Smoke this!

[Crafty Angler]

Originally Posted by numbskull

From the CCT article today about the demise of the bass bill.....

"...According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, the recreational catch, for instance, has dropped off dramatically over the past four years. In 2006, recreational fishermen caught (he means kept) nearly 9 million fish. Last year, they caught (again kept) less than 2.6 million. Along the Atlantic coast, fishermen caught 28.6 million fish in 2006 but only 6.9 million last year.

But scientists at the state Division of Marine Fisheries and at the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which has authority over fish whose territories span two or more states' coastal waters, believe the striped bass population remains extremely healthy and does not require any drastic measures at this time. They point out that, despite a recent downturn, the spawning stock remains at a level nearly double what is required to maintain the population at healthy levels.

DMF Director Paul Diodati blamed poor environmental conditions in southern spawning areas for the decline. "


So, the recreational fishing success has dropped 300% in 4 years but everything is great and we should continue fishing at current levels because there are fish somewhere and we can't do anything about the spawning areas so the decline is not our fault.

WTF ARE THESE MORONS THINKING and is there anybody out there on this board who actually is sure this BULLSHIIT about "everything is fine the bass have just moved offshore along the WHOLE EFFING EXTENT OF THEIR RANGE so there is no problem" is correct? Sure enough to threaten the ruin of recreational fishing for striped bass along the whole coast? Even if there are decent numbers of breeders left, how does that rationalize killing them when they're struggling to reproduce and numbers are dropping this fast?

Thanks, George, for posting this - I was getting tired of feeling old, cynical and almost alone in my opinion (except for the other guys of my vintage) and I haven't yet been swayed by protests to the contrary

While I can't do much about the first two since it comes with the territory, I haven't bought the 'everything is just hunky-friggin'-dorey' argument for quite a while...

As with virtually everything else, money is at the root of all evil - and the supposed viability of the striped bass fishery is just a ruse that's part of a much larger economic engine that goes well beyond just tackle shops and charter boats and related industries - starting with Omega Protein, agricultural methods in the coastal watersheds, etc ,etc - the list of contributing factors is long and the money and political will to do anything about it isn't really there

More importantly, how do you go about forcing a paradigm shift on issues of those proportions that will affect the coastwide community from Maine to the Carolinas?

You know, we all noted with sadness the passing of Bob Pond not very long ago - I suppose the question now is who among us will be the next Bob Pond with that level of determination and courage to actually do something about it

[Mr. Sandman]

George,

Thanks for this post. I have been critical of the DFM and their ability to manage any fish and in particular using rear-view mirror and selective data approaches to justify legislation to appease their commercial interests.

This is EXACTLY what I mean...yeah no one is catching much of anything, the fish are sick, predation (from other species like seals) are up, forage fish populations are in the crapper, actual catch numbers and mean sizes are down (from a number of sources) and despite what he said YOY index is NOT strong it is pretty weak, don't forget they changed the way YOY index is computed SO if they used the older method (which was used for many years prior ) we would be well under the threshold, it is only with this new model that things appear healthy.

All this is being ignored.

THIS is why the gamefish bill is important, it takes DMF OUT OF THE LOOP. These guys are a bunch of fools who have not helped out fishery but help destroy it.

The main reason they are saying this is to protect their OWN interest...their job.

Bottom line: IF YOU WAIT UNTIL YOU SEE DISASTER CATCH RESULTS IT WILL BE TOO LATE TO DO ANYTHING! It would be better to trim the take BEFOR we get into a bad situation.

WTF??? How stupid are these people?

[numbskull]

While we are at it, SOMEBODY PLEASE EXPLAIN THIS TO US GUYS WHO ARE TOO STUPID TO FIGURE IT OUT ON OUR OWN

The recreational catch/release and catch/keep has decreased 3 fold since 2006, yet the commercial take is steady (only because an increase was turned down by 1 effing vote). Yet I keep seeing the same pie chart over and over showing that recreational fisherman kill 4x what commercial fisherman kill. HOW CAN THAT BE if the recreational catch is 1/3 of what it was and the commercial catch has not changed? For that ratio to stay the same the commercial catch needs to be REDUCED by 2/3. SO WHY ISN'T IT ?

[Nebe]

Originally Posted by numbskull

While we are at it, SOMEBODY PLEASE EXPLAIN THIS TO US GUYS WHO ARE TOO STUPID TO FIGURE IT OUT ON OUR OWN

The recreational catch/release and catch/keep has decreased 3 fold since 2006, yet the commercial take is steady (only because an increase was turned down by 1 effing vote). Yet I keep seeing the same pie chart over and over showing that recreational fisherman kill 4x what commercial fisherman kill. HOW CAN THAT BE if the recreational catch is 1/3 of what it was and the commercial catch has not changed? For that ratio to stay the same the commercial catch needs to be REDUCED by 2/3. SO WHY ISN'T IT ?

I have no personal knowedge to back this up, but the reason that the catch numbers in mass commercial sector has not changed is that it is a poundage limit. What I am getting at is that I am certian that the time frame to land that allotted poundage took longer to achieve last year than it did in years past. for example 5 years ago, the season could have been open for 2 weeks to reach the limit, but last year it could have been open for a month or longer.

[MakoMike]

Originally Posted by numbskull

While we are at it, SOMEBODY PLEASE EXPLAIN THIS TO US GUYS WHO ARE TOO STUPID TO FIGURE IT OUT ON OUR OWN

The recreational catch/release and catch/keep has decreased 3 fold since 2006, yet the commercial take is steady (only because an increase was turned down by 1 effing vote). Yet I keep seeing the same pie chart over and over showing that recreational fisherman kill 4x what commercial fisherman kill. HOW CAN THAT BE if the recreational catch is 1/3 of what it was and the commercial catch has not changed? For that ratio to stay the same the commercial catch needs to be REDUCED by 2/3. SO WHY ISN'T IT ?

I don't know what chart you are looking at, but it has to be for a specific period and a specific geography. On the entire Atlantic coast the amount of fish killed by recreational fishermen has gone from about 90% some years ago to 80% today. Also the commercial take has not been steady, the commercials didn't get a quota increase until well into the 1990s striper boom years.