ASMFC To Take Action to reduce Striped Bass mortality

[MakoMike]

Originally Posted by Mr. Sandman

"... estimated at 128 million pounds just above the SSB threshold of 127 million pounds"

You're kidding me right? There is no way in hell they know the amount of spawning stock this accurately. Remember, the same scientists that were in charge said all is OK with codfish...then, Oppps we were wrong, the fishery is a complete disaster, sorry.


SB needs to be removed from their responsibility. If anything they have proved they (by way of the previous SB stock collapse) can not manage the resource. As they were in charge and were essentially forced to shut it down.

GAMEFISH with 1 @ 36" (or a tag system, where you can take X fish per season) and strong protection of baitfish coast-wide is the only thing that will work. I have given this a lot of thought. No commercial activity on wild fish and limit rec take to X fish per season. ( where X is very conservative number) What we are doing now with all these targets and thresholds are analogous to kids playing in a sandbox. Big cutbacks across the board are needed with attn to what they eat.

Just for accuracy, ASMFC was not managing the stock at the time of the last collapse. Making the fish a no sale fish coastwide is against the law. But any state can do it, NJ, CT and NH already have.

[Mr. Sandman]

Originally Posted by MakoMike

Just for accuracy, ASMFC was not managing the stock at the time of the last collapse. Making the fish a no sale fish coastwide is against the law. But any state can do it, NJ, CT and NH already have.

Who cares about the committee of self appointed experts called asmfc, fisherman don't.

In the early 1940s, recognizing that they could accomplish far more through cooperation rather than individual effort, the Atlantic coast states came together to form the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (Commission). An Interstate Compact, ratified by the states and approved by the U.S. Congress in 1942, acknowledged the necessity of the states joining forces to manage their shared migratory fishery resources and affirmed the states’ commitment to cooperative stewardship in promoting and protecting Atlantic coastal fishery resource
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If I recall the collapse was in the 1990's.
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One of the many problems with fishery management today is exactly this... There are too many managers and people involved. It's a friggin shell game and every different group has their own hidden agenda. They have created all these convoluted "rules" "limits" "quotas" "thresholds" "formulas" that lead to public hearings then committee create these so called "laws" from all this bull#^&#^&#^&#^& and they that are ineffective to the common fishermen. Bottom line is each state has regulated SB from the time I was a kid. I always thought it should be taken away from the states since the fish swims freely between them but what matters is protection. The end was doomed when they created this thing called "user groups" and this was nothing more than a divide and conquer approach clothed in "fairness" suit and it destroying the resource in front of our eyes..

We don't need all these people at the helm. We need some common sense regulations that are conservative and simple to enforce and some protection of the food these fish must eat, that is it. Stop trying to squeeze every drop of sustainable yield from the ocean...it is OK to have a little fat in the system.


If you make things complicated enough, know one really understands it and that leads to no one seems to care anymore.

Look if we hit this arbitrary threshold line...can we say that the system asmfc put in place is not working and they failed? They already admit we are going to hit it...but they are not going to do anything about it for a few years. WTF? No reason to be proactive or conservative...

Fire everyone at all levels and start over...IMO you need 5 or 6 people to manage this. 2 scientists, 2 managers and a secretary. No public hearings, no meetings, just do what is right and issue a decree.


I have to log off my BP is getting aggravated again.

[MakoMike]

The system is what it is. If you want to replace it the time to act is now, the magnesson-stevens act is up for reauthorization next year and that is main law that dictates how fish should be managed. Unless and until its changed this is the system we have, you either learn how it works and be engaged or you just bitch and moan and take what the system gives you. The choice is yours.

Maybe there should be a "czar" of fishing who could just issue edicts.