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I guess its time to weigh in here as a representative of Stripers Forever. Some folks, commercial fishermen, mostly, are quick to label the growing push for game fish status for stripers as simply a quota grab by the recreationals at the expense of the long suffering commercials. I will pay a reward from my own pocket to anyone who can find any statement or recommendation from Stripers Forever that the commercial quota be just dumped into the recreational basket.
In fact, here is the excerpt from our discussion of our fall fishing survey addressing that very issue:
Of the 341 surveys that we recorded, only 1 person wanted to shift the entire commercial catch into an increased public bag limit. On average, recreational fishermen wanted to put 75% of the current commercial quota into expanding the conservation buffer, rather than just switch those fish to recreational harvest as our detractors claim. We would add that we would save even more fish by stopping commercial fishing because the illegal cash sales of striped bass would dry up very quickly once commercial fishing was halted and the sale of all wild bass made illegal.
The entire survey is available on our website.
Stripers Forever, as an organization, is barely one year old. Our only goal is to end commercial fishing for stripers. There are other important factors threatening the health of the striper fishery, but none that will have the immediate beneficial impact of the removal of the price on the head of marone saxatilis (striped bass).
We have no "official" position on what the recreational bag limit should be. Most of our members seem to feel it should be lowered from current levels, and from a personal standpoint, I agree with that. We have no "official" position on the harvest of fish in mid-spawn, although I personally despise the practice. We have no "official" position on the over fishing of bunker in Chesapeake Bay, although I personally think it must be ended.
We took what looked to be an "official" position on the matter of opening the EEZ to striper fishing when we opposed it at NMFS scoping meetings. We opposed it because we want to end the commercial harvest of stripers altogether, not to enlarge the area in which they may be harvested. If stripers were already gamefish, we would not have opposed the opening of the EEZ to recreational anglers.
We recognize that there are abusive and illegal practices engaged in by recreational anglers as well as commercial fishermen, and we look forward to the increased pressure that will be brought to bear on both groups when gamefish status has been achieved.
Our definition of Gamefish for striped bass is :no commercial sales of wild striped bass. Period. The same deal as redfish get in the Gulf states and Florida. Aquaculture already produces 12 million pounds of striped bass (hybrid) and we've been assured by industry reps that they could double that production in a year. The total (reported) commercial catch in 2003 was less than 10 million pounds, although unreported sales and bycatch would make that number significantly higher.
So, someone from the other side will jump in here with NMFS numbers about how many fish are already killed by the recreational anglers and how few are killed by the comms, and all that crap about "user groups" yada, yada, yada. It's really pretty simple though. The interests of 3 million tax-paying recreational anglers versus the interests of a (very) few thousand commercial folks, most of them looking for beer, eel and gas money.
We see real problems developing with the fishery right now. Skinny fish....sick fish...fish locally abundant but totally absent in other spots. It feels like the late 70's to a lot of old hands. Let's hope we don't have to ride the striper elevator all the way to the bottom again this time.
DeputyDog
aka George Watson
Stripers Forever
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