Not sure if somebody already said this because I got sick of reading all the posts, but the bill proposes the closure of the commercial fishery and imposing a slot limit on the recreational angler (exactly the same as Maine's).
To say that closing the commerical fishery won't help is ludicrous! If you take the privillege of taking 30 fish per day away from the best striper anglers in the world you're going to save a lot of fish.
Anyone who thinks that Stripers Forever is going to then run with this and take away striper fishing or something silly like that is lost in space. Just like people who are afraid the president is going to take away guns or something like that, their ideas have to be voted upon and therefore no one person or oragnizations beliefs can be forced into law. I hear the voices of some people who are going to miss taking a few weeks off from work in the summer to go fishing everyday if this bill passes in this thread.
It has already been proven that fisheries managers and fishermen have no idea how to fish with care and that we have no problem (or qualms about) pushing fish stocks to their breaking point. There are just about no inshore cod left anywhere south of Plymouth (to my knowledge) and the cod stocks in the Maritimes have not recovered after a 10 year moratorium. Our fishermen are very good at what they do and these voices in here sound eerily the same as those that echoed out in the years before the last collapse.
How can you say that closing the commercial fishery won't work? It worked last time! And it's at least a step right direction, if we get people used to the idea of conserving a commercially harvested fish, it might be easier to turn them on the menhaden and sea herring.
Preserving the species should be 100 times more important than making some extra cash this summer. Yes I had my commercial license last year, but it just gave me a sick feeling killing all those fish and I have chosen not to renew it this year.
I say close it up, and bring on the slot limit, we haven't tried that combo yet and we need to save these fish, and we shouldn't wait until it looks really bad.
If you don't like Stripers Forever, (I have no opinion about them btw), then someone needs to form a new organization, because they are the only people actively fighting for anything releated to the striped bass in the mainstream anyway. Maybe RFA should get involved? Or maybe all of us should stop crying online and make a step for own future instead of just sitting by and then sobbing over the results?
Was that too cut throat?
Hybrid Mode
