Black Market Stripers?

[Mr. Sandman]

Do you think there is a large black market for striped bass?

Yes. Not a huge black market but its going on and it is naive to say it isn't.

Do you know anyone who is transporting fish illegally from one state to another in order to sell them?
No, but I am sure it happens.

Do you know anyone who ignores the quota and takes as many fish as he/she feels they can hide and sell?
Yes. Again, not everyone is breaking the law but more do than don't. Multiple trips per day, people buy licenses for everyone in their family to make it quasi-legal to sell under but the lic holder has never wet a line.

Do you know of instances where someone takes lots of undersized fish and sells them to restaurants?

Yes ( and the restaurants don't have a permit to buy fish from the fisherman) Not all comm fisherman are breaking the regs but there is not enough enforcement to stop anyone from doing it. The best way to answer this is to ask How many arrests were made last year in MA for illegal SB comm activity? ( the answer is so few that the DMF does not want to even address this matter in a serious manner)

Do you know fishermen that illegally target fish in the EEZ for sale?
Yes (Just fly over the R&C rip during comm season) Also the Hooter off MV and the SW shoal outside the EEZ you will find boats with bass. Also many tuna fisherman run unto bass at times off Chatham and I have seen them return to the dock with SB. (They claim they never heard of an EEZ)

Have you ever called DEM or DEC to report a violator only to have no response?
Yes (it is a joke and I never even got a call back), Lets put it this way, its rare anyone talks to a real person when you call them up

Do you think this illegal activity is having a negative impact on the health of the striper population?

It certainly can't help the population

What do you think we need to do to help eliminate this problem?

The solution is a lot simpler than you think:

1) Make SB a gamefish and put a 1@ 36" rec limit to maintain the positive economic and social benefits for local businesses and the general public.

2) increase enforcement and punishments : Breaking fishing regs : First offense: $1000 fine and loss of lic for 2 years; 2nd offense $5000 fine and permanent loss of right to fish (comm or rec) for life. Any other offense after that = real Jail time.
Also target restaurants that buy fish from fisherman directly without permits. (It is a free-for-all). (its not just bass it is out of season Tog as well and big tuna that are caught by non comms, get loin-ed out to restaurants all the time, many restaurants do not want a 300# fish but they will take a 60# of steaks for the weekend, there is no record of what happens out there, few even report what they catch)

3) If you are going to have a comm season for SB you must limit the poundage that comes from a certain area. You can't have a fleet come in day in and day out for several years and wipe out the fishing in an area and then move on to the next area, you need to spread the quota over the entire state, areas need to be shut down when they have contributed their fair share to the quota. When this happens it wipes out the fishing for years in that area....Just having a quota is not the be-all and end-all solution to everything fishing.

The regs we have now are laughable and unenforced. DMF really needs to pull a couple comm lic's from some law breakers for life and that message will get thru to the others to clean up their act.



One more question:
Do you know anyone who uses illegal baits or methods to fish for Striped bass.

Ans: Yes. Many use underside scup and others use lead infused baits.


Also I want to see more enforcement on guys dragging for squid...turns out they have a lot more than squid in their nets. This has been documented. Boats from NY, RI were fishing close to the beach here and were pounding a striper spot... USCG sent a chopper out and got their numbers...sent an officer to Pt. Jude and they have a boatload of bass and it was springtime (June) not even comm bass season. (just a small fine resulted)

What about SB bycach are they counted toward the quota? According to the DMF there is no such thing as striped bass by-catch, at least they don't count it as anything significant.

sorry, you hit a nerve, once I get going I just can't stop