CORRECTION: INCORRECT EMAIL ADDRESS AND COMMERCIAL STRIPER EXPOSE
In my haste to send you a welcoming note from Stripers Forever, I gave you
an incorrect email address! Sorry if it has caused anyone any undue
out the letter l between n and c) Thank you. Dean
Sam Davenport and Dave Rimmer have had great success in getting some of the
fishing shops in MA to put out our( Stripers Forever) counter-top, brochure
displays. Anyone else that might wish to have (S.F.) brochures displayed in
their local shop....just get the shop to say yes and we will take care of
the mailing and the supplying. Contact S.F. directly through our web site or
get in touch with me at my NEW address! The more exposure we get the more
our message will be heard and the sooner it will happen.
Below, please find a shocking summary of the economic realities regarding
the "commercial" fishery for striped bass right here in MA!
This clearly points out the need for Federally mandated gamefish status for
the striper. We must remove the commercial influence from the management
parameters. However this will never happen here in MA as long as the permit
fees pay the salaries of the managers and as long as each State has the
regulatory right to allocate the resource as they wish. We must all work
together to help make striped bass a Federally mandated gamefish! Please
save the following for future letter writing reference!
For the Future,
Dean Clark
FACT vs. FICTION
Regarding the Commercial Striped Bass Fishery in MA
The following has been compiled using year 2002 figures and statistics
provided by the Division of Marine Fisheries, the regulatory State agency
responsible for the oversight and management of the coastal striped bass
fishery in MA. The extrapolations and conclusions are those of Stripers
Forever.
1) Only 4,587 permits were sold to legally catch and sell 40 percent of the
total striped bass harvest quota in MA.
2) More than 800,000 residents and tourists had to share the remaining 60
percent of the harvest quota. Compared to the commercial "take" this is an
injustice!
3) The disproportionate disparity in resource allocation is clear evidence
of the State giving resource priority to the commercial permit holders
(purchasers) that pay the salaries of the regulators even though the fishery
is commercially non-viable.....it is a hoax!
4) Of the 4,587 permit holders only 1,174 reported selling any
stripers…....3,413 reported selling NO FISH at all! How come? Black market?
"Legal", unreported overkill??????
5) Of the 1,174 legally reporting permit holders, only 639 sold 1 to 10
fish for the entire season.
6) Only 535 reported selling more than 10 fish!!!
7) The real economic truth is that of these 535 only 50 to 60 permit
holders grossed more than $5,000....that's BEFORE EXPENSES
8) After deducting conservative, fishing overhead costs, it becomes very
clear that less than 1 percent of the 4,587 permit holders showed any profit
at all! The "commercial" fishery for striped bass exists only to sell permit
fees, not to provide a meaningful income to many fishermen.
9) The commercial striped bass fishery in MA is economically impotent and
can’t be justified when independent studies show that a recreationally
caught striper is worth at least five times more to our economy.
10) Commercial bass fishermen are regulated to keeping only the large prime
breeding females. This is genetically reducing the overall size of the
striper population and if it continues it will forever destroy the species
profile as we now know it.
CONCLUSION
Only by Federally declaring the wild striped bass to be a gamefish and
eliminating the State-by-State commercial pressure on the resource, will
the fishery be returned to the public with responsible management oversight
and promise for the future. Stripers Forever urges passage of HR 1286.
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