Striped Bass Closures in Nov and Dec

[Gerry Zagorski]

Let’s say for a minute you believe the numbers and science, although we and they know it’s full of assumptions not facts. It’s the best available science we have so if it’s indicating fishery is or has a strong possibility of being in trouble, we all need to suck it up and share in the pain of a 14% reduction.

My issues is with closing the fishery down in Nov and Dec here in NJ is way over the top and does not equally distribute the pain since these have historically been the best months to fish. You close down say Massachusetts for the same 2 months and they don’t feel the same pain we do because the fish are not there in those months. In my opinion making blanket decisions like this is the easy and lazy way for them to get the 14%.

How about letting the each of the states decide how they want get to their share of the 14% by choosing the closure dates. Maybe some of them would choose to close down their commercial fishery like NJ did to get to part of it. Not sure what this would mean for NJ regs but whatever it is, it makes more sense for these decisions be made closer to the people they effect.

I could go on here forever but suffices to say, closing us down in Nov and Dec is ridiculous and can’t even believe it was suggested as an option. The basis of my comments to the ASFMC is all states should feel the same pain and have a say in how they choose to get to their 14%.

Please send your comments via email to comments@asmfc.org by 12/10.