Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating - View Single Post

Blitzseeker · 01-31-2003, 05:48 PM

Your idea is good in that it addresses the problem in the way nearly all problems need to be addressed.....economically. That said, I don't think it works, for the simple reason that it is not ecomically viable in the long term.

The only way that your plan works is for, year after year, commercial striped bass fisherman to lose money fishing for striped bass. This will not happen. Follow the logic below:

1) Lots of additional folks get licenses
2) Quota gets reached earlier, with less $$ per commerical license being earned
3) Some folks stop getting licenses
4) Price of stripers rises again
5) Go to step one

So, I think you end up back where you started, only you actively particpated in destroying the stiper stocks.

The more elegant solution, in my opinion, is tradeable quotas, similar to the solution that has been developed for some toxic emmisions. My guess is that if commericals could sell your quota allocations in a liquid market(financial exchange), it would be worth more to bait & tackle companies(or consortiums of those companies along with environmental groups) to purchase those quotas from commercials than it would be to keep them, catch the fish and sell them for market prices. I'd guess that the forces of economics would drive you towards a smaller, more sustainable commerical fishery, larger and healthier fish stocks, and a large and successful recreational fishery(and industry). This works because gamefish that are caught and released are more valuable than those that are caught once and killed.

Not likely, but it would work, I think.

01-31-2003, 05:48 PM	#8
Blitzseeker Cape Crusader Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Ashland, MA Posts: 323	Your idea is good in that it addresses the problem in the way nearly all problems need to be addressed.....economically. That said, I don't think it works, for the simple reason that it is not ecomically viable in the long term. The only way that your plan works is for, year after year, commercial striped bass fisherman to lose money fishing for striped bass. This will not happen. Follow the logic below: 1) Lots of additional folks get licenses 2) Quota gets reached earlier, with less $$ per commerical license being earned 3) Some folks stop getting licenses 4) Price of stripers rises again 5) Go to step one So, I think you end up back where you started, only you actively particpated in destroying the stiper stocks. The more elegant solution, in my opinion, is tradeable quotas, similar to the solution that has been developed for some toxic emmisions. My guess is that if commericals could sell your quota allocations in a liquid market(financial exchange), it would be worth more to bait & tackle companies(or consortiums of those companies along with environmental groups) to purchase those quotas from commercials than it would be to keep them, catch the fish and sell them for market prices. I'd guess that the forces of economics would drive you towards a smaller, more sustainable commerical fishery, larger and healthier fish stocks, and a large and successful recreational fishery(and industry). This works because gamefish that are caught and released are more valuable than those that are caught once and killed. Not likely, but it would work, I think.