TWO BASS FOR RI CHARTER AND PARTY BOATS?

[MakoMike]

Just a few comments:

Science tells us that, although bass populations have declined from their peak, the stock is in pretty good shape, they are not overfished and overfishing is not occurring.

It also tells us that the decline in populations is due to poor spawning success which totally related to the weather (not global warming), which we cannot control.

History shows us that when we get weather that is favors spawning success, the stock will recover.

I also agree that conservational equivalency, as it was used by the ASMFC is only a valid statistic when applied to the general population of recreational anglers. Theoretically there should be a conservational equivalency for the charter/party subgroup of recreational fishermen but we have no idea of what those numbers would be.

The charter/party fleet has a history of using conservational equivalent regs. for other species, scup, sea bass and tautog immediately come to mind.

So if any state adopts separate regs for the charter/party fleet, they should be restrictive enough to insure that they are the conservational equivalent of a 25% reduction. Maybe 2 at 36inches? I don't think the tables the ASMFC provided give us a true idea of what a 25% reduction for the carter/party fleet would be. All of the states can enact regs that are stricter that the ASMFC guidlines.