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If you want to protect the fish , take the $ off its head.
Forage fish is a separate issue. YES they need to be re-built but the game fish status is the right thing to do for the striped bass NOW. For the life of me I don't understand why many support a rec guy with a $60 permit to take 30 or 40 fish a day for money and then re-direct the discussion to a different (albeit related) subject that is not going to be fixed anytime soon. Forage fish is not considered a problem. (neither are SB for that matter) Look at the track record of DMF’s…it is not good and not getting any better. This recent herring thing will take more then a decade to play out.
And proving the DMF has lost its collective mind, is when I drove by the fish market two weeks ago and they were having a sale on Striped Bass....imported from MD or VA. Can you imagine someone buying a MD SB on MV? Now these fish don't even meet our 28" minimum but they are allowed to be imported into our state for sale. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? These are the people making the rules.
The comm fishery in this state is poisoned by $.
I see game fish status as protecting the fish more and getting it out of the hands of the DMF for comm. regulation, not harming the fish. The sooner the better.
Sure they can still regulate recs size and limits but the plan is not to stop you from fishing or taking them. Many of you see it with what I call “NRA glasses”...take our armor piercing bullets away and next you take our guns...just say no to everything!! I think you need to see what game fish status has done for other species. It would be a positive step for SB and one that would have positive benefits right away…not 20 years from now.
Another thing, you all moan about OTW's contest on how it will kill too many fish...but in the next breath you support recs with a cheap permit the right to take 30-40 fish per day and sell them for "gas money". I think you need to re-visit your perspective on things.
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