Latest striper meeting - This Will MAKE YOU SICK!

[surfstix1963]

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Dear Rich,


Yesterday, at the Atlantic States Marine Fishery Commission striped bass meeting, Ken Hastings, Stripers Forever's ASMFC policy coordinator gave the testimony at the bottom of this page.

If you wanted to be upset you should have been there. According to Ken there was so much confusion and nitpicking discussion over obscure details of striped bass science that whether or not the needed cuts in striped bass harvest will even be implemented in 2015 is now in doubt! Meanwhile, since MD didn't kill every possible fish allowed in 2013, and rationalized by additional theoretical statistics, their plan to increase their catch by 14% in 2014 has now mushroomed to something over 16.5%. The vast majority of the targeted fish will barely make the 18" minimum size. If they can't find enough of those, however, they will simply take an even bigger slice of what is left of the spawning stock. You can be assured that this is to represent commercial interests - most recreational anglers don't want it. They see the need to conserve the one decent year class in the pipeline.

Stripers Forever was organized to bypass the commercially dominated ASMFC process by going directly to the state legislatures and submitting legislation to make striped bass a game fish. One thing is clear to us, and that is that there is no substitute for the eventual goal of game fish designation. As long as wild striped bass can legally be fished commercially we will be fighting to keep the fishery from being destroyed by overfishing.

Here is Ken's testimony:

Testimony Before the ASMFC SB Management Board, 2/4/14



Good morning. My name is Ken Hastings and I am a recreational fisherman from Mechanicsville, MD. I am here today representing Stripers Forever. Stripers Forever advocates for game fish status to end the commercial exploitation of Atlantic Striped Bass. We believe, supported by credible expert analyses, that the socio-economic values of live SB far exceed their value as food and that they should be managed to maximize their greater recreational value both socially and economically. Substituting recreational priorities for commercial priorities would create an inherent conservation ethic. Recreational values are measured by the opportunities for success thus more fish alive becomes the goal. This simple fact is Species Management 101.



We believe ASMFC's flawed policies and biased priorities are directly responsible for the decline of the SB fishery and that they continue to impede any attempts to restore this fishery. For example, allowing the Chesapeake Bay jurisdictions to increase the exploitation of the 2011 year class in the face of potentially drastic cuts in allocation for everyone is irresponsible at best. Every fish we eat today is one less that will join the SSB in 2016.



You should have seen the decline coming. Everyone else did. And you were obligated to head it off. All the signs were there even before the Boston Annual Meeting but this commission chose to ignore the fact that data uncertainties can cut both ways. Greed continues to rule the day. The overwhelming commercial bias of this Council and its relentless desire to support exploitation over conservation encourages you to ignore even the admonishment and pleas of one of your own to reduce harvest. This bias of always seeing the abundance glass as half full even when confronted with an obvious down-turn in the stock has twice resulted in your voting to continue kicking the can down the road. Meanwhile, plummeting fish abundance and lost recreational fishing economy and opportunities have become the norm and produced some of the worst SB fishing in years.



Now, you have another chance although with far fewer fish to work with than before. Your new stock assessment report has a very candid assessment of uncertainties that even tops the 2011 discussion in Boston. It's time to stop kicking the can.



Thank you for this opportunity.

[finchaser]

Yesterday, at the Atlantic States Marine Fishery Commission striped bass meeting, Ken Hastings, Stripers Forever's ASMFC policy coordinator gave the testimony at the bottom of this page.

If you wanted to be upset you should have been there. According to Ken there was so much confusion and nitpicking discussion over obscure details of striped bass science that whether or not the needed cuts in striped bass harvest will even be implemented in 2015 is now in doubt! Meanwhile, since MD didn't kill every possible fish allowed in 2013, and rationalized by additional theoretical statistics, their plan to increase their catch by 14% in 2014 has now mushroomed to something over 16.5%. The vast majority of the targeted fish will barely make the 18" minimum size. If they can't find enough of those, however, they will simply take an even bigger slice of what is left of the spawning stock. You can be assured that this is to represent commercial interests - most recreational anglers don't want it. They see the need to conserve the one decent year class in the pipeline.

Stripers Forever was organized to bypass the commercially dominated ASMFC process by going directly to the state legislatures and submitting legislation to make striped bass a game fish. One thing is clear to us, and that is that there is no substitute for the eventual goal of game fish designation. As long as wild striped bass can legally be fished commercially we will be fighting to keep the fishery from being destroyed by overfishing.

Here is Ken's testimony:

Testimony Before the ASMFC SB Management Board, 2/4/14



Good morning. My name is Ken Hastings and I am a recreational fisherman from Mechanicsville, MD. I am here today representing Stripers Forever. Stripers Forever advocates for game fish status to end the commercial exploitation of Atlantic Striped Bass. We believe, supported by credible expert analyses, that the socio-economic values of live SB far exceed their value as food and that they should be managed to maximize their greater recreational value both socially and economically. Substituting recreational priorities for commercial priorities would create an inherent conservation ethic. Recreational values are measured by the opportunities for success thus more fish alive becomes the goal. This simple fact is Species Management 101.



We believe ASMFC's flawed policies and biased priorities are directly responsible for the decline of the SB fishery and that they continue to impede any attempts to restore this fishery. For example, allowing the Chesapeake Bay jurisdictions to increase the exploitation of the 2011 year class in the face of potentially drastic cuts in allocation for everyone is irresponsible at best. Every fish we eat today is one less that will join the SSB in 2016.



You should have seen the decline coming. Everyone else did. And you were obligated to head it off. All the signs were there even before the Boston Annual Meeting but this commission chose to ignore the fact that data uncertainties can cut both ways. Greed continues to rule the day. The overwhelming commercial bias of this Council and its relentless desire to support exploitation over conservation encourages you to ignore even the admonishment and pleas of one of your own to reduce harvest. This bias of always seeing the abundance glass as half full even when confronted with an obvious down-turn in the stock has twice resulted in your voting to continue kicking the can down the road. Meanwhile, plummeting fish abundance and lost recreational fishing economy and opportunities have become the norm and produced some of the worst SB fishing in years.



Now, you have another chance although with far fewer fish to work with than before. Your new stock assessment report has a very candid assessment of uncertainties that even tops the 2011 discussion in Boston. It's time to stop kicking the can.



Thank you for this opportunity.

[DarkSkies]

By the time NOAA admits there is a problem it will be too late. We will be fishing for bluefish and sea robins. It's a shame because now as compared to the past there is more research techniques and methods available for accessment. There are the YOY surveys, trawl surveys, and all sorts of newfangled scientific methods. Unfortunately as finchaser said most of these scientists do not get out there and fish. The only way to see the decline is to be part of fishing.

Well-said bucket. I was having a similar conversation yesterday with one of the veteran fishermen who has been active in fisheries management issues for a few decades.
1. He compared the stats he is recording now, with the 5 years before the moratorium in 1982.
2. Unfortunately, he and I both agree that organizations like NOAA, NMFS, and ASMFC are about 3 years behind, when it comes to analysis of the data.

WE are definitely seeing what they do not yet want to admit, and it may too late before they decide to modify the striped bass regs. He was predicting that full scale bass changes and catch limits probably won't happen until 2015.








** I posted the above in the ask finchaser thread 2 days ago.
This latest development, with the ASMFC still stonewalling, makes my head spin. I have trouble sleeping at night when I become aware of things like this.

Taken over a period of the past 5 years, we see some themes consistently start to develop.

1. The fishermen who are tagging fish, and keeping logs, and the ones who fish often for bass, are seeing a decline in striped bass.

2. The perception on websites of folks like us, sounding the alarm about the lack of bass, is shifting. We used to be castigated as "PETA freaks" and "tree huggers" by some who had commercial interests. That is happening less and less as more fishermen stand up and honestly report their findings and assessments.
**(I know some will not agree, but I include some party and charter boat capts among this group - it is time to stop thinking of the "Comm" side as only gillnetters and pinhookers. Those who catch large #s of bass regularly, for hire, with or without clients, comprise a large % of the overall catch numbers, and therefore should be grouped separately).

3. Every 1-2 years, the ASMFC has reported changes in the striped bass population that would require good fisheries managers (if they were in fact good managers ) to take notice.....YOY declines, declines in total estimated biomass, etc.

4. We are now only 1 million pounds away, from the striped bass population declining to the level of overfishing via statute definition. At that threshhold they are mandated by law to declare they are overfished. My point all along, has been, that if the large population extrapolated from small sample sizes (YOY stats) is statistically inaccurate in any way, we are probably already at that number, as of 2013.

5. Yet for the last 5 years, according to my records, they have backpedalled, at every opportunity to make these changes.
The most recent laughable move is them wanting to increase quota and liberalize harvest regs for MD fishermen.

[DarkSkies]

Thanks for sounding the latest alarm, surfstix and finchaser.




** It's time to accept that the ASMFC has no intention of making the changes needed.
Throughout the past 5 years, their record of action has been appalling:

ASMFC votes to increase Commercial limits
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/showthread.php?6602-ASMFC-votes-on-Increase-in-commercial-limit-of-striped-bass
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/showthread.php?5980-ASMFC-ASMFC-takes-the-wrong-turn-on-striped-bass

Relaxing Bass regulations in the Delaware River
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/showthread.php?2647-ASMFC-relaxes-striped-bass-fishing-in-the-Delaware-river

Striped Bass Moratorium comparisons
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/showthread.php?5718-Let-s-talk-about-the-Atlantic-Striped-Bass-Moratorium


As my friend hypothesized before this press release, it would be 2015 before changes were made.
Now it appears that may not even happen.
We are headed for a moratorium because, at each and every step of the way, when the ASMFC had opportunity to address this decline, it did not.


The only way to head this off is to take it out of the ASMFC ballpark.
It is clear to me they are heavily influenced by Commercial interests.

Fishermen need to get mad as hell....
so mad they can't stand it anymore.
And they need to write letters, and support groups that are actually fighting for striped bass, not just the ones that say they are fighting.

One of the ways to do this is put pressure on the legislators in your state (apparently that won't work if you live in MD) and let it be known that:

1. You, as a constituent and fisherman, see a decline, what you are seeing in your own words.
2. You realize that this concerns several different user groups, but as a fisherman and sportsman you are concerned that striped bass will again be shut down like it was in 1982, because of inefficient fishery management by the ASMFC.
3. Since you live in the state of ______________. you are contacting them not only as a concerned fisherman, but as a voter.

[finchaser]

Same as fluke meeting the entire meeting is taken up asking where they get their bs numbers from.

[storminsteve]

According to Ken there was so much confusion and nitpicking discussion over obscure details of striped bass science that whether or not the needed cuts in striped bass harvest will even be implemented in 2015 is now in doubt! Meanwhile, since MD didn't kill every possible fish allowed in 2013, and rationalized by additional theoretical statistics, their plan to increase their catch by 14% in 2014 has now mushroomed to something over 16.5%. The vast majority of the targeted fish will barely make the 18" minimum size. If they can't find enough of those, however, they will simply take an even bigger slice of what is left of the spawning stock. You can be assured that this is to represent commercial interests - most recreational anglers don't want it. They see the need to conserve the one decent year class in the pipeline..

I agree make it a gamefish. Time to stop the ASMFC lies. They are pussies and will never do anything. If there is a letter campaign or something else let me know I will sign.

[buckethead]

The asmfc has to be one of the most corrupt marine advisory boards ever created. I bet if someone did some digging they would find all sorts of campaign contributions from commercial interests. For the civilians and scientists on the board I bet more than a few have been given cars, trips or some kind of financial incentive to vote against us.

[finchaser]

Dear Bob,

In 2013 we received a near record 1020 responses to our annual survey. 752, or 83% of the respondents, have fished for stripers for more than 10 years, and many of these people fished through both the last striped bass collapse and the recovery of the late 1980s and 1990s. This is a very experienced sample of the angling population. This year's survey has again produced a good representative sampling of sentiments from fishers all along the striper's migratory range, and as usual MA and NJ vied for the greatest contributions with 227 and 222 completed surveys respectively.
Without a reasonable doubt the fishery is continuing to decline. 78% of fishers report catching fewer fish compared to 4% reporting catching more. Also, 60% said they were catching smaller fish compared to only 18% claiming they were larger. Most of the older, larger fish from the great year classes of the 1990s and early 2000s have been removed from the population leaving us with smaller fish and many less fish from the poor year classes that have generally characterized the fishery since 2003.
We had survey results from 89 guides, which is one of our best years. Without a doubt the decline in striper fishing is hurting this valuable industry as well as the related fishing tourism and tackle businesses. The guides know how to fish their areas, though, and can usually produce the best results possible from their home waters. If you are thinking about a guided trip please check out the guides and tackle shops listed on the Stripers Forever website.
We will send this information to the press and to fishery policy makers everywhere. We hope that you will use this information personally to help us advocate for the goal of coast-wide striped bass game fish. Please share the results with your local fishing club, home town newspaper, and elected officials that you may know.
Please follow this link to the Annual Angler Survey (http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=7IqtI&m=3hYmatA3ROoV6WG&b=NCJHnfjCPsFBDoY0ye1.DA) page of our website. The PDFs found there contain a summary, the survey totals and the full comments, the answers have not been edited. Another PDF entitled Key Comparisons 2003-2013 graphs out the answers to some particularly important questions. The questions that we use have been the same for the ten years we have been doing the survey.
Thank you for your participation,
Brad Burns, President Stripers Forever




Stripers Forever, a non-profit, internet-based conservation organization, seeks game fish status for wild striped bass on the Atlantic Coast in order to significantly reduce striper mortality, to provide optimum and sustainable public fishing opportunities for anglers from Maine to North Carolina, and to secure the greatest socio-economic value possible from the fishery.












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Stripers Forever PO Box 2781 South Portland, ME 04116-2781
stripers@stripersforever.org









Stripers Forever, P O Box 2781, South Portland, ME 04116-2781, USA

[jigfreak]

This sucks. If you can't see the decline in numbers you either dont fish that much or are a clueless goog. politicians are all corrupt. My .02

[robmedina]

The asmfc has to be one of the most corrupt marine advisory boards ever created. I bet if someone did some digging they would find all sorts of campaign contributions from commercial interests. For the civilians and scientists on the board I bet more than a few have been given cars, trips or some kind of financial incentive to vote against us.

simply- we are doomed! I believe the answer is in the recreational fisherman who fish for bass- but wanting people to self regulate is harder than getting the slimy politicians to actually do something that is in the best interest of the people.
most people s u c k !!! That is why I limit my interaction with them as much as possible!

[Monty]

simply- we are doomed! I believe the answer is in the recreational fisherman who fish for bass- but wanting people to self regulate is harder than getting the slimy politicians to actually do something that is in the best interest of the people.
most people s u c k !!! That is why I limit my interaction with them as much as possible!

While I think a lot of people will self regulate, you hit it on the head that a lot of people s u c k and just don't care about anything but themselves.

Anyone know who the ASMFC reports to, who over sees them. Someone further up the corrupt government.
Maybe its time they are bombarded with letters and e-mails detailing what is going on and what the public opinion is of them.
There must be someone whose attention we could get that would com down on the ASMFC.

[voyager35]

** It's time to accept that the ASMFC has no intention of making the changes needed.
Throughout the past 5 years, their record of action has been appalling:

ASMFC votes to increase Commercial limits
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/showthread.php?6602-ASMFC-votes-on-Increase-in-commercial-limit-of-striped-bass
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/showthread.php?5980-ASMFC-ASMFC-takes-the-wrong-turn-on-striped-bass




simply- we are doomed! I believe the answer is in the recreational fisherman who fish for bass- but wanting people to self regulate is harder than getting the slimy politicians to actually do something that is in the best interest of the people.



While I think a lot of people will self regulate, you hit it on the head that a lot of people s u c k and just don't care about anything but themselves.

Anyone know who the ASMFC reports to, who over sees them. Someone further up the corrupt government.


That is why it's not an option to leave it up to fishermen to self-regulate. The ones who say they will are admirable. When it comes down to it many wil not do what they promised. The only way to make it work is with tighter regs on the commercials and recs, and make enforcement visible and viable. I think the ASMFC reports to NOAA. I believe they have final jurisdiction. I took a quick look at some of the threads dark posted for reference. I believe for one of the addendums the ASMFC proposed something, only to be denied by NOAA. And we all know how fishermen responsive NOAA has been. It seems to be a losing battle. I will be glad if there is a moratorium on striped bass. Fishing during the runs has become too crowded anyway. When there is a good bite there is a lack of boating etiquette out there. I will be glad to see folks stop fishing for them to give some of us more room.

[seamonkey]

So what can we do? If we can't trust these crooks who do we get to go after them? Stripers forever? RFA? Which group has the most likelihood of getting real regulations passed to save these stripers?

[finchaser]

RFA they go to all meetings
Stripers for ever goes to New England meetings

JCAA :2flip:****

[seamonkey]

thanks finchaser. Why does the jcaa **** so bad I think I have seen there literature at some of the fishing shows.

[finchaser]

They say there's more bass than anyone could want Tom Forte was instrumental in them not changing the regs. When we started the JCAA back in the 80's it was to speak on behalf of all clubs . They are suppose to ask all clubs how they feel about issues and do that now they just do what they want. Their main concern is to promote their fluke tournament probably what you saw at a show. They take allot of credit after the fact on issues making them look good even changing there stance . Tom Fote is one of the 3 commissioners that represent the State of NJ in fishing matters and regulations he didn't even show up at the fluke meeting 2 weeks ago. So IMO they s_ck. then again they use to get close to 1000 boats in there state wide tournament it's down to like 200 now that people are wise to there bullsh_t.

[Pebbles]

Even I know that there are not as many striped bass as before. They are depleting at an alarming rate yet the regulators are too scared to do anything about it. They will loss their "funding" or "supporters", corruption is the name of their game.

As for self-regulating, in my opinion it would never work. There are some of us who really care but there are more people who are greedy and don't give a ****.

[jigfreak]

^^^I agree self regulating will never work. Scores of guys will take a pledge or talk high and mighty on a website. First full on bunker blitz on the beach or boat in May and they will be taking their two 30 lb bass home with them. Have seen it happen a thousand times. Only way to make it work is with changes in the regs and the asmfc is too corrupt to do it. my .02.
Thanks for your take on the jcaa finchaser. Forgot that you were one of the founding members. Guess you could write a book on the stuff you have seen. I never liked the jcaa either. Have read some of the stuff written by fote and I think he is a bullsh*t artist. All he cares about is his own advancement he is clueless when it comes to striped bass.