Stripers Forever needs our help

[gdn443]

[left][font "Arial"][#000000]Stripers Forever[/#000000][/font][font "Arial"][#000000] members - on Jan. 15th the North Carolina, ocean commercial striped bass season opened. In this trawl fishery, individual boats can keep the 50 largest fish that they catch in a day. This practice allows and encourages the culling or high grading of the catch. This means that the boat will keep the 50 largest fish in possession but may continue trawling all day and may replace these fish with larger ones caught later. Replacing means they will throw the dead or dying fish over the side, substituting them with the freshly caught larger bass. It is nearly beyond belief that such a system could be in place, but it is. [/#000000][/font][/left]
[left][font "Arial"][#000000]Here is the link [/#000000][/font][font "Arial"][#0000ff][url "http://www.examiner.com/fish-and-wildlife-policy-in-charlotte/commercial-trawlers-slaughtering-thousands-of-striped-bass-off-the-outer-banks"]http://www.examiner.com/fish-and-wildlife-policy-in-charlotte/commercial-trawlers-slaughtering-thousands-of-striped-bass-off-the-outer-banks[/url][/#0000ff][/font][font "Arial"][#000000] to a newspaper story about the debacle. The story itself contains a link to a YouTube video that shows pictures of the dead floating stripers. The trawlers committing this atrocity tow their nets right through fleets of recreational and charter boats that are fishing on the schools. Is it any wonder this resource is becoming scarcer every year? [/#000000][/font][/left]
[left][font "Arial"][#000000]SF has sent a letter to Louis Daniels Ph.D. the Director of Marine Fisheries in NC. We hope that you will send the note below or something like it in your own words to Dr. Daniels and let him know that this is a barbaric and unacceptable practice. Here is an e-mail link to his office [/#000000][/font][url "http://us.mc823.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=louis.daniel@ncmail.net"][font "Arial"]louis.daniel@ncmail.net[/font][/url][font "Arial"][#000000].[/#000000][/font][/left]
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[left][font "Arial"][#000000]Louis Daniels PhD[/#000000][/font][/left]
[left][font "Arial"][#000000]NC DMF[/#000000][/font][/left]
[left][font "Arial"][#000000]3441 Arendell Street[/#000000][/font][/left]
[left][font "Arial"][#000000]PO BOX 769[/#000000][/font][/left]
[left][font "Arial"][#000000]Morehead City, NC 28557-0769[/#000000][/font][/left]
[left][font "Arial"][#000000]Dear Dr. Daniels – The world is now aware of the terrible misuse of the striped bass resource caused by the commercial ocean trawl fishery off the North Carolina Outer Banks. These fish are worth considerably more per pound if allocated to the recreational fishery in North Carolina than when taken by commercial harvest. But if the practice of commercial fishing for striped bass must continue in NC, certainly the participants should never be allowed to cull and high grade these fish. It is already too late to save the thousands of large striped bass wasted by this fishery during the 2011 winter season, but we hope that you will use the power of your office to keep this from happening in the future. [/#000000][/font][/left]
[left][font "Arial"][#000000]Sincerely; [/#000000][/font][/left]
[left][font "Arial"][#000000]My name here[/#000000][/font][/left]
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[gdn443]

Here's a link to a video on this problem.http://boatinglocal.com/news/north-carolina-striper-slaughter.html
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[gdn443]

Letters worked. Got this from Stripers Forever.


[left][font "Arial"][#000000]Stripers Forever[/#000000][/font][font "Arial"][#000000] Members – never question the value of e-mailing or otherwise communicating your comments to politicians and/or fishery managers. Dr. Louis Daniel called me from NC last Wednesday evening and told me he had received an unprecedented amount of comment from our members on the dead striped bass high graded by commercial trawlers last week off the Outer Banks. To Dr. Daniel’s credit he has changed this regulation to one that does not allow the practice of high grading. It is a positive step for the striped bass. Dr. Daniel was very gracious in our conversation, and we should remember that he inherited the regulations already in place in NC, a state with a history of total commercial dominanation of the fishery management process. I believe that the input of our members affected this change just as I think we were an important voice in motivating the ASMFC to vote against the commercial quota increase two months ago. [/#000000][/font][/left]

[left][font "Arial"][#000000]We must end the commercial exploitation of striped bass. Nothing short of that will ever solve these problems. For those that would say it is more important that we work on forage issues, I would respond that forage fish are vital, but after 40 years of crying about the over harvest of shad, herring, eels, menhaden, sand eels, and the like, that we have gotten almost nowhere. Envision striped bass as a coast wide game fish, managed for a much higher level of abundance, and the incredible guiding, tackle, and tourism angling businesses that would be generated. Then we'd then have the clout to demand the reduction of or the end to the plunder of the prey species needed to feed these fish. Until now we've gone with hat in hand and we've come out with nothing. That is the wrong approach. [/#000000][/font][/left]

[left][font "Arial"][#000000]Thanks to the dedicated efforts of our MA board, with the help of one of the state’s top lobbyists working for a small fraction of his normal fee, we have filed three striped bass conservation bills in the state legislature this session. Help us get them passed, and we will have done something of enormous value for the generations of saltwater anglers to come. [/#000000][/font][/left]

[left][font "Arial"][#000000]Make It A Game Fish! [/#000000][/font][/left]
[left][font "Arial"][#000000] Brad Burns, President of Stripers Forever [/#000000][/font][/left]
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