I think you have to remember that the com. fisherman is harvesting the fish for public consumption, so technically those 4 million pounds are spread amoungst 300 million people (the US population, and that doesn't include tourists that might want to eat fish). Also remember that the dead discards of the rec. fisherman exceeds the total harvest by the com fishery. Some good info to support these facts here...
http://www.asmfc.org/speciesDocument...review2007.pdf
So one could argue that 1% of the population is killing 70% of the fish if you believe the above science...
Quote:
Originally Posted by numbskull
OK, I'll bite. How many fisherman is that 28 million pounds spread amoungst, and how many individuals is that 4 million pounds spread amoungst? Next subtract the charter boat totals (which is another commerical use of the fish) and tell me how many pounds of fish does one average recreational fisherman utilize in one year, and how many pounds of fish does one commerical fisherman utilize in one year. Since farm raised striped bass offer an alternate food source to the nonfishing public, the "food for the (affluent) masses" argument to support a commerical fishery is suspect at least. Seems to me then that a "fair" allocation of the resource would allow each average commerical and recreational fisherman to kill the same proportion of the resource each year. Do the numbers suggest this is presently the case? Would any commerical guy agree to this formula? Answer that, then tell me who is in favor of "resource grabbing". Thanks.
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