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Originally Posted by Bob & Mag  Sorry but where the hell are they getting 73% rec kill for stripers?? Throwing numbers out like this without any backup information is not impressive.
Even the CT DEP said that rec kills on released fluke, at last years fluke meeting, was 1 in 25 fish released would die. That is 4 %.
Yes fish will sink and you're telling me they don't pick and throw them overboard. You're blind if you don't see the waste.
I will agree to one thing, that saltwater licensing will be making a big difference. I believe it will be found just where the money in this industry is being spent and hopefully percentage of the allowed catch will be reallocated. |
Hi Bob,
I am certainly not blind. I merely wanted to point out to you that it is impossible to follow a dragger and count his fluke bycatch floating. They do not float, ever. I do not agree with all dragging practices, but the fluke draggers are very clean in overall terms due to the short tows and limited effort in overall terms to the summer flounder.
The striper numbers are very much real. What you are not factoring in here is the number of commercail fisherman(licensed) that fish, vs. the numbers of recreational fisherman that fish. The amount of stripers killed is an easy one to determine, due to the severe restrictions of the commercial fleet has endured since the re opening. I would like you to please read a bit of information on this following pdf. It is short, and explains the numbers I quoted to you:
http://www.asmfc.org/speciesDocument...iesprofile.pdf
You are not alone in many of your assumptions, the entire recreational fleet is blind to the issues at hand, as the common problem is the recreational numbers are estimated, and typically they numbers error in the recreational favor, not the opposite, as all the poaching(unlicensed recreational catch that is sold black market, or plain old poaching of shorts and daily limit overages not reported) skews the numbers quite a bit from plain erroneous data.
The data collection and assumptions made to actual stock numbers is a very real problem, but I believe the commercial numbers are far, far more accurate than the recreational numbers.
The saltwater license would help out immensely to getting these numbers more accurate, and potentially better the percieved gap in the TAC of the two user groups. It would definitely help in getting the recreationals real world dollar figures down on paper, and become impossible to ignore once factoring in of the economic impact recreational saltwater anglers represent!
Remember I am not advocating any removal of an entire user group from any fishry, not commercial dragging or fishing in general. When and if the species are accurately monitored, then I will change my line. I do this for a living, and am a very well educated fisherman, besides being intimately curious by nature. I simply do not post and ideas or opinions that I have not researched to the utmost of my capabilities.
Again I am not taking a shot at anyone here, merely reporting cold hard facts as they pertain to these types of discussions.
Think about this: If commercial efforts were to be halted, it would certainly help me out in terms of my full time fishing, which is in the recreational sector. If no one could get their fish from a local source, they would need to charter me to ever eat alot of the species they like on a fresh basis....
In addition, there would be nowhere for the pin hookers if left in the fishery to sell their catch, as the average consumer would just buy the frozen crap available from the rest of the world. The percentage of imported fish already far outdistances the domestic product consumed here in the US. The small fish houses would go under with no competitive local resource to tap into....