I still don't believe that 55% commercial figure....just as you don't believe what I'm saying...as someone else mentioned in this thread, it can all be massaged to what our indivudual bias is.
I will reiterate, the coastwide commercial quota is mostly coming from the net fishery in the Chesapeake -check the quota numbers out here-
http://www.asmfc.org/speciesDocument...BassRegs08.pdf
6,432,727 lbs comes from DE,MD,PRFC,VI,NC, NY (mostly net fishery)
239,299 lbs from RI (145, 972 from R&R, the rest from the trap fishery)
1,107,485 lbs MA, hook & line
.........so now, according to what you have stated, 55 % of the striped bass mortality is coming from the commercial fishery-
7,779,511 lbs....so that means 3,500,780 lbs of fish are being killed by recreational (including charter/headboat) fisherman up and down the east coast? By "millions" of average anglers?? I think its alot more than that.....