YES...Commercial guys need to make a living, but there are better ways to make that happen.

Posted from the same survey thread Mitch started:

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Registered: May 03, 2007
Posts: 9633
Personally........I understand CT doesn’t have a Commercial Striper industry. Of course Stripers are harvested in CT for Commercial purpose/market....such is life. This isn’t a CT boundary issue like freshwater ponds and lakes. I am not against Commercial Fishing....it just needs to be more ethical, fair, sustainable, etc...

CT DEEP and all fisheries “management/mis-management” across all ocean states need to push for Federal Regs on ALL Commercial Fishing and their effects on ALL species including by-catch, forage fish like menhaden, etc....

Commercial Long Line and Netters can’t fully control what species they catch. Many can’t release non-targeted species. These indiscrimate fish killing methods should be alotted a tonnage of “FISH/BIOMASS” harvested, and not an allotment of tonnage for just the target species. All fish/biomass caught goes against their overall allotment.

That will make the Commercial industry become more effective catchers of their targeted species, avoid by-catch and kill and dump, and/or find ways to make money from All of their bycatch....vs just throwing away dead by-catch with no consequence to their alottment and money bottom line. That would also help force better methods and technology to better target their target species....and Fisheries Management need to assign more sustainable alottments.

Of course they would need to be effectively enforced to their “Fish/Biomass” allotment.
=Have digital scales on their hauling gear that sends their “Fish/Biomass” weight of their catch to satellite system that goes to the Federal management database

=Have a Federal Agent/Accountant/Data Collector on each commercial vessel...of course they can be bought off, bribed, etc...


I am curious how/why menhaden boats are allowed to catch millions/billions of pounds of menhaden every day and how Federal Fisheries Management finds that sustainable, and not negative to the overall fishery.

Overall.....There HAS to be a better way to manage our fisheries at a Federal and Global level for fish species that migrate across state and country water boundaries.

Sure, we all play our part, but COMMERCIAL fisheries catch, kill, discard wayyyyyyyyyy more fish and aquatic biomass than Recreational rod and reel fishermen.

Politics & Money.....Commercial Fishing has more money, are better organized, have more lobbyists, etc....than Recreational fishermen.

None of this is an “Easy” fix, but it needs fixing....or at least progress towards fixing, and it’s NOT fixing at the Recreational Fishermen side of the house, but YES we can all do better as Recreational fishermen on managing our small part.