Increase in commercial quota for next year

[zimmy]

Originally Posted by RIJIMMY

If you feel that the striped bass population is in trouble - Conservation is in YOUR hands. Release the fish that you are not taking to eat and dont participate in kill tournaments.
Look in the mirror before looking elsewhere

...and don't each large scale commercially raised chicken. It isn't just runoff from dairies in PA and NY, it is the disaster of a waste problem from the chicken houses in the bay states.

as far as the bait goes... I saw more herring this spring than in 10 years in my local river. There has been tons of adult bunker in W. LI sound over the last few years. Last night I caught schoolie after schoolie in spot loaded with bait. Not that I think the bait isn't a problem.



What if the striper stocks need to be carefully culled to allow for fewer fish that are bigger and healthier? take some pressure off the herring and other bait. Or reduce competition amongst stripers.

The problem is too complicated for us mere mortals.

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by zimmy

What if the striper stocks need to be carefully culled to allow for fewer fish that are bigger and healthier? take some pressure off the herring and other bait. Or reduce competition amongst stripers.

The problem is too complicated for us mere mortals.

Man, how did the striper stocks ever manage to exist before man came around to "carefully cull" them out?

I hear people mention nonsense like this a lot. "We need to kill more stripers so the bait can rebound." Nature was fine for millions of years before we came around and effed with it and it'll be fine again in another million years when we're extinct.

[zimmy]

Originally Posted by JohnnyD

Man, how did the striper stocks ever manage to exist before man came around to "carefully cull" them out?

I hear people mention nonsense like this a lot. "We need to kill more stripers so the bait can rebound." Nature was fine for millions of years before we came around and effed with it and it'll be fine again in another million years when we're extinct.

I am not saying this is what needs to happen, just asking the question. As far as nonsense, I am not sure about that.

You ask how striper stocks managed to survive before humans... Stripers increase , bait decreases; stripers decrease, bait increases. Fewer stripers= more bait.More stripers less bait.

Nature was fine before we effed it up is true. I am not sure how that is related to the current state of fisheries, as we aren't absent from nature in the present. We (humans) harvest eels, crabs, herring, bunker, macks, lobsters, flounder etc. Our activities also make the ecosystem less habitable. Striper numbers increased to record numbers. ALL of the factors have to be considered.

People say fix the bait, which I agree with. It isn't simple. The intent of the points I made was to show there are many possible aspects to management.

JD- when you say "nonsense" do you mean you completely dismiss the idea that a reduced striper population would increase the amount of organisms preyed on by stripers? That seems hard to substantiate.

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by zimmy

JD- when you say "nonsense" do you mean you completely dismiss the idea that a reduced striper population would increase the amount of organisms preyed on by stripers? That seems hard to substantiate.

When I say "nonsense", it's with regards to the whole concept of "kill more bass so the bait fish can come back" being beneficial to any fishery. Like I said before, nature did a pretty good job finding an equilibrium in the millions of years before man. I don't agree with your idea that "stripers increase, bait decreases; stripers decrease, bait increases". There are far too many factors.

Maybe instead of culling out bass to help increase the bait population we get rid of indiscriminate fishing methods like the trawlers and get stop companies like Omega Protein form decimating full populations of the bait.