Increase Commercial Catch for Striped Bass? Or NOT? - Sign up here

[Back Beach]

Pretty sure the Mass quota has increased nearly every year since the moratorium ended. Why all the fuss now? Isn't Mass authorized to take up to 2 million pounds if they see it fit? If anything, Mass has stayed pretty conservative with regard to commercial pressure.

I would, however, end the out of state licenses so us poor Taxachusetts residents have a bigger piece of our own pie to eat....don't forget the sales tax holiday this coming weekend, either...now is the perfect time to buy that expensive piece of fishing gear you've longed for but needed just a little nudge...

[eelskimmer]

Crap, I went thru all this in 1976-1981 with Stripers Unlimited.
Then there was a proven problem and at every meeting I attended
(at Boston Aquarium et.al.) arguing for sanity, the
commercials in large attendance pooh-poohed the
loss as poor statistics, natural cause or taking food
out of the mouths of their babies.
Why do we have to go over this all again. Take a
look at the latest issue of Surfcasters Journal
for confessions of a poacher. The commercial limit
is a fiction, wrapped in a mystery and coated with
statistics.
I will be at the meeting in Dedham and will speak
against any such nonsense. Recreationals have to
register and pay a license next year as part of a
program to measure their limits. Until we have
more info from this program hold all changes.
This is a blatant attempt to grandfather in quotas for
commercials before the recreational licensing begins.
See youse there. I will be wearing my MSBA shirt.