Striper Stocks - Overall Bad News

[blue oyster]

i was unable to down load the article , but i caught more fish this year then any 3 years put together , not large but tons of fish 22-32 inches some days i would only fish for an hour or two because i caught so many fish . almost all on single hook barbless lures , fish kept this year none

[JohnR]

I fully agree that there is too much take happening on the biomass. The amount of "take" is not a comm or rec problem, it is the total impact on the fish. But making stripers a gamefish for recs will not solve the problem. I say cut everything back by a third BUT you will now need to feed these fish too. I feel that SF's efforts, while probably well intentioned, are misdirected and don't tackle the whole of the problem.

I am not a commercial fisherman or a comm bass guy. I don't have a dog in the comm fight. However, the ongoing comm -v- rec debate dilutes the focus on mananging the inshore ecosystem / food chain as a whole. IMO - SF dilutes the overall focus or at least misdirects the effect that they could have on the management process...

[zimmy]

I am not any sort of pro-commercial guy, but I get really annoyed how often I hear someone excuse the 2 guys they saw with 7 huge stripers because "it is the commercial guys that wipe em out." Rec's take most of the fish dangit 70 some percent by the rec's is good with me -- but we allgotta take less overall.

Wanted to comment on evaluation of ecosystem health as opposed to species focus- I think practically every scientist would agree that it is the only way to effectively manage aquatic resources. But I don't think its going to happen very fast if ever. Start talking about mpa's, try to limit companies like Omega protein and the other fisheries conglomerates and the politics completely over-rules the science. Even try to get the rec community to agree on how many stripers we should be allowed to keep or the status of the population is immpossible. You get some who rarely or never keep a fish and others who keep their limit each time they get it and would take 10 fish if allowed. I beleive overall the latter group is much bigger than some might think.

[JohnR]

Zimmy - I hope eco system based management is possible and soon and I hold a little higher hope. Unfotunately, on some issues like MPAs, often the directive, even among scientists and pro env groups, is political. Shutting down permanently vast areas in the name of science is far different than doing it scientifically or to support a need or goal. If an area needs to be shut down to a certain gear type - do it. If it needs to be shut down to all, OK provided that there are reasonable, pre-defined triggers to open it up.... Ooops - sidetracking...

I agree - recs take most of the fish and all groups can reduce their take.

As for the size - probably is a lot bigger than we think and probably more offshore than we think but if we are always focusing inshore we are likely losely consistant with the data on a year to year basis...

[fishdog13]

I see the bird watchers are out again. :yak

["uffah!!"]

All I can catch is little ones.