Dear MA Recreational Fisherman,
Many of you have heard about the recent large amounts of juvenile Haddock and adult Striped Bass that have been caught, killed and dumped at sea by the Mid water Trawl Fleet while targeting Sea Herring. Video of the dead and dying Striped Bass floating in the Great South Channel can be found at the following web adress:
Striped Bass Video:
http://www.sportfishermen.com/board/...deo-55702.html
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As a member organization of CHOIR, a coalition of Commercial and Recreational fishing organizations whose goal is to clean up the Mid water Trawl fleet by catch issues, the MA Striped Bass Assn has been trying to get this needless waste of large amounts of Haddock, Striped Bass and River Herring ended. Unfortunately, the MA Division of Marine Fisheries continues to ignore all of our concerns and recently, after informing CHOIR representatives that DMF would support 100% observer coverage in the Mid water Trawl Fleet, reversed that position at the New England Fisheries Management Council meeting and proposed a very complicated system that would end up creating little or no increase in the current observer coverage.
To make matters worse, in a recent article on the River Herring moratorium, Paul Diodati, Director of MA DMF ignored the data found in observer coverage reports that points to a short and predictable time period when the Mid Water Trawl Fleet has by catch interactions with large amounts of River Herring off Rhode Island and claimed that Striped Bass are eating all the River Herring. In that article he made the following troubling statement: “It’s possible to change the size limit, lowering it to make them more available to folks. It could help the herring populations,” he said.
Lowering the size limit on Striped Bass will not stop the by catch of thousands of pounds of River Herring, will not stop the needless dumping of dead Striped Bass on their way to spawn in their southern waters and will not fix the current situation
Please call the Governor’s office today (Monday) morning before lunchtime and request that Governor Patrick do something about the ongoing abuse of our ocean by midwater trawl vessels, and about the failure of DMF to address it. Direct your call to Katie Joyce on Lt. Governor Murray’s staff at 888-870-7770
Thank You
MA Striped Bass Assn
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