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Progress Map
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Spearing of striped bass
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Stripers Forever Members – we’d like to poll the opinion of our members on the practice of spearing striped bass. While the single purpose of Stripers Forever is to conserve striped bass for public fishing by removing the pressures that commercial harvesting puts upon this finite resource, there are related issues that we feel compelled to take a stand on. Some legislators in the state of MA have put in
a bill to allow the spearing of striped bass, and we would like input from our members on this issue.
Pro comments that we have heard – few people scuba dive for stripers, and so the catch is likely to be very small. It is no different to kill a bass by spearing than to catch it and knock it over the head, therefore it is simply discriminatory to not allow it. Spearing creates no by catch; whatever damage you do is only to the fish that you intend to keep.
Negative comments that we have heard – it is impossible to measure striped bass before spearing them making compliance with regulations impossible. A high percentage of speared fish are only wounded and escape; their wounds are more likely to be fatal than with conventionally hooked and released fish. Spearing necessarily focuses on the largest fish, the important breeders that are already under too much pressure. Spearing is not comparable to conventional fishing that allows both harvest and catch and release; it is just a form of killing that does not meet even the lowest standards of what most would define as sportsmanship.
Send us an e-mail at stripers@whatifnet.com and tell us Yes or No as to whether or not you support allowing the spearing of striped bass– additional comments are also welcome.
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