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This is an email posted on another site. It is a response sent by Meghan to one of their members.
Folks,
I very much appreciate you feedback regarding concerns over fish counts
and how they relate to the Striper Cup Tournament. I especially admire
those who can respond with a level head in the hopes that some positive
change can follow. I will and do answer all emails that make sense and
don't tell me how to run OTW, but instead communicate, insightfully, how
OTW may need to address certain issues and can help with issues facing
all fishermen today.
With that said, I am looking at the possibility of tweaking the
tournament without changing the period of time. For those of you who
use words like "slaughter", "game fish", or "fish kill" to describe what
OTW is trying to achieve with the Striper Cup, I imagine nothing short
of canceling the tournament will suffice, that's not happening.
Any tweaking to the tournament will be updated on our web-site by week's
end. I ask you all to keep an open mind, as many of you already have,
and be apart of the process as OTW works through the growing pains of
reviving the once great, Schaefer Tournament, while keeping a watchful
eye on the conservation issues of today.
To that end, state biologists from CT to MA have studied this more than
many of us and have determined that two fish a day at 28" can be
harvested throughout the entire season without harming the year
classes. I don't necessarily agree with that assessment and would love
to see that number be reduced to one fish per day, which the bass stocks
can and do sustain. It is the very reason we limited the Striper Cup
catch to two fish PER WEEK or less than 15% of what the state will allow
any recreational angler during the course of a week. For those of you
not familiar with the old Schaefer Tournament, for most of the years, a
legal fish was 16" and you could take as many fish as you wanted.
Clearly, we veered from the path of the old tournament by greatly
reducing the fish that can be weighed. It may need to be further
tweaked, but blanket accusations and generalizations do nothing to
further any of your collective issues with OTW. Consider for a moment
that possibly, just possibly, the management program was so successful
that today striped bass are literally starving to death with limited
bait fish to sustain the strong stocks. I'm sure many of you have
caught 42" and 44" fish that weigh 23-25 lbs? Just 10 years ago that
was nearly a 30 + lb fish. That concerns me just as much and it is
something we at OTW look at very closely. Yes, commercial fishing has
taken it's toll on bait fish, but that is not the entire story regarding
the dangerously low bait fish counts.
Finally, consider this; I am lucky enough to work in the industry that
allows me to talk, write, speak, you name it, about fishing. My
livelihood is derived from the fact that we in New England have such a
vast and diverse fishery. If I am not a good steward of our fishery,
not only have I lost my passion, I've lost the best job I ever had.
Give me a little credit guys and let's work together. I firmly believe
there is plenty of room to run a tournament that will not adversely
impact the stocks..
Sincerely,
Chris Megan
Publisher
On The Water
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