Federal water Stripers

[Merrillizer™]

More scum looking to make some $$$ f'n up the Striped Bass fishery....

Read some books you losers.

Oh ***** did I just say that? That was sooooooooo non-"P.C."!


From Cape Cod Times:

July 13, 2007
CHATHAM — As the commercial striped bass season opened yesterday, some boats off Chatham were there to catch bigger game.
Five boats from the state Environmental Police and two from the U.S. Coast Guard carried agents who cited and fined at least three captains for catching stripers illegally in federal waters off Chatham, Nantucket and Block Island.
Agents onshore in New Bedford also nabbed a fisherman trying to sell hundreds of pounds of striped bass he had caught Wednesday, the day before the season opened.
The fisheries service can fine boats catching stripers in federal waters $150 per fish for the first offense and $250 for the second. If more than 10 fish are involved, the case goes to court.
"That illegal fishery has developed significantly in recent years," Michael Howard, a law enforcement consultant with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, said of fishing in federal waters. The interstate commission regulates fishing in state waters along the Atlantic seaboard.
In 1990, the federal government closed its offshore waters — from 3 miles to 200 miles offshore — as part of an effort to restore decimated striped bass stocks. Locally, the law covers the waters south of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard and east of 70 degrees longitude, off Nantucket and Chatham. But it's a law that, until recently, wasn't rigorously enforced in Massachusetts or many other states and has been routinely ignored by fishermen. They believe that traditional fishing grounds should be reopened now that bass stocks have been restored for 12 years.
"Where I catch the fish should be up to me," said Bruce Peters, a Chatham-based recreational charter boat captain and commercial fisherman.
Peters has started a letter-writing campaign to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez and National Marine Fisheries Service Assistant Administrator William Hogarth. He wants officials to reopen federal waters to striped bass fishing. Since commercial striped bass fishing is rigorously controlled by an annual quota, and the stock is deemed to be healthy, it shouldn't matter where the fish are caught, he said. "We've been fishing out there for 100 years," said Chatham fisherman Dale Tripp. He argues that it doesn't make any difference whether the fish are in federal waters - a million-pound commercial quota of fish is a million pounds of fish.
The numbers of striped bass fishermen, both recreational and commercial, have increased dramatically since stocks were rebuilt. Opening federal waters would help spread the fishermen out, easing conflicts and improving safety, fishermen said.
The lax enforcement ended last year after a proposal to reopen federal waters, championed by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries and the Atlantic states commission, failed to get approval from federal fisheries officials. Anticipating that the decision might not be popular with some fishermen, federal and state enforcement agencies started conducting coordinated sweeps through the fleet, including the one yesterday.
A 2003 Atlantic commission analysis reported that most states did not have the manpower or boats to patrol beyond state waters. Since then, federal money has helped buy new boats for state enforcement agencies such as the Massachusetts Environmental Police.
James Hanlon, the environmental police director, said funding from the Department of Homeland Security, the fisheries service and other federal funds went toward six heavy-weather patrol boats over the past three years. . He's also been able to beef up his coastal patrol forces, hiring seven new officers to patrol at sea.
Last year, Hanlon said, police started getting complaints, mostly from charter boat fishermen, about illegal commercial fishing.
Peters believes the increased enforcement is due to a resurgent campaign to have striped bass declared a game fish that can only be caught for sport, not profit. Backers of game fish status believe commercial fishermen will keep asking for more of the quota and will, ultimately, overfish the stock. .
Six of the 13 states along the striped bass migratory route ban commercial fishing. But not all recreational fishing groups agree that commercial fishermen are the biggest threat to striped bass. Commercial fishermen have strict quotas that only allowed them to catch 3.7 million pounds in 2005, compared with more than 26 million pounds for recreational fishermen.
Patrick Paquette, the government affairs officer and past president of the Massachusetts Striped Bass Association said that stock is healthy and well-managed, particularly in Massachusetts, where bass can only be caught with fishing rods, not nets. He said his club supports a commercial bass fishery for bass, but draws the line when it comes to allowing fishermen into federal waters. That area, he said, serves as a sanctuary where big bass can breed. Neither the Atlantic States Commission nor the state Division of Fisheries support that contention or a game fish declaration for striped bass