Questions About Making Striper A Gamefish?

[MakoMike]

Originally posted by spence
The key here isn't increasing rec quotas, it's maintaining a healthy species to ensure the rec industry can be sustained.
So what's the economic impact of allowing a commercial harvest that must be tightly regulated to mitigate the potential risk?

To me it appears that the economic impact of commercial striper fishing is minimal and doesn't represent a significant value justification to warrant a commercial catch which has the potential to upset the recreational benefits.

-spence

Spence several points. First stipers forever, the organization behind the push to make stripers a game fish is entirely about increasing rec quotas. Their agenda is to eliminate commercial fishing so that the recs can kill more.
Secondly, whatever the economic impact of the commercial fishing, its incremental to the economic impact of the recreational fishery, and I seriously doubt that its minimal. If it truly were minimal why would recreational fishermen care about the few measley fish the commercials catch?
Third, although uncontrolled commercial catch might affect the recreational fishery, no one is advocating that. What we have now is a tightly controlled commercial fishery which is not affecting, and under the rules of the ASMFC can't affect the recreational fishery.
To me it doesn't make any sense and is unfair to make stripers a gamefish.