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Progress Map
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Lobsters and Stripers
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Size: 26K |
Last Updated: 2005/4/30 |
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Size: 20K |
Last Updated: 2005/4/30 |
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Some members of the commercial fishing industry have long been quick to put the blame on anyone but themselves for fishing stocks into oblivion. The article that appeared 4/28 in the Gloucester Times - ground zero for groundfishing woes - reports that lobster fishermen - represented by Bill Adler who is also an ASMFC representative for MA, and thus gets a vote on striped bass management - want to see increased bag limits for striped bass, and the EEZ opened to fishing for them as well. The article and our letter to the editor in response are attached.
We all know that stripers eat small lobsters, and they are entitled to them, especially in view of the fact that commercial fishing has wiped out much of their other historic forage. Still, we doubt that it amounts to much compared to the lobsters and crabs that the now severely depleted, inshore, groundfish population once ate.
This kind of thinking is just one more important reason that all commercial fishing for striped bass must stop. If we want to protect the future of recreational striped bass fishing and the 6.5 billion dollar industry that it supports, we must put this species beyond the clutches of those who would fish it down to levels that match other commercially devastated species.
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