First, let's get one thing square: Stripers Forever is not a lobby group for the tackle industry. I'm on the board of directors and I can tell you that nothing we do has ever been at the behest or for the benefit of any tackle maker or retailer. That's just idiotic. Our singular mission is to protect striped bass on the Atlantic Seaboard.

How much history are we going to ignore while we watch striped bass decline. It's a complex issue, for sure, but please name for me one species of fish, bird, or animal that did not benefit from protection from commercial exploitation? If you want to talk mortality, let's consider that the mortality rate for commercial striped bass fishing is 100%. You can't sell a fish at the dock that you've released, and the commercial harvest does not include short fish, high-grading, or the vibrant black market trade in illegal striped bass.

The ASMFC's own figures show that striped bass are in decline. They like to talk about total biomass, but that figure doesn't take into account the dearth of breeding-sized fish (the very fish targeted by commercial striped bass fishermen in Mass), and the decline in young-of-year recruitment shows that we're on the cusp of another crash. The parallels are chilling.

If you are happy with the way your marine fisheries are being managed, I guess you can support status quo. The governor here tried to get the commercial fishing industry in Massachusetts designated as an economic disaster and qualify for federal relief funds. That's a pretty good barometer for the success of that industry and the competence of its managers.

By supporting the game fish bill today, true sportsmen in the Bay State can take a stand for conservation instead of exploitation.

Mike,
I say it's sleazy because we ordinarily use the legislature in MA to decide fisheries issues, we have a public process through the marine fisheries commission, which is a much more transparent one. By using the legislative process, SF sought to eliminate as much of the public from the decision making process as possible.
SF tried to get another congressman to advance this fro them last year, A Frank Smizik from Cambridge, but when Frank found out that the bill had the same odds as a snowball in heck, he dropped it......

From what I am told, at the committee hearing yesterday, the proponents of this bill were outnumbered by the opponents 20-1 and that the folks from SF came off badly to the committee.

FWIW- I am in the minority in my opinion on what I am about to say, but I'll put it out to you guys anyway-

I feel that the comm'l fishery is wasted on the majority of the permit holders ( there are approximately 4000 +/-) who are not fisheries income dependent, but are looking to subsidize a very expensive hobby. These are not my words, but those of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries director, Paul Diodati, listen for yourself-
http://www.jamglue.com/tracks/1614937-bss
also listen to-
http://www.jamglue.com/tracks/1147809-flipflopfishery
Where he talks about the DMF's policy on striper permitting.

If it were up to me the only people who'd be able to get a striper permit (or any other comm'l permit) would be those who actually earn the majority of their income from comm'l fishing, not including charter fishing.

As far as I'm concerned the fishery has become a joke, most of the folks who participate all have jobs and they just get the permit because they can and they might make a few bucks doing it, but the rest of us the probably less than 100 of us in MA who do fish for stripers and do earn our entire living from fishing end up with a frenzied derby style fishery that only lasts a few weeks, one that we're damned if we fish in and damned if we don't. Worse yet, if they were to close the comm'l fishery more folks would be pushed into other already stretched thin fisheries and more folks who make their living from the sea would like fail.

Sorry for the long diatribe, but this is my life that these folks are playing with and I'll fight as passionately as I can to stay with what has been my way of earning a living for the last 20 years.

It's a strange mindset that says that seeking regulation through the legislative process is "sleazy." What's the alternative, another empty slogan? "Just say no to striper overfishing"...???

"The ALL spoke longer than their allotted 3 minutes, even continuing on after being asked to wrap it up by the Committee chairman. I don't think they got their message across to the committee very convincingly."

That's inexperience most likely, not arrogance. Most people don't have alot of practice distilling their p.o.v. about which they often have strong emotions into a really short chunk of time. We had the same dealio going here in Tucson when public hearings were held in re a proposing mine tailings dumping easement on USFS land in the Santa Ritas.

After watching a documentary about the great rise of Great White sharks in Massachusetts Bay, and a huge seal population that has doubled in size the past decade, both of which could prey on Bass, it'll be an interesting population to watch. Seems to me the seals would feed on young bass and Whites may target the larger cows. Anyone care to comment on my cockamamie theory?

"Why is commercial fishing consider exploitation and recreational fishing not?"
Because there are dollar signs attached to fish for comms. Because every fish targeted commercially requires management by some one other than the commercial fisherman, in other words they are unable to regulate themselves.

"How bad is the striper population when it still produces 1.16 billion from recreational fishers."

On average the Maryland DOR Year of the Young tends to run around 8 for an average year. Last year the YOY index was 3.2. Couple that with a commercial quota that was not met "legally" in MA and a recreational catch that has been reduceed by 50 percent in two years, that spells decline to me.

Then obviously the big question. If the striper population flourished during the years of commercial fishing then why can it not again flourish along with commercial fishing.

Nothing natural in this world flourishes with a dollar sign attached to it. The natural item is abused to the point of notice then managed. When you introduce the influence of the human hand on anything natural it generally becomes corrupted. Men have good intentions and generally start out with good intent when managing natural resources. Then the politics and policies come into play. This legislation will take away the management aspect in MA and designate that quota amount to conservation.

Many of the people I know who beleive in this legislation were involved in the commercial fishery at one point in their life and saw the waste associated with it.

This is a bill that will give Bass a chance in MA the state with the second highest commercial quota on the Atlantic coast.

I will admit I do not have a pulse on the entire senerio but just trying to learn here.

Jbass said -
"Because there are dollar signs attached to fish for comms" and then went on to say- "Nothing natural in this world flourishes with a dollar sign attached to it. The natural item is abused to the point of notice then managed."

So Jbass, what do you have to say about all the charter boats who are charging 600-1000$ a day to fish for stripers? Do those fish have a price on their heads too or is it different because the goal is to hurt/kill those fish for fun and high fives?

How hypocritical you sound sir.

Does it matter that 30% of the entite TAC of stripers is killed from rec'l catch and release and that is more than the entire comm'l harvest and discards combined, or is that FACT something you would conveniently have us all ignore?

If politics were actually at play in bass management, there would be no comm'l fishery at all, would there, in fact politics is exactly what SF hoped would win the day for them. Instead of pursuing their goal through the normal public process they chose to sleazily subvert the process and seek to end comm'l fishing through the MA legislative process.

It sounds so nice, the way folks like Jbass put it- to save this fish for future generations, but to save it for who and from who is the real question, considering that anglers make up les than 1% of ther AMERICAN population and that they are far na d away doing the most damage to the resource, all in the name of fun......

For starters, the only group really pushing for this game fish status for striped bass in MA, is Stripers Forever, who are really nothing more than a lobbyist for the tackle industry. They are not a non profit group. Now then, this was attempted before here in MA, but through the normal route via the Marine Fisheries Commission and public hearings, at which the overwhelming majority of rec'l anglers told the state that they were opposed to game fish for striped bass, to the best of my knowledge, the majority of rec'l anglers are still of the same opinion.

SF would lead us believe that by closing comm'l fishing that there would somehow magically be more fish available to be caught, which the science says otherwise.

Let's look at some quick facts; presently the largest percentage of striped bass mortality is affected by the rec's and of that, just the released fish that die, is more than the entire comm'l catch and discard mortality, combined, so who exactly do these fish need protecting from? SF would have us believe that by closing the comm'l fishery that there would be an immediate financial increase in revenue directly from activities surrounding the rec'l striper fishery, this is incredible considering that in the economic times as they are, about as many folks are spending about as much as possible on these activities, it's hard to imagine any more boats flying around out there.

SF, tells us that striped bass would still be available to non fishing consumers from farm raised sources, but this is a disingenuous statement from the start, because those fish are not actually striped bass, but are a hybrid, who's flavor and texture cannot begin to compare to a wild fish.

For time untold the rec's and comm'l fishermen have co-existed, not always harmoniously, but they have managed thus far. There is no reason this shouldn't be able to continue.