The focus of the segment is about good practices for catch and release, which is great however I don’t think this will save the inevitable collapse. Is there evidence that more fish have been killed in the last 20 years than the 20 years prior? 20 years ago this was a business for a surf fisherman. It seems to me the industry is barking up the wrong tree. Not sure food sources are the real issue either, seen a lot of bait the last couple of years but not many fish on them. What about the quality of the spawning grounds? If the issue is in the spawning grounds than everything else is a mood point.
The single most critical issue involving Striped Bass today is microbacteriosis in these great fish. When the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences(VIMS) can publish data stating that over 80% of the Striped Bass in the Chesapeake Bay are infected with micobacteriosis and that this disease is fatal the future is very cloudy for Striped Bass. We need reductions in all allocations immediately. Including the huge illegal bycatch in the Chesapeake Bay!
Ron- if you are concerned about Myco then you should be concerned about the quality of the forage base and more importantly the quality of their habitat, they are inextricably linked.
JB- just because you saw a lot of bait last year doesn’t mean there is a lot of bait everywhere. Consider the theory of the shifting baseline. What seems ok now is actually only a fraction of what used to exist, but we accept it as an acceptable reality because it is what we see in front of us.
Quality of habitat and forage base should be two of our top concerns
If I see some quantitative studies showing that micobacteriosis and quality of habitat/forage are inextricably linked,then and only then will I agree to that assumption. No common NSF Grants will do.
Not one word on protecting food sources for striped bass. That to me was sad.
↓The focus of the segment is about good practices for catch and release, which is great however I don’t think this will save the inevitable collapse. Is there evidence that more fish have been killed in the last 20 years than the 20 years prior? 20 years ago this was a business for a surf fisherman. It seems to me the industry is barking up the wrong tree. Not sure food sources are the real issue either, seen a lot of bait the last couple of years but not many fish on them. What about the quality of the spawning grounds? If the issue is in the spawning grounds than everything else is a mood point.
↓The single most critical issue involving Striped Bass today is microbacteriosis in these great fish. When the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences(VIMS) can publish data stating that over 80% of the Striped Bass in the Chesapeake Bay are infected with micobacteriosis and that this disease is fatal the future is very cloudy for Striped Bass. We need reductions in all allocations immediately. Including the huge illegal bycatch in the Chesapeake Bay!
↓Ron- if you are concerned about Myco then you should be concerned about the quality of the forage base and more importantly the quality of their habitat, they are inextricably linked.
JB- just because you saw a lot of bait last year doesn’t mean there is a lot of bait everywhere. Consider the theory of the shifting baseline. What seems ok now is actually only a fraction of what used to exist, but we accept it as an acceptable reality because it is what we see in front of us.
Quality of habitat and forage base should be two of our top concerns
↓If I see some quantitative studies showing that micobacteriosis and quality of habitat/forage are inextricably linked,then and only then will I agree to that assumption. No common NSF Grants will do.
↓The Epidemiologic Triangle – Agent, Host, Environment
http://www.cdc.gov/bam/teachers/documents/epi_1_triangle.pdf
↓I’m with you!
↓