Quote:
Originally Posted by numbskull
From the CCT article today about the demise of the bass bill.....
"...According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, the recreational catch, for instance, has dropped off dramatically over the past four years. In 2006, recreational fishermen caught (he means kept) nearly 9 million fish. Last year, they caught (again kept) less than 2.6 million. Along the Atlantic coast, fishermen caught 28.6 million fish in 2006 but only 6.9 million last year.
But scientists at the state Division of Marine Fisheries and at the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which has authority over fish whose territories span two or more states' coastal waters, believe the striped bass population remains extremely healthy and does not require any drastic measures at this time. They point out that, despite a recent downturn, the spawning stock remains at a level nearly double what is required to maintain the population at healthy levels.
DMF Director Paul Diodati blamed poor environmental conditions in southern spawning areas for the decline. "
So, the recreational fishing success has dropped 300% in 4 years but everything is great and we should continue fishing at current levels because there are fish somewhere and we can't do anything about the spawning areas so the decline is not our fault.
WTF ARE THESE MORONS THINKING and is there anybody out there on this board who actually is sure this BULLSHIIT about "everything is fine the bass have just moved offshore along the WHOLE EFFING EXTENT OF THEIR RANGE so there is no problem" is correct? Sure enough to threaten the ruin of recreational fishing for striped bass along the whole coast? Even if there are decent numbers of breeders left, how does that rationalize killing them when they're struggling to reproduce and numbers are dropping this fast?
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Thanks, George, for posting this - I was getting tired of feeling old, cynical and almost alone in my opinion (except for the other guys of my vintage) and I haven't yet been swayed by protests to the contrary
While I can't do much about the first two since it comes with the territory, I haven't bought the 'everything is just hunky-friggin'-dorey' argument for quite a while...
As with virtually everything else, money is at the root of all evil - and the supposed viability of the striped bass fishery is just a ruse that's part of a much larger economic engine that goes
well beyond just tackle shops and charter boats and related industries - starting with Omega Protein, agricultural methods in the coastal watersheds, etc ,etc - the list of contributing factors is long and the money and political will to do anything about it isn't really there
More importantly, how do you go about forcing a paradigm shift on issues of those proportions that will affect the coastwide community from Maine to the Carolinas?
You know, we all noted with sadness the passing of Bob Pond not very long ago - I suppose the question now is who among us will be the next Bob Pond with that level of determination and courage to actually do something about it