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I fished with another board member last wednesday and we talked about this a bit.
We addressed what GB and Bloo posted.
I like to eat bass... hours old bass is fantastic table fare IMO. I don't keep alot 'cause my wife and daughter don't like it, so I'm just making it for myself. I also don't keep alot for the same reason I don't litter. That's one way I know I can help the problem. I don't judge someone else if they want to keep what the limit allows.
But... Think of most of your year's fishing. Say the season is 5-6 months. We get out about 1-3 times per week. What's an average for the season 30-60 trips out. Even if you caught keepers most trips and kept them, the most you might kill would be somewhere between 20-50 fish for the year. That for most of us is way high, but for the sake of argument. Out of the millions and millions of fish...
How many fish in a day might a dragger kill in bycatch. Or like was addressed, a charter boat keeping their quota. Etc. Etc. They can do more damage in a day or a week than we will do in the year or in several years.
However, I don't think that we as recs need to up our take, because is that what its about? Our fair share. Do you want to protect the resource so there's more for you? Or do you want to protect the resource so there's more for your kid's when you want to teach them how to fish? I don't personally want less fish for comms so that recs can keep more... that's hypocritical.
While I think most of the damage comes from commercial interests, recs still need to do their part... and one fish per day is plenty. Or two fish that come from a designated class of fish (i.e. slot), which inherently protects fish deemed by good science, to be your healthy breeders.
The more points I hear, the more I kinda like the idea of a slot limit. Points like giving novice anglers a chance for a keeper fish, giving a guy a chance to keep a trophy when he's kept a smaller fish, taking pressure off the females and prime breeders... makes alot of sense.
Yah, you may not be able to feed your family with a 26" fish, but I think most of us are in agreement that while we may like to eat bass, its more of a gamefish than a food-fish. I think we are already beyond the argument of putting a meal on the table out of necessity.
BUT all in all, whether its one fish, two fish, or a slot, the fight really lies with fishing methods and the bycatch they create, along with the destruction of the fishes habitat and overfishing of their primary forage (i.e. bunker, herring, mackerel).
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