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Having chased stripers with a gun since 1968 and having been a competitive spearo for over 15 years, I think I have a pretty good handle on bass behavior underwater.
Hooligans, you must be talking about Plymouth or most likely Rockport where there is a lot of daytime bottle diving for lobsters and no spearing allowed. Believe me, stripers don't follow spearos from any distance, they move when you move, but when they are in a state like MA or CT where you can't shoot them, they do behave with a little less caution. As far as offering them "small" (illegal) lobsters...sure you can chum bass where they're already conditioned to follow divers.
Regardless of how difficult and noble it is to hunt them with a gun (something I have no problems justifying) I can't see allowing spearfishing in MA. Why? Because unless they make it a game fish you will soon learn how much this sport has grown since the 60's. Now, there are dozens of highly proficient divers that are strictly targeting trophy size fish, often times crossing into the EEZ and then selling their fish. I dare say that proportionate to the number of divers shooting stripers, there are even more pirates that don't hesitate to brake the law. As for diving the Race and spearing fish, a small group of divers have been doing that for over 20 years...I know because I filmed some of the best off of Valiant Rock. If you open MA to spearfishing there WILL be user conflicts in every hot spot you can think of.
IMHO let sleeping dogs lie and give the bass a safe haven in MA where they are already under too much commercial pressure.
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