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Old 11-17-2010, 11:46 AM
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B-Faithful B-Faithful is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Annapolis, MD
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Marylands commercial harvest is out of line in the sense that it makes up nearly 1/3 of the entire commercial take in lbs. That doesnt include the potomac river numbers either!

Even good "off the boat prices" are still selling our gold resource at copper prices. A reduction in commercial allocation may even benefit some watermen through increasing the prices for their harvest.

I am aware of what NJ did. They gave striped bass gamefish status and their recreational fishermen the commercial allocation through trophy tags to keep from losing it. I believe the MSSA is asking for commercial allocation to be given to rec side to cover seasons like 2009. I dont believe unused allocation would be redistributed to other states given the recent exceeding of the rec targets here in MD. Should the fish population look great in a few years and Maryland is hitting the targets, then Maryland may need to look at where unused allocation can be used to expand our fisheries as to not lose fish to redistribution. Until then, this reallocation is necessary to protect our recreational fishing and act as conservation initiative given the growing concerns at the ASMFC and within our own DNR.

It certainly be interesting to see how DNR responds to this paragraph of the letter given their concerns over preseason C&R (not to confuse the subjects):
Quote:
Anglers have also specifically expressed concerns over the winter gillnet season and the YOY indices. With the possibility of global warming and the potential for an earlier spawn, some anglers are troubled that the setting of long gillnets may have an ill-effect on fish migrating into the bay to spawn. It is because of this concern that I suggest that the greatest commercial allocation reduction come from this fishery in particular.
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Last edited by B-Faithful; 11-17-2010 at 12:42 PM.
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