The above is a letter I recieved from the American Saltwater Guides Association. It is in reference to the ASMFC totally going against the public comments that they consistently ask for. You can see the results from below of what the public, people from the rec. and commercial side voted for. It seems
pretty cut and dry to me. This is in regards to commerical quota transfer between the states on the East Coast. According to the "data" we are within, in some states, and way under the alotted quota that states with a commercial fishery can kill each year. This would allow a state like North Carolina, which has a quota of 295,495 pounds of striped bass, in which there was 0 (zero) harvested over the last two years to be tranferred to another, probably money and politics connected, state.
If we say that the average striped bass harvested is 10 pounds, and the quota is that 295 thousand pounds, that means 29, 549.5 fish that can and should be killed each year. So North Carolina might transfer that to Virginia, who in 2021 harvested 1,123, 353 pounds of striped bass with a street value of $3,791,353. So each pound of striped bass is worth 0.33 cents a pound. Those fish come from the Chesepeake Bay and the Potomac River and it's tributaries.
Or it can go to Maryland, where in 2021, 1,610,800 pounds of striped bass were commercially harveted with a street value of, better than Virginia, $5,741,551, or 0.35 cents a pound. A lof of those fish, if not most, are coming from the Chesepeake. If you want a laugh check out Maryland's commercial regulations HERE. If you want to get in on the 1,231 commercial permits allotted you can fish for striped bass commercially by hook and line, drift gill net, haul seine and pound net. Each type of fishing has a different regulation. That's commical in itself to read.
The ASMFC says striped bass is overfished but overfishing isn't occurring. Go figure that one out. To me the ASMFC is a joke. The people on the board are a joke. And the "data" is a joke. And asking us for public comment is a joke too. I commend the ASGA for the hard work and dedication they put in, as well as other conservation minded groups and individuals. But when people wonder "where's all the fishermen at" in regards to in-person meetings, Zoom meetings and emails and letters, they should look at what the ASMFC does with that input. They ignore it. It's a joke.
Striped bass conservation begins and ends with two things, money and politics.