ATLANTIC STRIPED BASS ASSESSMENT SUMMARY FOR 2013

[MakoMike]

Originally Posted by Jackbass

You know all BS aside gamefish/commercial etc. The managers manage based on yield it is not in their interest to make sure there is a multitude of fish available. Just enough to re produce and feed the people etc.

The thing that bothers me is why can they not reduce the coastal quota by 10% every year for five years. Leave it up to the states on how to distribute the catch. Maintain commercial quota, reduce recreational to 1 a day however it works the best for the state. Then raise the SSB thresh hold by 10 annually for three years. Once the stock gets to a point say 30% greater than what it is now. Then try what ever you want. But why can't the bar just be raised
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

They can't do that because that would raise the SSB above what is necessary to achieve MSY, by law they are required to manage the stock to MSY.

[Jackbass]

Originally Posted by MakoMike

They can't do that because that would raise the SSB above what is necessary to achieve MSY, by law they are required to manage the stock to MSY.

I completely understand the law dictates MSY what I am getting at is if the SSB threshold is the management tool as opposed to what humans can take from the fishery the fishery would be better for all use groups. If we consistently manage based on what we can utilize or take there is real potential for an outside force to create epic collapse. For example in the sixties and seventies managers could not figure on how PCB's would effect spawn cycles. It took a lure make from Attleboro and a handful of biologists and fishermen to bring that to light.

Maybe the law is to manage the fishery to MSY I think we are learning in general we need to start looking at what we have in reserve. As opposed to what we can take and use.

If we continue to manage based on yield and spawning triggers we have the real potential to get to an overfished point with weak year classes pushing us straight back to moratorium.

I realize this is all fantasy land. But maybe the laws should be changed to protect the biomass benchmark as opposed to protecting the yield.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[goosefish]

The managers have created paper fish--fish that exist only on paper. Stock assessment work is full of uncertainty. The commonsense rule--of what people see on the water--is impossible to quantify--and our present fishery management system is totally dependent on data, dependent to the point that science cannot fulfill it--because of $$$$. Who is going to pay for state and federal surveys, good surveys? And using landings and discards to come up with stock estimates seems tricky at best.

The paper fish thing happened a few years ago with codfish and back in 2004 with mackerel. Huge overestimates of stock abundance. Fish weren't there. The mackerel estimates were so big it brought over from Alaska a few of the pair trawlers. What tiny schools of mackerel those guys did find they annihilated and then quickly shifted to sea herring.

I'm glad my job isn't to come up with a single number that tells the fishing communities how many fish swim in the sea. But what is the alternative? We need the number. Not easy. It's a fu*cking labyrinth.