Stiper Gamefish?

[RedHerring]

Originally Posted by RIROCKHOUND

:y ak6:

I think we need changes. but SF isnt the group to make them!

SF definitely is. As long as there is a price on stripers' head, it will be impossible to fully protect them. Exactly the same thing happened with market duck and egret hunters 100 years ago. If ducks were not taken off the market, they would be almost non-existent today.

Pinhookers in MA can keep 33 fish a day. The quota is a joke; the MA pinhookers were not even able to reach it. The situation is totally out of control in MA and it is all because of the price.

[baldwin]

Got some good discussion going. I'm not saying that the gamefish thing is definitely the way to go, but ignoring issues is definitely not. It's discussion between various user groups that is the way to find solutions. Ignoring the issues and leaving them to government to solve doesn't seem to be the answer. For those who criticize SF, what are your opinion? It's easy to just disagree and criticize, but let's hear some different viewpoints here. Anybody up to contributing something different?

[riverrat2]

WHat are you talking about the MA pinhookers weren't able to reach there quota. Get your facts straight. The season lasts about the same time each year 3-5 weeks at the very most. This year it last around 4 with 2 extra days at the end for a miss calculation of the quota. And they are actually only able to keep thirty fish a day at 34" compared to the schoolies that recs are allowed to keep. If you do a search on this site you can find the graph that shows rec harvest vs comm harvest I am sure you will be surprised to see that the innocent rec fisherman happens to kill more bass each year than the big bad comm fisherman

[Mike P]

Originally Posted by riverrat2

If you do a search on this site you can find the graph that shows rec harvest vs comm harvest I am sure you will be surprised to see that the innocent rec fisherman happens to kill more bass each year than the big bad comm fisherman

By a factor of seven, actually. Approximately 28 million pounds as compared to 4 million.

[riverrat2]

no way, how could this be??

[JohnR]

And one could (easily) argue that it is far more important
to protect the forage they feed on than to argue WHICH usergoup should have what slice of the pie... IMO,fix the forage and then scale back the take a bit on BOTH rec & comm...

[numbskull]

Originally Posted by Mike P

By a factor of seven, actually. Approximately 28 million pounds as compared to 4 million.

OK, I'll bite. How many fisherman is that 28 million pounds spread amoungst, and how many individuals is that 4 million pounds spread amoungst? Next subtract the charter boat totals (which is another commerical use of the fish) and tell me how many pounds of fish does one average recreational fisherman utilize in one year, and how many pounds of fish does one commerical fisherman utilize in one year. Since farm raised striped bass offer an alternate food source to the nonfishing public, the "food for the (affluent) masses" argument to support a commerical fishery is suspect at least. Seems to me then that a "fair" allocation of the resource would allow each average commerical and recreational fisherman to kill the same proportion of the resource each year. Do the numbers suggest this is presently the case? Would any commerical guy agree to this formula? Answer that, then tell me who is in favor of "resource grabbing". Thanks.

[Team Rock On]

I think you have to remember that the com. fisherman is harvesting the fish for public consumption, so technically those 4 million pounds are spread amoungst 300 million people (the US population, and that doesn't include tourists that might want to eat fish). Also remember that the dead discards of the rec. fisherman exceeds the total harvest by the com fishery. Some good info to support these facts here...http://www.asmfc.org/speciesDocument...review2007.pdf
So one could argue that 1% of the population is killing 70% of the fish if you believe the above science...

Originally Posted by numbskull

OK, I'll bite. How many fisherman is that 28 million pounds spread amoungst, and how many individuals is that 4 million pounds spread amoungst? Next subtract the charter boat totals (which is another commerical use of the fish) and tell me how many pounds of fish does one average recreational fisherman utilize in one year, and how many pounds of fish does one commerical fisherman utilize in one year. Since farm raised striped bass offer an alternate food source to the nonfishing public, the "food for the (affluent) masses" argument to support a commerical fishery is suspect at least. Seems to me then that a "fair" allocation of the resource would allow each average commerical and recreational fisherman to kill the same proportion of the resource each year. Do the numbers suggest this is presently the case? Would any commerical guy agree to this formula? Answer that, then tell me who is in favor of "resource grabbing". Thanks.

[numbskull]

Originally Posted by Team Rock On

I think you have to remember that the com. fisherman is harvesting the fish for public consumption, so technically those 4 million pounds are spread amoungst 300 million people (the US population, and that doesn't include tourists that might want to eat fish). Also remember that the dead discards of the rec. fisherman exceeds the total harvest by the com fishery. Some good info to support these facts here...http://www.asmfc.org/speciesDocument...review2007.pdf
So one could argue that 1% of the population is killing 70% of the fish if you believe the above science...

Reread my post and try again. There are alternate sources of striped bass for public consumption now, so you can argue that a commerical season only serves to discourage the further development of aquaculture (what is cheaper, Alantic Salmon which is 100% farmed, or Striped Bass?). I also do not believe for one moment that the dead discards by the average individual recreational fisherman exceeds the combined dead discards and dead sold fish of an average commerical fisherman. So again, how is it fair that a commerical guy should be able to kill more of the public resource than a recreational guy? Help me out here. Thanks.