Charles Witek was finishing up his comments on the Public Information Document For Amendment 7 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Striped Bass, when one of the questions asked in the “Recreational Release Mortality” section stopped him cold.
“Should management focus on reducing effort in the fisher in order to reduce the number of striped bass caught and released?”
The fact that the question was even asked demonstrates how badly managers misunderstand the recreational striped bass fishery.
LINK (via: One Angler’s Voyage)
Same in Britain with the European Sea Bass in recent years – whilst huge, international-owned factory ships “hoovered up” the (remaining) bass off our shores, with our local gillnetting and lining small-boat “cowboys” taking the rest, Anglers were frequently told “Strictly no-kill … okay, we’ll, we’ll be really good to you dangerous bass-massacring rod-and-line predators and permit you to take just ONEof so many inches, but NOT A SINGLE FISH MORE….”.
Britain in Europe or Britain out of it, things can only get better (Not!) for our poor, old, serially put-upon bass.
I used to fish for them a very great deal, a long long time ago, before they became to-die-for fashionable, you know…
… but not now.