OTW "Striper Cup Tourney" Format is Irresponsible to the Fishery

[Big Dave]

This summary paragraph is a copy of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries
Technical Report TR-24 regarding Striped Bass harvest in Mass in 2004

During 2004, the commercial fishery for striped bass in Massachusetts harvested about 60,632 fish weighing 1,206,305 pounds. Total losses due to commercial harvesting (including release mortality) were 70,544 fish weighing 1,304,752 pounds. The recreational fishery harvested about 403,547 striped bass weighing over 5.4 million pounds. Total losses due to recreational fishing (including release mortality) were 868,413 fish weighing over 7.7 million pounds. Combined losses (including scientific losses) were 939,078 fish weighing over 9.0 million pounds, which reflects a 16% increase in numbers lost and an 11% increase in weight lost compared to 2003 (810,381 fish: 8.1 million pounds) The majority of losses, 92%by number and 86% by weight, was attributed to the recreational fishery.

After reading the above summary does anyone really believe the OTW fishing derby is going to have any effect on the fishery whatsoever? People Who Fish, Keep Fish, and those that catch and release kill a percentage of those they release, plain and simple. And it would be the vast majority of those fish that are killed anyway that would make it to the scales, and entered into the derby Big Dave