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Amendment 6 Striped Bass Hearings
by Ed Cherry
(from Jersey Coast Anglers Association November 2002 Newsletter)
Striped Bass
The overwhelming majority of some 85 attendees at the striped bass hearings were in favor of the JCAA position (October Newsletter) or took similar positions. One of the points that was brought out was that in order to create the “trophy fishery” that the amendment aims to create, would cause anglers over a 10 year period of time to give up 5,000,000 fish in order to gain approximately 200,000 15-20 year old larger fish ten years down the line. Half a million less fish you are entitled to catch every year for ten years but will not be allowed to catch. Also there would be no absolute guarantees these “trophy fish” numbers would be in the stock at that time. Further, if present, these large fish would end up where ~76% of the large bass are currently caught, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and parts of New York. The percentage gain of large fish would not be that noticeable for the rest of the coast. Also the reduction of the mortality to F=2.0 would also increase the commercial quotas (by as much as 70% in some scenarios) in most of the myriad of very confusing options, while the recreational sector would have to take restrictions. A very unnecessary and overly restrictive amendment. Unfortunately, the comment period for this amendment is now closed