Mass. weighs tougher protections for striped bass

[Doublerunner]

I recently spoke to a friend of mine about this issue. This is a life long fisherman who used to be in the commercial business. There is no doubt in my mind that if he was still a commercial fisherman that he would have been able to retire from what he could have made but he considers some things more important than the almighty $$$.

Here are his thoughts in his own words;

The typical tactic of defending all comm's as being honest and above board is still being beaten to death by an individual that either never fishes or talks to another comm, or is completely ignorant to the facts.
The number of fish sold without reporting, AKA black market, in my opinion and estimation, is fully equal to the reported catch.
***** is towing the line, defending his "right" to kill as many fish as he can without any sense of responsibilty for his actions. Brings me back to the quote "People will eat Squid".
Disregarding the clause submitted in the bill where Mass reserves to comm quota as conservation stock is somehow missed in the argument. Using Jerseys mistake of allowing recs to keep an extra fish, is also their excuse to fight this as just another way to allow the high end $'s the recs spend compared to comm's as a money grab by the government.
There are way too many recs out there that have no clue as to what is happening right now. I recently talked with a boat owner about the status of Stripers, and he showed exactly what I've been saying for quite some time. He only started fishing for Bass 8 to 10 years ago. He justifies stuffing the seat cushions with fish to offset the cost of fuel. If he doesn't come in with at least 8 fish, the number he designated, then it wasn't worth leaving the ramp. I suspect he also has outlets to sell his fish as well. There are way too many fishermen out there that bought boats during the real estate bubble on false income, and fished stocks on the rebound. Everything looked rosey, and life was good. 24 foot boats fully outfitted with electronics, and networks with cell phones, allowed less than average knowledge possesing fishermen to achieve great success hammering Bass at the Block and Montauk. To those that never fished the crash years, the great majority of them out there, they have no understanding that what they were seeing was as false as the Freddy Mac/ Fanny Mae mortgage programs that people were using to buy houses they couldn't afford with money they didn't have.
It is amazing to me that Stripers Forever is slammed by people who do understand the repurcussions of the current status quo. I would bet that ******embellishes his number of years on the water, as he would understand that the fish are not showing up in the places or numbers we used to get them at during the pre-crash years.
Tunnel vision reigns supreme with him and his brethren, all they see are the numbers in the bank account. Bass are nothing but money and as I have said in the past, that is all that matters to him and his type.
If I had not lived the crash or maintained the Bass are dollars attitude, I could easily have been making 10 grand or more a year in un-reported sales. There were times when I had the boats in the water that temptation was real, and the number of times I was approached would astound you. My reputation, pre internet, was well known on the Island, the armada would follow me and watch through bino's to see what I was doing. Playing with them would have me laughing for days as people started pissing on their tubes, copying what they thought I was doing to catch fish.
Continue the fight guy's, they care not about us or our children, or grand children. It's all about the numbers in the bank.