ASMFC May meeting

[MikeToole]

Was anyone from the site at the ASMFC meeting or hear the out come from the vote on increasing the commercial harvest?

From what I've heard indirectly (from a post by the Potomac rep) is the stripe bass board approved moving forward with the increase in commercial harvest, putting it out for public comment. The change would not be to increase the overall kill but to reduce recreational kill and move the this reduction to the commercials. The Potomac Rep supported this change with his vote but said he would rather see stripers be a game fish. That now it was time for the recs to get off their butts and oppose it during the public input period. I've heard from others that the board wants this out for public input hoping to put the issue to rest. I would say it is now going to be up to the recreational fisherman to make their voice heard if all of this is correct.

He also noted that the commercials and their lobbyist were well represented at the meeting. Another point he made was that there was a lot of talk at the board that there are to many stripers.

This info came from the tidalFish.com site.