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And people wonder why the fishing has Ben so bad

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Peterf

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some of the comments on this topic are beyond hilarious...i think over fishing both rec and commercial is a big part of the problem.

Personally i think banning any keeps under 40" for striped bass both rec and commercial would be a major step in the right direction 

i think places like the canal were i had fisherman telling they were pulling out the limit of 15 every day all summer is an example...

and this does not even cover the under 28" non-sense...once we have a better idea after a few years if the pop does not rebound then

bounty the seals....personally i would bounty the seals now as i have seen the destruction they cause on the west coast....

 

dan

 

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13 hours ago, nateD said:

Or maybe what you see is the exception and not the norm in a certain area? Also would make sense a seal could only catch the fat slow bass. Why do you think they wait for striper to be hooked or caught in a net to go after them?

Maybe your right.  However maybe you should ask any of the many fishermen that were on the Cape beaches nightly, not in Eastern Connecticut about their observations. I know that talking with them that they had numerous similar observations. It got much worse after I left in 2006. Maybe if you had ever observed the gray seal/striped bass interactions you would have noted that the gray seals often hunt in packs. As I stated earlier they would wait for the bass to chase baitfish inside the outer bars. Then the would ambush the school of bass and easily pick off bass in the confusion and the white water. 

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12 hours ago, Drew C. said:

Maybe your single observations aren’t worth all that much....

Maybe they aren't. But when you see the same thing day after day it adds some credence to those observations. If you were to talk to any of the guys that fished those beaches nightly they would tell you the same thing. How do I know that. Well because I talked to them often.

12 hours ago, Drew C. said:

Do you really think that someone wants to eat them?

 

ignorance at its finest. 

So any idea that is contrary to yours is stupid, oops I mean stoopid. Anyone that disagrees with you is ignorant. Interesting outlook on life. But I can see that with you 15,000+ post that you must be one of those certified experts on everything.

 

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12 hours ago, Heavy Hooksetter said:

so now I am ignorant?

okay then.

ya know what,some of the guys here need to ask their mothers about the manners they were taught.

in all my years I have NEVER and will never call anyone names.

to answer your question,,,who knows,I am willing to bet some humans somewhere eat them.

see,I didn't even call you a name back.

HH 

ps-my full head of grey/brown hair does stand for something,,,, in case you didn't know.

didn't get there being ignorant either.

 

"I don't care what anyone else says, that's my belief" - that's about as ignorant as it comes. Despite any amount of evidence to the contrary you're gonna stick to your beliefs.

 

In a nutshell, that's why our fisheries are doomed. Whether it's the guy that 'believes' comms are the only ones doing damage and the recs could never be a problem, or the guy the 'believes' there are millions of bass offshore because a friend of a buddy heard a scallop guy say so, whether it's you that blames seals for a man made problem, and on and on.

 

Put a fork in 'em, they're toast.

 

 

ASMFC - Destroying public resources and fisheries one stock at a time since 1942.

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40 mins ago, snookster said:

Maybe your right.  However maybe you should ask any of the many fishermen that were on the Cape beaches nightly, not in Eastern Connecticut about their observations. I know that talking with them that they had numerous similar observations. It got much worse after I left in 2006. Maybe if you had ever observed the gray seal/striped bass interactions you would have noted that the gray seals often hunt in packs. As I stated earlier they would wait for the bass to chase baitfish inside the outer bars. Then the would ambush the school of bass and easily pick off bass in the confusion and the white water. 

Hunt in packs - a bunch of thugs!!!! 

 

Do they steal lunch money too?

ASMFC - Destroying public resources and fisheries one stock at a time since 1942.

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10 hours ago, cityevader said:

Transplant seals to combat the invasive Carp threatening the Great Lakes... 

and then stock some great whites to finish off the seals - DONE!

ASMFC - Destroying public resources and fisheries one stock at a time since 1942.

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The Striped Bass fishing has been steadily worsening here on Long Island over the last 10 or so years and we don’t have the seal problem but I’m sure they aren’t helping. It’s hard to advocate killing off a mammal to protect a fish that we aren’t even willing to stop eating ourselves to conserve. Charter boats piled high with dead bass in overflowing coolers, recreational fishermen taking home more meat than they or their families could ever eat and taking keepers every day when a bite is on, outright poaching, poor fish handling and fishing methods are all things we can control before killing off seals. Seals have to eat fish. We don’t. 

No Bait. No Barbs. No Buckets.

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The impact of predation on fisheries -

 

Not focused on striped bass, but in the Northeast/Mid Atlantic in general. And the population estimates are at least ten years old.

 

Dogfish and seals and dolphin, oh my!

Getting real about ecosystem based management

 

And keep in mind that these aren't my statistics. I only dug them out (and documented them, though some of the stats are probably out of date and/or some of the links might no longer connect).

 

ps - Mike Oliver wrote "If we do not except that we have to do this then that would be poor management." In the real world (and that's certainly not the one that fisheries managers operate in), poor management is focusing on one impacter - fishing - and ignoring the others. How about the direct or indirect effects of microplastics, unmetabolized pharmaceuticals, thermal effluents, anthropogenic turbulence, electromagnetic  fields, nutrients, etc., etc., etc.... on fish stocks

Edited by Nils S
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It is a very complex situation. Pollution in the Chesapeake adversely impacts the success of the spawning season. I believe Bob Pond was one of the first to investigate some of these contributing factors. It appears we haven't really progressed in our understanding of some of these issues. The way they rate the success of a spawn in the Chesapeake appears questionable at best. Seals aren't the primary reason for dwindling stocks but are a contributing factor. Years ago I recall talking to tuna fishermen that fished the vicinity of the South Channel who told me of miles of dead stripers floating that were by catch of some type of commercial fishing. Does this condition still exist?

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One thing no one has brought up is: Could there be some sort of symbiotic relationship between c&r fishing and seals? Im sure a c&r bass weakened from the fight stands less of a chance evading a predator such as a seal. Could it be that the seals have an unfair advantage? 

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One more thing to think about...all the folks that talk about balance in nature. There can never be a natural balance anymore. Not when you have modern man engaged in rec and comm fishing. Its over it cannot exist and stop talking about it! Unless of course you want to go the full PETA route and ban all fishing. So forget about restoring natural balance...wont happen in any of our lifetimes. What we can do is manage the resource.  And that might mean managing seals as well. (Although at this point I doubt that will ever happen)

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23 mins ago, snookster said:

It is a very complex situation. Pollution in the Chesapeake adversely impacts the success of the spawning season. I believe Bob Pond was one of the first to investigate some of these contributing factors. It appears we haven't really progressed in our understanding of some of these issues. The way they rate the success of a spawn in the Chesapeake appears questionable at best. Seals aren't the primary reason for dwindling stocks but are a contributing factor. Years ago I recall talking to tuna fishermen that fished the vicinity of the South Channel who told me of miles of dead stripers floating that were by catch of some type of commercial fishing. Does this condition still exist?

miles of dead by-catch could be a major problem.

all aspects of "the problem" are fractional , when added together we have our result.  fish stocks on the decline

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