NC Bass kill

[Chesapeake Bill]

Patrick,

The beach netters have not had a chance to catch any. Believe me...I'd be there doing it if I could (I have a license). Fact is, the fish have not been that close to the beach. The video is ground fishing boats (draggers) who are required to discard the undersized stripers as bycatch despite trying to have the state allow the keeping as part of the allocation. I don't condone it...just explain it. I just prefer to keep others from getting caught up in the mass hysteria that pits anglers against each other less we all lose. The NC season is a whopping 5 days long. Boats are allowed to keep 50 fish over 28 inches per day. You can do the math and figure that allocation (or you can look on the web and get the annula allocations). It seems bad but is really nothing compared to what gets caught during the summer in the Chesapeake or other mid-Atlantic locations.


If you ever sail the Chesapeake after a cargo ship has passed you'd see similar things (albeit not in the same numbers). You have to ask yourself what the guys who took the video were doing. The answer is they were looking to hit the school and have a 50-70 fish day with catch and release. When you are catching fish that fast just how careful are you to make sure each is returned successfully? Not an accusation...just a question.

I am not defending anyone so no need to hammer me.

[WoodyCT]

I have removed any emotional statements from this, but left the informational pieces.

On Jan. 15th the North Carolina, ocean commercial striped bass season opened. In this trawl fishery, individual boats can keep the 50 largest fish that they catch in a day. This practice allows and encourages the culling or high grading of the catch. This means that the boat will keep the 50 largest fish in possession but may continue trawling all day and may replace these fish with larger ones caught later. Replacing means they will throw the dead or dying fish over the side, substituting them with the freshly caught larger bass.

Here is the link Commercial trawlers slaughtering thousands of striped bass off the Outer Banks - Charlotte Fish and Wildlife Policy | Examiner.com to a newspaper story about the debacle. The story itself contains a link to a YouTube video that shows pictures of the dead floating stripers. The trawlers tow their nets right through fleets of recreational and charter boats that are fishing on the schools.

SF has sent a letter to Louis Daniels Ph.D. the Director of Marine Fisheries in NC. We hope that you will send the note below or something like it in your own words to Dr. Daniels.. Here is an e-mail link to his office louis.daniel@ncmail.net.


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Louis Daniels PhD
NC DMF
3441 Arendell Street
PO BOX 769
Morehead City, NC 28557-0769


Dear Dr. Daniels – The world is now aware of the terrible misuse of the striped bass resource caused by the commercial ocean trawl fishery off the North Carolina Outer Banks. These fish are worth considerably more per pound if allocated to the recreational fishery in North Carolina than when taken by commercial harvest. But if the practice of commercial fishing for striped bass must continue in NC, certainly the participants should never be allowed to cull and high grade these fish. It is already too late to save the thousands of large striped bass wasted by this fishery during the 2011 winter season, but we hope that you will use the power of your office to keep this from happening in the future.


Sincerely;


My name here


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