Commercializeing stripper fishing

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[size 2]Stripers Forever Connecticut OPPOSE Bill to Commercialize Striped Bass

We Agree!

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Stripers Forever Connecticut - here is a matter of the greatest importance for the future of striped bass. Representative Richard Roy of Milford, CT has introduced HB #5506 which would overturn CT's long-standing game fish law and make it legal to commercially fish for striped bass in CT!

This would certainly be a blow that striped bass don't need, and it would make it much more difficult to finally achieve the coast-wide game fish status for striped bass that Stripers Forever is working towards with its Massachusetts game fish bill.
We understand this bill has been introduced largely to reduce the number of striped bass in CT waters so that they will not eat all the lobsters. According to a 1999 study by the Univ. of Conn. the lobster population crashed from record high numbers - that coincided with record numbers of striped bass - because the waters of the Sound became too warm.
We urge all SF members to do their utmost to defeat this bill. Send Representative Roy both an e-mail, a postal letter, and make a phone call to his office today. His name in paragraph one above is a link that will provide complete contact information. Let him know that you live in CT, that this bill will be very harmful to the sport that you love and to the recreational industry in CT that depends on good striped bass . Tell him that you want him to withdraw this legislation today.
Here are some talking points if you want to say or write more:
1. The striped bass are already under too much pressure. Fishing quality is already substantially worse than it was 5 or especially 10 years ago. This is reducing participation and harming the guiding and tackle industry.
2. Commercial has been shown to create an illegal market in addition to the legal one that puts far more pressure on the resource than planned.
3. The State of Connecticut has no commercial quota for striped bass and any such quota would have to therefore come by reducing the current recreational season and/or bag limits which are already very restrictive by historical standards. In 2003 CT had 473,000 marine s, 212,000 of whom primarily targeted striped bass. This legislation would be unfair to them since it would give a very few people a disproportionate share of a scarce public resource.
4. Professionally produced socio-economic studies have shown that recreational use of this resource is many times more valuable than commercial sale in terms of economic activity, taxes generated, and jobs created.
5. The State of Connecticut has a strong warning against regularly consuming striped bass taken from Long Island Sound. These fish should not be sold to consumers.
6. The University of Connecticut has determined that the lobster problem is due to water temperature issues and not predation by striped bass. Before warming temperatures in the late 1990s record numbers of both lobsters and striped bass coexisted in the Sound.
7. Since 1980 Maine, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and New Jersey have made striped bass a game fish protected from the pressures of commercial .

Legislation is now pending in MA to accomplish the same thing in that state because of the points made here. CT should not overturn years of positive precedent in the conservation of striped bass.
Remember: E-mail, and Write, and Phone Call!
What else can you do in addition? If you are as upset with this as we are, take the same steps above with your local legislator - and if you know them by all means go see them - explain your concerns, and ask them to help you convince Rep. Richard Roy to withdraw this legislation as soon as possible. You can find your CT legislator at this link.
Also, forward this e-mail to all of your friends. Ask them to do the same thing and to go to the Stripers Forever website and become a member - free as always - so that we can help them stay on top of this issue too.
While we urge you to use your own words, please.do not be insulting or negative towards commercial or to Representative Roy. Dwell on the facts above and the benefits of a robust recreational fishery for striped bass.
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[size 2]Keep ban on commercial striped-bass fishing
By Charles Walsh
Correspondent


VERY URGENT AND VERY IMPORTANT" was the seemingly overheated subject line of an e-mail from Stripers Forever, a group dedicated to making the striped bass a protected game fish (only limited recreational fishing allowed).

Could Russian factory ships be parked at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay scooping up every last migrating striper in nets the size of Rhode Island?

Thankfully, the Russians have stayed home, but for striper-loving anglers the real subject of the message is almost as alarming.

The e-mail alerted Connecticut members of Stripers Forever and all recreational anglers to a bill Milford Rep. Richard Roy (D-119) introduced in the current session of the Connecticut State General Assembly. If made law, the bill would allow limited commercial fishing for the striped bass in Long Island Sound. Connecticut is one of six Atlantic Coast states that wisely bans all commercial striper fishing. In Massachusetts, which bizarrely still permits some commercial striper fishing, a Stripers Forever-backed bill seeking a ban is now moving through that state's legislature.

Roy, best known as the father of the state law that bans talking on cell phones while driving, has proposed House bill 5506 which reads: "Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives "¦ that title 26 of the general statutes be amended to declare the striped bass a predatory fish that is harmful to other species and to allow commercial fishermen to take a limited
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number of striped bass using conventional tackle, but not by the use of purse seine nets or similar equipment."

No need to declare the striper predatory, it's been that for eons.

Predation is how this noble fish gets its food. Just because smear tactics are routine in politics, is no reason to use them on a fish.

If that paragraph was not absurd enough, the next section of the bill would knock the claws off a blue crab. Under the heading "Statement of Purpose" it reads: "To help balance the diversity of sea life in Long Island Sound."

The diversity of Long Island Sound has been taking care of itself quite nicely since the Ice Age, there's no need to start meddling with it now.

Stripers Forever urged it's members to write and e-mail Roy stating their strong opposition to the bill. Apparently, the urging worked because when we called Roy at his Capitol office Friday, he was in what one might call a state of shock.

"The reaction to the bill stunned me," said a clearly chastened Roy, "and, frankly, I don't see it [the bill] going anywhere. I'm not going to pursue it further."

Roy, who says he drafted the bill at the request of some commercial lobster fishers in his district, said the reaction to the bill, even among his friends was, "what the hell are you doing?" With nary a shred of scientific evidence to support their position, some commercial lobstermen blame the Sound's healthy striper population for the catastrophic collapse of the lobster fishery west of Old Saybrook.

The stripers, they charge, are eating all the baby lobsters before they can fend for themselves. It's a totally bogus claim but apparently Roy fell for it.

To know how Roy feels today about drafting that striper bill, try to imagine how the guy who answers the time-honored question: "does this dress make me look fat?" with "yes, honey, it does," feels about that response. Likewise, Roy would probably give up his Capitol parking space if he could un-write the striper bill. Such was the roasting he got from Connecticut recreational fishermen over the past week.

Chances are very good we've seen the last of House Bill 5506, but lest some other legislator gets a bright idea about legalizing commercial striped bass fishing, here are some of Stripers Forever reasons why it is a terrible idea.

1. The striped bass are already under too much pressure. Fishing quality is already substantially worse than it was five years ago.

This is reducing fishing participation and harming the guide business and tackle industry.

2. Commercial fishing has been shown to create an illegal market in addition to the legal one that puts far more pressure on the resource than planned.

3. The state of Connecticut has no commercial quota for striped bass. Any such quota would have to therefore come by reducing the current recreational season and/or bag limits which are already very restrictive by historical standards. In 2003 Connecticut had 473,000 marine anglers, 212,000 of whom primarily targeted striped bass. Commercial fishing would give a very small segment of the population a disproportionate share of a scarce public resource.

4. Professionally produced socio-economic studies have shown that recreational use of this resource is many times more valuable than commercial sale in terms of economic activity, taxes generated and jobs created.

5. The University of Connecticut has determined that the lobster problem is due to water temperature issues and not predation by striped bass. Before warming temperatures in the late 1990s record numbers of both lobsters and striped bass coexisted in the Sound.

Contact Charles Walsh at [/size][url "mailto:cwalsh@ctpost.com"][#006600][size 2]cwalsh@ctpost.com[/size][/#006600][/url]
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