Quote Originally Posted by finchaser View Post
the snag and drop pro's have killed most of the breeding stock
It gets me sick to see the carnage that happens in the Spring bunker blitzes. I was once part of that, so I am guilty as well. And in the 70's, I and a lot of my friends killed a lot of striped bass. And the weakfish, we used to catch them from Fortescue in the Delaware bay by the trash can full. We did a lot of damage to the stock back then but did not know any better.
Now we know better and have a better handle on the fish stocks. Because this is so, we should put the striper before the bunker. The striper generates billions in revenue from the recreational side and supports many local businesses and helps local families. In the 70's Fortescue was known as the weakfish capital of NJ. The economy there and the businesses that benefitted from fishing were booming. Once the weakfish population crashed in the Delaware, that area started to decline.
These things need to be considered as part of the big picture. For that reason the striper should be the main focus of any committee. Bunker are important, but as was mentioned here, even if you vastly increased the amount of bunker, you would still have less stripers. We need to concentrate on the stripers first.