Excellent news!

[Shady]

Striper YOY at 34.6 for 2011 compared to 5.9 for 2010! I did notice catching a ton of little guys this year.

http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries...tion-On-Record

[DOGFISH]

I thought the index may be good for this year. Everyone has been catching alot of the little guys. That is excellent news. However, now more than ever, there is need for a better menhaden plan. I understand that they have a framework for a new plan. It does not do much good to have a large striper population if they are undernurished by a lack of their primary food source. When the fish become stressed by lack of food or poor water conditions, that is when disease sets in on the fish.

[jffoley]

That is excellent news! Virginia had similar results:
http://www.vims.edu/newsandevents/to...ey_results.php

+1 what Don says. I'm sure a large striper population is unsustainable without adequate forage. Gotta get the bunker boats out of the bay!

[Shady]

I thought the index may be good for this year. Everyone has been catching alot of the little guys. That is excellent news. However, now more than ever, there is need for a better menhaden plan. I understand that they have a framework for a new plan. It does not do much good to have a large striper population if they are undernurished by a lack of their primary food source. When the fish become stressed by lack of food or poor water conditions, that is when disease sets in on the fish.

Agreed!

I received a notice from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation about this:

Everyone please submit comments to Toni Kerns of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

Email to: Tkerns@asmfc.org (Use subject line: Menhaden Draft Addendum V)

Urge the ASMFC to take immediate steps to help rebuild the Bay's menhaden population. Explain in just a few sentences why you think stopping the overfishing of the menhaden and restoring its population is important. If you need more information about the menhaden go to:
http://www.cbf.org

As previously pointed out the Menhaden is the most important fish in the Bay as a food source for Striper and other sportfish. Overfishing has brought the population to critically low levels.

[DOGFISH]

Thanks Shady, everyone should send that E-mail to the commission.

[Shady]

Public comments are being accepted until November 2 at 5pm, if you like catching Striper please email your comments.

[surfdog]

yeah, cant keep the little bastards off my bait! read a gut was throwing a cast net for bunker and all he was comming up with were 3" stripers.

[Shady]

More good news:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation...g6M_story.html

183K to 174K tons does'nt seem like much of a reduction, but hopefully it will help menhaden stocks to rebound. Thanks to whoever sent emails to the ASMFC.

[mmanolis2001]

More good news:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation...g6M_story.html

183K to 174K tons does'nt seem like much of a reduction, but hopefully it will help menhaden stocks to rebound. Thanks to whoever sent emails to the ASMFC.

This is a good step in the right direction but how is dropping the catch from 183K to 174K tons a 37% decrease? Where is the 37% reduction coming from? Historical high numbers? That is not even close to a 37% decrease. If my basic understanding of math is correct 37% of 183K would be a reduction of around 67K tons dropping the quota to around 115K tons.

The problem is one company took 180K tons of last years total catch. This cut appears that it might hurt the small operations (Bait suppliers) more than the major problem (Omega Protein).

Still a good thing don’t get me wrong.

edit: I thought they got a 37% reduction passed from reading somewhere else. I think its 30% but the numbers are still way off.

[Shady]

This is a good step in the right direction but how is dropping the catch from 183K to 174K tons a 37% decrease? Where is the 37% reduction coming from? Historical high numbers? That is not even close to a 37% decrease. If my basic understanding of math is correct 37% of 183K would be a reduction of around 67K tons dropping the quota to around 115K tons.

The problem is one company took 180K tons of last years total catch. This cut appears that it might hurt the small operations (Bait suppliers) more than the major problem (Omega Protein).

Still a good thing don’t get me wrong.

edit: I thought they got a 37% reduction passed from reading somewhere else. I think its 30% but the numbers are still way off.

Im not sure where in the article it says there was a 30% reduction in harvest... The only part that says 30% discusses the goal for how much of the adult population the ASMFC is pushing for to have left (after harvest) to spawn.

I agree that the corporate machine will probably take the same amount as prior years and the price of Mehaden to the little bait shops will go up...

[surfdog]

an article in USA Today said they wanted a 37% reduction but got 25% instead still not a bad thing

[mmanolis2001]

25% is great but the math still doesn't add up. I admit i am no math genius but 183K to 174K is only around a 5% reduction. I have seen the numbers on several articles and they are all the same figures. I wonder what baseline they are taking the 25% figure out of?

Either way this is a positive step. Lets hope VA sticks to the new guidelines as they voted against the new regs. Maybe they will ignore it and the feds will come down and close the whole operation. One can wish.