Can't always trust the folks who hold the money though. The latest release from stripers forever


8/14/2012
Press Release from Stripers Forever
Over a period of 17 years, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) illegally used more than $3 million in Wallop-Breaux funds to finance a tagging program for the state's commercial striped bass fishery according to Stripers Forever, a conservation organization seeking game fish status for the wild striped bass.
The Wallop-Breaux Act, administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), mandates that funds raised via excise taxes on sporting equipment be used to pay for wildlife and sport fish restoration programs, including the enhancement of recreational fishing opportunities.
An investigation by Ken Hastings, a Maryland-based Stripers Forever board member, found that grant requests and year-end reports submitted to FWS by DNR from 1994 to 2011 did not include any mention of DNR's commercial striper tagging program. The misuse of Wallop-Breaux funds and the cover-up was finally stopped last year by DNR's current management.
"The investigation by Ken Hastings proves that anglers in Maryland unwittingly paid a large portion of the commercial fishermen's regulatory costs for 17 years," says Brad Burns, president of Stripers Forever. "It's also true that the recreational striped bass fishery in Maryland provides more jobs and much greater economic value to the state than the commercial fishery does.
"The striped bass resource has declined dramatically all along the coast over the past six years," Burns adds. "The commercial harvest – both legal and illegal – and overly liberal recreational bag limits both contribute to the problem. We need to make the wild striper a game fish by stopping all commercial harvest. Doing so would allow striped bass to be managed sustainably for anglers from Maine to North Carolina, thus providing the greatest socio-economic value possible to the coastal states from the fishery."
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.Ken Hastings' full report can be found at www.stripersforever.org
.For an in-depth review of the Wallop-Breaux Act, go to:
http://www.fws.gov/laws/lawsdigest/fasport.html