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Although I share your disgust, I seem to recall that in the heyday of stripedbass fishing, offshore herring stocks where very heavily fished by foreign vessels within miles of our shores. Somewhere, I also recall reading that scientists theorized the absence of herring caused a "biomass flip" which resulted in an over abundance of sand eels inshore (something you outer cape guys seemed to enjoy). I am, however, a bit skeptical about the whole theory, particularly because I remember very consistent and spectacular late fall fishing behind Nantucket that was based on sea herring blitzes. Nevertheless, I tend to wonder if the subpar inshore fall fishing we have experienced in recent years isn't in some way related to major schools of bass feeding offshore on big sea herring populations. I'd be interested to know if any of you fishery biologist types can comment on this possible inverse relationship between sand eels and sea herring.
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