John,
Thanks for passing that along. I sent my letter the other day and the full text may be found at...
http://www.striped-bass.com/vbulleti...?threadid=9270
While I disagree with the RFA's stand on this issue, I think that it is very important for folks to have as much information as possible.
That said, I think folks may also be interested in the following quote from Bill Hubbard who served on the Striped Bass Advisory Panel at Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission for five years. I have the highest respect for Mr. Hubbard's work and I urge you to consider his comments before sending any letter to NMFS.
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Mr. Hubbard wrote in part on August 17, 2003...
I have not seen one valid argument that would convince me that the EEZ should remain closed.
Sanctuary? Hardly. Stripers have been the object of more tagging studies to track their movements than any other species. You cannot find one that says a certain group of big fish go to the EEZ for sanctuary. They pass through the EEZ on their way north and south and stay for a while if the forage is good.
Taking pressure off inshore areas? Of course it does. How does that work? If you have 100 boats fishing inshore and 20 of them decide to fish offshore, that means only 80 boats are chasing fish inshore, thus there is less pressure inshore. It's simple math. And I don't know anyone that calls the ledges and banks 20 miles off the coast inshore waters.
Until Striper populations crashed and we had the moratorium on fishing, the EEZ was open and being fished by boats out of those ports I mentioned above. It was closed during the moratorium as one of many measures to rebuild the stocks. Now stocks are rebuilt and the biomass is bigger than anyone has ever seen it; what good reason is there to keep the EEZ closed.
Full text available at...
http://www.reel-time.com/forum/showt...5&pagenumber=1
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Best,
Mike Flaherty
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