Quote:
Originally Posted by jmac
That is what some ASMFC delegates have advocated in the past. But it is a sticky situation to address because it is recreational fishermen who catch/kill the fish...also, because of the economcs of the charter industry, I believe that there has been lobbying against that option.
Then the whole other problem is if they are designated their own category, where does it come from?? The commercial representation will fight against a portion of their quota being lowered by the charter industry, because it has been a traditional recreation-based fishery. Should a portion of the "recreational quota" (which isn't hard capped) be set up for the charter industry, by reducing the estimated catch numbers by lowering rec bag limits?..Then what happens when the charter industry reaches their quota (maybe in the winter, by NC/VI/MD boats)..what do the captains do-stop fishing and move to other species (like R&R comms do)..I am sure that will go over big with the Pt. Jude/Montauk/Chatham fleet....as has been stated many times, everybody is out to protect their own interests, because of the increased socio-economic pressure on the fishery.
The plan in place (Ammendment 6)...may not be perfect, but it is the best we got....
Because no matter what people may think the striped bass is a recovered species....
as indicated below (taken from the ASMFC website)-
"The most recent stock assessment for striped bass was completed in 2009. The update assessment indicated that striped bass are not overfished and overfishing is not occurring. Since 1982, the striped bass population has increased from less than 9 million fish to over 70 million fish in 2004. While abundance has declined some since then, spawning stock biomass (the metric for determining if the stock is overfished) remains well above the threshold and target levels. "
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I never said anything about creating a Charter quota.
With regards to that joke of a report from ASMFC, did you go to meeting in Dedham? The meeting where the girl presenting the information admitted that their stock assessment doesn't include mortality from myco or poaching because they "can't put an exact number on it" and are still "trying to figure out an effective way to model it."
The ASMFC stock assessments are a shame. On top of that, current assessments combined with their projected stock assessments show a declining trend in Striped Bass Abundance - and that's without including mortality from myco and poaching. How much worse are the updated assessments going to be and how much steeper of a declining trend will show when these numbers are included?
As one of my PoliSci professors said to our class back in college, "There is no point in referencing the results from a poll to support your argument, if the data from that poll is flawed."
ASMFC creates these nice elaborate charts, powerpoint presentations and holds these hearings demonstrating the health of the stocks based on data that they know is inaccurate. The girl at the meeting tried to avoid blatantly stating this a number of times.
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