Why is The Striped Bass Conservation Bill so hush hush?

[Crafty Angler]

Dennis, as you know I'm researching the crash of the bass stocks in the late 1800's that finally caused the demise of the great striped bass clubs of the time -

In fact, I've been lucky enough to enlist the help of Dr. O'Nitis - the famous Irish marine biologist now that he's retired - figured it would be a good way to keep him out of mischief, too......but it also gives me someone with a science background to bounce things off of to keep any conjecture plausible...geez, talk about researching cold cases...

I've got some theories about that one - but from what I've unearthed so far, it seems like it was too much of everything going south over a 30 or so year period to maintain a robust stock - overfishing, forage depletion and the degradation of habitat - I keep thinking it's as much a cautionary tale as a piece of surfcasting history - I've found a few nuggets lately, too -

BTW, thanks for the call, I was at work - I'll try to give you a ring later today - and yup, I'm real interested...

[Swimmer]

The Mass. Striped Bass Association has been arguing this for years, that is the one fish at 36" rule. It brought sanity and the fish stocks back before and if it was put in place permantly again we would never have to talk about this again. So yes, what Sandman said, ditto here.

[bobber]

this slot is the same (or very similar) to Maine's regulations (as far as I can recall- they may have changed). It made good sense for the guides up there, since jsut about everybody "took home some meat" and also got to pose with their "big fish" from the day..... they had 1 fish over 40" for the entire season if I recall.

[BasicPatrick]

Originally Posted by bobber

this slot is the same (or very similar) to Maine's regulations (as far as I can recall- they may have changed). It made good sense for the guides up there, since jsut about everybody "took home some meat" and also got to pose with their "big fish" from the day..... they had 1 fish over 40" for the entire season if I recall.

Yes it is the same as ME and when Me got their slot the rec catch in went up HUGE numbers.

[Pete F.]

Originally Posted by BasicPatrick

Yes it is the same as ME and when Me got their slot the rec catch in went up HUGE numbers.

They have had the same limit since and what happened last year?
Striper populations have always been volatile and I have never seen any evidence that anything man does has much to do with it. What happened to the population at the beginning of the previous century? Was it overfishing? Pollution? It is pretty well documented that there was a population crash and all the NE bass clubs closed up.