Sorry! I disagree with this statement.
The sad thing about these sort of threads is that there is so much anger about someone breaking the law and keeping short fish,
when legally killing and keeping large fish does more harm to the fishery.
To each his own I say. Thats what fishing is all about!!!
For the other poster EPO are the Environmental Police!
I appreciate the EPO number posted.
One must remember that the shortages of Stripers in the past was due to this.
People eat them!!!
It was always a way of life up north here to be under some kind of regulation.
One fish limit, two fish limit. Protect a particular size class of Striper.
Being that said it was always sad to send the short and legal size fish back so that down south of us we had folks who were grandfathered in to net them at 16 inches an up and take all they wanted.
I have seen a boat when I was fishing from shore take some 30 plus undersize fish. I hollered out to them only to have them respond by giving me the finger.
This was before EPO days. This was also in the days when the fish were in great danger. I called the game wardens and was told they, due to under staffing and time constraints no one could come.
I gave them the boat numbers and was told it wouldn’t do any good.
Every race no matter which one knowingly, illegally take shorts.
I say don’t warn them! Burn them and burn them hard.
I still don’t think this presents a danger to the fish as much as the seals are doing.
This is the present and future danger to the fish today.
Folks think they are cute. Whites think they taste good. But than Whites think everything with blood pumping through it taste good.
This is a quote from the link below.
: It is widely known that seals eat between 6%-8% of their body weight in fish per day. Which doesn’t seem like all that much. Now let’s scale it a bit. How much fish will 10,000 seals eat in a day? Well, if those 10,000 seals weigh 500 pounds each, they would consume 350,000 lbs. of fish per day or 2.45 million pounds of fish per week.
How many pounds of fish does a seal eat per day? - CapeLinks Cape CodHow many pounds of fish does a seal eat per day? - CapeLinks Cape Cod
Don’t ticket them fine them! It’s the only way they will adhere to the law.
Second offence make it stiffer and harsher.