just call it outsourcing, or competition. Businesses fold all the time and people get laid off. Thats the competitive market place at work.
My main point is that every select group has lobbied to give themselves the maximum share of the resource that they can reasonably aqcuire. We've heard all the arguments over the years.
Along comes a new group of fly fishing guides and tackle manufacturers, starts a website and comes up with a bunch of reasons why they want the resource for themselves. And on and on it goes.
There are sooooo many more fish around now than in the old days when we fished together, that an equitable distribution can be found if we all try. With the more groups in it, the more voices will be heard to keep the process as democratic as possible. I say maintain the status quo.
