Net fishing in the bay is an industry not a hobby.
The people that catch the fish are not the only ones involved. There is transportation from the boat, wholesale facilities, processing, storage facilities, and then transportation to retail outlets. They all employ people.

Rockfish is not the only species that is caught in nets. The list is as long as your arm.

Net fishing in the bay is a year around business supporting the crab industry, chicken industry, aquaculture, wholesale, retail fish markets and restaurants.

My figures are conservative and a Google search will reveal studies by VIMS and articles by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

Fish Nuts' info stopped at the boat. It's easy for him to make his case that way. The whole story is commercial waterman and their families, supporting industry and their families, and the retail industry and their families.

Roger that.

I need to googlw the differences in the types of nets. I suppose the gill nets are most efficient based on the number of permits issued?

And different types of nets target different species?

You are correct in your assumption Southerly. MD has about 6 million people and even if 5 million signed it, it would not be law. It is an attention getter by the people to the legislature. It is a lobby which is also big business in MD.

Net fishing is also a business that does involve many different industries. We are attempting to change one aspect of that industry. Netting. Fish will still be caught, transported, processed and sold. This change is not a battle or punishment against commercial fishermen, it is a conservation issue to protect a fishery. We are giving this petition to the MD legislators, not he DNR. This is a legal process and bargaining is involved. Hopefully the end result will be a conservation of our fishery. It is protecting the commercial fisherman's future also.

Reds, The numbers I posted were from DNR they are the number of licenses for commercial fishing in 2009. Posted for a request From Hockleyneck . At this time I believe it is time for the discussion about gillnets in Maryland. As with all of these discussions hopefully the resource will be better in the end. I am not anti watermen. My close family works the water they Crab, run eel pots and net perch. With the past and current events of illegal gillnetting it is apparent that the state agencies have extreme difficulty policing and regulating the gillnet gear type in Maryland. Hopefully, the current concerns and petition will create a situation in which the state will give proper resources and or rethink the standards operating procedures for the gillnet fishery. I think we both can agree that procedures can be changed to make the managing of the gear type more robust. The commercial industry in Maryland has always denounced poaching but on this front they have been unable to police themselves. It is time for something to be done to control outlaw poaching. Poaching with gill nets due to their efficiency, takes fish from the public resource at an exponential rate. This is what has concerned the citizens of Maryland. Unfortunately, when the picture of the tons of illegal rock fish were shown on local and mid Atlantic TV the entire gillnet fishery came under scrutiny. The initial feelings from me and most was if DNR can’t control poaching during the legal gillnet season then it needs to be closed until they can legitimately demonstrate control of the poaching. The reason I say this is, Poaching / using gillnets is occurring under the umbrella of the legal gillnet season. When this gear type is used in a highly regulated fishery such as Gill nets it is impossible for DNR to manage the fishery based on quotas for the fishery. Therefore DNR need to step up to the plate and fix this problem. Who would have thought that the fishery sting we had a few years ago was huge sweeping all the way into the fish retail& wholesale food markets. What we have seen over the past few years with illegal gill net seizures WE AKA Maryland have a huge problem.

As far as social economics of Striped Bass we can agree to disagree.

Some more facts.

Main , Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey & South Carolina Have no commercial harvest Of rock Fish.
Massachusetts Has a Hook& Line fishery ONLY
Rhode Island has a Fish trap and hook & line Fishery
Delaware has a Hook & line & a Gillnet Fishery
Virginia has a Hook & line & a Gillnet Fishery
New York has Hook & Line Pound Nets Fish traps Gillnets
Maryland has Hook & Line Pound Nets Gill Nets Haul seines
North Carolina has everything
Potomac River Hook & Line Pound Nets Gill Nets.

5 states Under the striped bass managment of the ASMFS allow gill netting and one more for the Potomac fishery
7 States don’t allow Gillnets.

Mark, Numbers of licenses doesn’t reflect individuals actively working. People hold licenses for many different reasons. Individual can transfer or sell there licenses to other individuals and allow them to work that permit for its allocation. There are regulations on what combination and how many licenses you can hold at any given time.