Quote:
Originally Posted by zimmy
Although I have a science background, I am not a fisheries expert. I will give you my best explanation based on my limited knowledge...
by have the slot between 20 and 26, the population of fish that size is reduced with the intent of taking some pressure off of the forage fish. This is supposed to allow the remaining fish to grow bigger, faster and reproduce more as they will be healthier/better fed. Also,some fish may breed a few times by 26".
The 27-40 fish are now off limits, have less competition from schoolies and should serve as a healthy breeding stock to replenish the smaller fish. It is easy to replenish lots of 20-26" fish. It is harder and takes longer to replace the 38" fish.
The above 40"? Most likely it is to again reduce pressure on bait and allow for trophies to be kept.
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I tend to agree with Zimmy (but I'm not a fisheries expert either). One thing to keep in mind is that the vast majority of striped bass over 34" (or so) are female. By allowing the 20"-26" slot, the mix is more likely to include an equal proportion of males to females; whereas, the over 28" requirement will tend to unevenly impact females as the fish get progressively larger.
The new ruling would leaves a big, protect slot of 27"-40" fish in the spawning population and would curtail the disproportionate mortality of female bass.