Candidate for NJ Governor Talks about Stripers, Hunting

[Broad Bill]

Originally Posted by reason162

Who cares, are you one of those people who want your political leaders to be just like you? What's more important - that the governor knows about hunting and trapping personally, or he/she supports policies that keep our land/water clean, and punish polluters and listens to good science when it comes to conservation?

First the CYA politically correct phrase is "best available science", not good science, which is an insurance policy for saying we're not really sure how close to representative the results of our scientific efforts really are. Could be 40% off like "New MRIP", 50% off on assigned recreational summer flounder catch values in 2018 and earlier years as a result of "Old MRIP" being completely inaccurate. Could be within a 2% margin of error or could be 60% - 80% off like commercial discard mortality rates or anything in between. Hardly a means of managing a stock resource or anything for that matter.

I do agree with your position all along that science needs to drive data and data needs to drive decisions, not the other way around which is where fisheries management is these days. BUT, common sense needs to be balanced with science for good management practices and right now common sense isn't even in the picture. It's been replaced by corruption, political and corporate or commercial greed.

I agree its more important an elected Governor support policies that keep our land/water clean, punish polluters and poachers, put some teeth into the laws by beefing up enforcement efforts and fines and make policy decisions based on a combination of science and common sense. Do we really need science to know Virginia is single handedly destroying the striper population and Chesapeake Bay or that the NC and VA commercial fleets are single handedly risking the future of the summer flounder fishery with their fall / winter commercial fishing practices. Or that the sea bass biomass has been completely rebuilt and the recreational sector is still not getting their fair share based on MSA legislation. We don't and somewhere in the process science needs to marry up with common sense to adopt management practices that actually help protect public resources and allocate those resources fairly between commerce and the recreational sector including all the small businesses dependent on it. That's the perspective, in my opinion, officials should be judged on when it comes time to vote and when it does come time PLEASE don't give up possibly the best opportunity you have to speak your mind.