Denying Sanctuary To Stripers

I am aware of two legitimate anglers unconnected to commercial-fishing who favor opening the EEZ because they believe it would spread out commercial and recreational pressure. They're great conservationists, and I respect them both. Apart from them, I don't know a single angler, guide or conservation organization not adamantly opposed to it. CCA and its state affiliates, Jersey Coast Anglers Association, Recreational Fishing Alliance, and Stripers Forever are all oppose the idea. As the last of these groups correctly observes: "The entire striped bass management scheme is essentially commercially motivated. The two fish at 28 inches is an unwanted sop that commercially oriented state directors have shoved down the throats of their recreational fishermen as a smoke screen for giving bloated quotas to commercial interests. A perfect example is last year's 43 percent coastal increase and the unwanted recreational increase to two fish over 28 in Massachusetts. How many of those do you think get sold on the black market? The problem is that commercial fishing doesn't just kill fish, it creates a management mentality based around maximum harvest rather than economic and social values achieved by a quality fishery. If commercial fishing for stripers were eliminated, we are confident that many of these ridiculous and largely unwanted excesses would be dropped from the management plan. The recreational community really doesn't want them, and there would no longer be a commercial voice to satisfy."

That's the ultimate answer-make the striped bass a game fish coastwide. That's easier said than done, but there have been some valiant attempts, the latest a stalled bill filed in March 2003 by Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), the ranking Democrat of the House Subcommittee on Fisheries Conservation, Wildlife, and Oceans.

If Pallone or anyone else ever pulls this off, Stripers Forever says it would have "no objection to allowing recreational fishing in the EEZ." Considering the damage that anglers can do and are doing, I'm not sure I'd go quite that far unless the bag limit were substantially reduced-say to one fish with a maximum (rather than minimum) size limit of 28 inches.

With striped bass ASMFC has a unique opportunity to do something managers have rarely tried-work with a stock that is healthy (even though it could be a lot healthier). But managing a healthy stock for abundance instead of the most possible dead poundage-i.e., "maximum sustained yield"-just doesn't compute with managers or the institutions at which they train. It's time for that to change. And the way to change it is to make yourself heard. By the time you read this NOAA Fisheries should have completed and posted its draft environmental impact statement on opening the EEZ. Read it and comment by logging onto: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/sfa/state_federal/state_federal.htm.

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