ASMFC Striped bass board winter meeting minutes

[WoodyCT]

If your family has historically been involved in commercial fishing and can demonstrate, through financial records, that the sale of striped bass has provided $X to your family over the last X years then you are considered to be dependent on the fishery and grandfathered a license.

Who is not a true commercial fisherman? All the weekend warriors out there with a $65 license to kill who are using the fish to pay for their expensive hobby are most certainly not.

As for the quota, let the true commercials who depend on bass for a significant % of their income catch as much of that 1 million pounds, or whatever is eventually determined to be a sustainable quota, as they can based on whatever bag limit and minimum-maximum size limits the managers determine best protects the spawning stock biomass. Once it is reached they are done on bass for the year.