Take Action for Striped Bass in Massachusetts!
Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 12:05AM From Stripers Forever -
Hearings are scheduled for the three bills backed by Stripers Forever in the MA Legislature in Room B-1 in the Statehouse Bldg on Beacon Hill in Boston on Feb 28th at 11:00 AM. We must have as many people attend and speak in favor of these bills as possible. If you have wanted to do something to help turn around the decline in striped bass fishing, now is the time, and this is your opportunity!
The bill to conserve striped bass by ending the commercial fishery would go a long way to solving our problems. Recent correspondence with the ASMFC has confirmed that if MA ended its commercial fishery for striped bass that other states would not get the MA quota for their own commercial fisheries. Ending the allowed huge 1,200,000 pound quota, combined with the enormous illegal take of striped bass taken under the cover of the legal fishery, would put a lot more big female stripers on the spawning grounds each season. Our bill also would remove the second striper from the recreational bag limit, and that too would help save a lot of big spawners.~
Those who are currently killing and selling these fish, along with some charter boat captains who believe that bagging a second fish per customer is necessary to attract customers, will be there in force to testify against conservation. If we don’t care enough to show up in force we will certainly be defeated. No lobbying effort can make up for angler apathy. We need you on February 28th. If you are not from MA but fish here, own property here, or are from nearby game fish states that are being affected by the commercial fishery in MA, please show up and have your say.
After the hearing we’ll be working with our lobbyist and members to get these bills out of Committee and onto the floor for a vote. The commercial lobby will have far less influence on the general assembly, but we must get the bills out of committee to have that debate. In the 1980s the striped bass situation began to turn around almost as soon as the commercial fishery was ended. There are still a lot of large female stripers in the ocean.~ If we can stop the MA commercial fishery it will be a huge step in the right direction and impetus for other states to act.
Be part of the solution!
If you can't attend the hearings you can still help by e-mailing the members of the Mass Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture and urging them to move the three bills out of committee and on to a full floor vote. Links are provided below to the bills and to each committee member, you can e-mail them directly off their individual pages.
The bills
To end the commercial fishery in MA H.260
To require the state to protect the health of citizens by testing and labeling wild striped bass sold and consumed. H.259
To require the state to consider the economic value and importance of the recreational catch when regulating the fishery for striped bass. H.258
Senate Committee Members
Senate Chair
stripers forever, take action in Conservation, Species
Reader Comments (1)
You guys are so full of shit! Why don't you call yourselves stripers forever for some!