I am not any sort of pro-commercial guy, but I get really annoyed how often I hear someone excuse the 2 guys they saw with 7 huge stripers because "it is the commercial guys that wipe em out." Rec's take most of the fish dangit
70 some percent by the rec's is good with me -- but we allgotta take less overall.
Wanted to comment on evaluation of ecosystem health as opposed to species focus- I think practically every scientist would agree that it is the only way to effectively manage aquatic resources. But I don't think its going to happen very fast if ever. Start talking about mpa's, try to limit companies like Omega protein and the other fisheries conglomerates and the politics completely over-rules the science. Even try to get the rec community to agree on how many stripers we should be allowed to keep or the status of the population is immpossible. You get some who rarely or never keep a fish and others who keep their limit each time they get it and would take 10 fish if allowed. I beleive overall the latter group is much bigger than some might think.