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I am sorry you resent my generalisation about comm fishermen. I think it is fairly accurate. Having gone to many of the various public meetings when options were being discussed as what may happen during the problem days, I heard from many outspoken comm fishermen first hand in the public forums. They wanted to continue fishing commercially inspite of the drastic situation bass were in. They wanted to give up nothing!! And the state was appearing sympathetic. It wasn't until the government literally forced the closure that the DMF had no choice to close comm bass fishing in MA, and they were quick to re-open it to pre-closure levels as soon as they could.
More recently, when they wanted to move the MA comm limit from 50 to something lower like 10 fish/day the outcry was outrageous and it legislated to (only) 30. Where is the science in this? Just because a bunch of guys cry about it the DMF changes its recommendation?? This is a joke. They should not be listening to the fishermen who are soley acting to protect their selfish interest. They should set the proper rules for a healthy fishery and enforce fisherman to comply. Do what is right and the hell with weekend yahoos. If you don't like it , get a land job
This is what makes the DMF so laughable, they pat themselves on their own back for what a great job they did for saving the SB, yet THEY were part of the problem!! If they were actually managing the resources properly we would never have to endure such draconian action like a complete moratorium. Your right, I do critique the DMF and the main reason is because they are in bed with the commercial interest and are trying to squeeze every last drop of a resource of unknown size and health. They are not conservative enough IMO. I would like to err on the side of caution and never have to resort to such harsh and knee jerk regulations.
How come Comm R&R don't complain about the by-catch discard of SB by draggers? I bet if that catch was forced to be sold rather than dumped and come off the commercial quota the R&R bass guys would be screaming bloody murder that "these guys are taking our fish". But instead they get dumped overboard dead, unaccounted for and as long as it doesn't effect this weeks paycheck don't worry about it. Face it, Commercial SB fishermen really don't care about protecting much of anything.
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