Quote:
Originally Posted by Ed B
They do listen to recreational fisherman Paul, unfortunately our recreational interests are put forth by the booming voices of the Party and Charter Boat industry.
In addition to striped bass, look at the seasonal openings and bag limits for Fluke, Tautog, Scup. It's all about getting people onboard a charter and paying a fare to stock their coolers.
In my opinion there should be seperate categories of fisheries advisors for recreational fisherman and charter boats, and the recreational advisor has no financial stake in recreational limits.
The only way to get our voices heard is to show up at meetings and state our case and that is something that recreational fisherman dont do particularly well.
Ed
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Rightly said, Ed...
I went to an open meeting of the RI Striped Bass Advisory Council with DZ for the 1st time maybe 5 or 6 years ago expecting an auditorium meeting only to find maybe a dozen fishing folk there around a table in a small room
I think DZ and I were two of the VERY few there - if not the only two - who were not charter skippers - the bias toward charter boat interests was immediately obvious
If money is involved, it's a vocation not an avocation and not recreational
Ed's right - muttering among ourselves and shaking our heads will accomplish nothing
The make-up of the advisory boards with a commercial stake will always skew the results until there's some parity with not-for-profit representation
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