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Stripers Forever members - Have a look at this press release from the Maryland DNR. In summary, 71 illegal gill nets were found during the just ended three month striped bass gill netting season in Chesapeake Bay. In addition to the more than 2,000,000 pounds of legally taken striped bass, the Bay commercial fishery has a very well documented illegal catch of stripers. The
use of gill nets also produces a sizable bycatch of not only finfish, but also - as documented below - waterfowl. In addition to all of the social inequities involved with continuing commercial striped bass fishing, it is simply wrong to allow instruments of indiscriminate killing like gill nets to continue to be used anywhere, much less in an enclosed system like Chesapeake Bay. They will be used as long as commercial striped bass fishing is allowed in the Bay though, and there's a reason. Legal sized fish simply can't be caught in sufficient volume on hook and line. Look at this link http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/commercial/harvestmonitoring.html If
you scroll down to hook and line landings you will note that the commercial quota for hook and line is never approached month after month throughout their season. At the end of the season most of their quota is given over to the winter gill net fishery.
Very soon we will be mailing the MD Southwick Study to political contacts and fishery managers throughout the Bay area. We will include a copy of this story to illustrate some of the abuses and side effects found in commercial fishing for striped bass.
Striped Bass Gill Net Season Busy For Natural Resources Police
Officers returning to port with a boat full of illegal gill nets. |
ANNAPOLIS— The end of February marked the end of the striped bass drift gill net season in the Chesapeake Bay. Maryland Natural Resources Police (NRP) officers working up and down the Chesapeake Bay confiscated 71 illegal gill nets during the three-month season. Nearly 1,000 pounds of fish along with waterfowl were removed from those nets.
Sixty-three nets were seized in the Upper Eastern Region from Rock Hall to James Island. These nets were unattended, unmarked and some were anchored. No arrests or charges have been filed on any of the nets; however, all are still under investigation.
Officers tagging striped bass seized from illegal gill nets |
Three nets were seized from the Lower Eastern Region and Michael A. Parks, 48, of Ewell was charged with fishing an anchored net. Five nets were seized from the Central Region from the Patapsco River and near Holland Point. These nets were unattended, unmarked and some were anchored. No arrests or charges have been filed on any of the nets; however, all are still under investigation.
Used for the commercial harvest of fish, a gill net is maintained in a vertical position in the water with sinkers or floats. It ensnares fish by means of a mesh too small to permit passage of the body of the fish or withdrawal of the head once the posterior margin of the gill covers has passed through the mesh. A drift gill net is not secured or anchored to the bottom, including a net rigged with up to 20 pounds of weight at each end. It must be attended by the licensee in a boat within two miles of the net while it is in waters of the Chesapeake Bay, or within one mile when the net is in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, its coastal bays and their tributaries, or a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay. An anchor gill net is a net that is stationary in the water and secured to the bottom by
conventional anchors or heavy weights.
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