Big Fish are Dying – Who’s to Blame?

Again I want to thank @tackle2thepeople for this video and this platform. I wanted to really think about what I was going to say before I sd it. Before I go into it I first want to say I have the upmost respect for commercial fisherman. I do have friends that are commercial fisherman in alot of different areas, lobstering,clamming,etc.i know they need to support there families and and meet the demand for our food supply. N I will neva say that they should stop. BUT having sd that there were alot of points in this video I want to address. One of the commercial guys said that the rec ppl take up to 600,000 lbs + also with added catch and release deaths. That 600k number there is no ethical way of figuring out that number. There is no way you would be able to get accurate data to support that. Bc there is no way you can know all the weights etc. Thats a assumption number like a educated guess. If you are going by more fisherman and they can take 1 fish per day n there is more of them than commercial ppl. Thats not how it works. I would say atleast half of that ppl dont even keep any. Like me personally, I haven't gone for them since the slot started. Because I don't agree with slots. You might as well close it for the year. But the numbers that can't be made up are commercial quota limits and bag limits. Just in tha state of Massachusetts alone the quota limit is 700,000 lbs + and it's almost been reached. Not made up. That's from Massachusetts govt website. Now that's only one state. What about the rest of the Atlantic seaboard states. I started to figure it out and it's a very big number. But like I sd even though I know what the number is I would neva tell them to stop. We have to be able to keep the fishery alive for both commercial and rec alike. I will say this it should not be that easy to get a commercial stripped bass permit. It should be like how the other ones are. In the family or bidding on one

As far as rec ppl that do the wrong thing. We first need to have better rules with taking stripped bass. Firstly the ppl that miss handling fish wrong hooks etc. They dont even have fishing licenses in the first place alot of them. We def need more agents eithier dec or whatever they are called were you live. Especially when starting pay is only 35k a year most ppl dont want to do it. Some are even less. Someplaces dont have enough to patrol everything. N depend on ppl calling a hotline bc there is not enough of them. We definitely need some sort of management program for these type of fish. Just like with hunting. Conservation management as they call it. When you get your hunting lisc you get a certain amount of tags and you can purchase another. So maybe we have some sort of tag system like that. When you get your lisc your get X amount of stripper tags that you can use whenever you want. And only a certain amount are given out per lisc. (Until numbers are better) N during the year if there are extra people can buy one. Just like with hunting. N when you harvest you call a hotline
and tell them your tag number ,length and weight. Then you can actually fig out the poundage ppl are taking.

As far as that study with the babies. I've heard about them. N I had a feeling it was on the low end. Which definitely isn't good. I did say in the first video the survival of a species comes from the survival of the young. There could be a number of reasons y that could be. I will say this on a science standpoint the salt water molecular structure is changing. Im not gonna get all sciency bc it would take awhile lol. But it is. The water is warmer like some had sd but not from global warming like some are thinking. There's more science into it. That's y the molecular structure is changing. Alot less oxygen in the water than we had previously. But there are other things that could have contributed to that. But agian I ask did they do any test on the fish or the water or just get numbers of quantity?. They definitely need to start doing that. If were ever gonna find solutions to the problems. Disease, sickness, bacteria less fertilization, whole clutches dead. More prey, etc. Theres alot it could be.

Overall. We do need some sort of management system. N we definitely have to help out food supply fisheries. To take care ofvthe riff raff we need more agents and more rules. Not regulations. I do agree with no trebles n no barbs. Both state and federal government should help out with data and research and most of all more breeding facilities for our endangered food supply. Bc if that fails we are done for. Rec and commercial alike.

This is an awesome video brotha, this season on the South Shore of Long Island was some of the best bass fishing I've ever seen. So many floaters / dead bass on the surface sadly bc people have no idea how to handle fish. There's really no need as a recreational fisherman to harvest more than one fish in the slot range per day, so personally I don't mind the regs. Everyone's just gotta do their part in keeping the fishery sustainable for future generations.

I live in the Great Lakes so ive never fished for stripers but found this ver interesting at the same time

It's very crazy just catching fish to release them and then making money with the videos. I catch fish to eat.

It’s impossible to know how many fish are swimming in the ocean, how many are born, and how many are killed each year. Even though sound science is used to generate those numbers, they are still just estimates. Yet, when the fishery managers make decisions on what the regulations should be, they seem to operate on a very thin margin of error. More conservative approaches should be taken in my opinion, recognizing that there isn’t a perfect math formula for determining what will work and what won’t. If there were more accountability towards fishery managers, then we may see better regulations. Unfortunately, the ASMFC doesn’t have hard performance standards for rebuilding depleted fish stocks similar to the Magusen Stevens Act.

What about the windmill farms that they’re putting off the coast of Rhode Island? I guess whales and fish have been washing up due to the windmills messing with them

Considering marylands YOY chart is the one thats widely accepted as the cause of concern for the striped bass it should be noted their commercial regs only allow harvest of fish between 18-36". So of those bad spawnings year classes starting in 2019, commercial guys this year will be allowed to take the 2019, 2020 and 2021 year class just the same. Mass and its 600-700k lb pounds comprised of fish over 35" takes way less individual fish than marylands 1-2M lbs of 18-36" fish.

There is no need for treble hooks on any lures. They are LESS efficient anyway.

I see the illegals taking undersize fish all the time. We called dep on some that were putting undersize largemouth in a walmart bag at our pond.

Not to mention, poachers .

i fell like now that the populations are plummeting we should have another moratorium so we can bring up the pop again

Time to make a law of single barbless hook for stripers. That will fix the death rate and divide the fishermen from the fisherboys.

Many recreational fishers also tend to keep up to their limit, or illegally, over their limit. As an example, in most places in south-east Australia, we are allowed to keep up to 5 trout per day. We only need to keep like 3 fish at most but many people will keep every big fish (5+ pounds) they catch. Lets not forget that there are also poachers who keep above their limit of fish, even if they are below or above the legal size range (bc they are stupid and greedy). This is a silent killer of fish populations and not much can be done because some people are very good at doing the wrong thing and there are not enough wardens to go about and stop or catch poachers.
Very sad.

Dude great video So much better than the short form content. Although I know it gets Views But I gotta say this was a great video content delivery everything. I'm down here in the Maryland portion of the Chesapeake Bay And I can definitely see why they say recreational is contributing to it. Especially when you consider charter boats, recreational fishing. I fish for striped bass probably once a week from may to January and even with bringing other people on the boat with me if I take.
20 fish all year. That's probably a really heavy harvest year . By comparison, the charter boats are still allowed 2 per person for their customers and can take 6 people out at a time and can make 2 trips a day. Giving a single boat the opportunity to take 24 fish a day.
That's just too much. I understand their problems with reducing it. Thinking that people won't go out on the charters if they can't bring more than one fish home per person. But I don't know how true that is. Has someone who has spent thousands of dollars to go out on billfish trips? Knowing that I can't take a single fish home. The tug is the drug. Meat is just icing on the cake.

This video is so interesting. I love these stories. I do them regularly on my own channel as well (though not nearly as good as these.) Really got to know more about one of my favorite fish to catch.

First of all, I think it's awesome that you made this video because it's incredibly informative. I think between more fishermen and climate change, the stripers are having it rough. More fishermen ofcourse equals more harvests and unintentional deaths, and climate change not only could change where they are spawning (alluding to the surveys that are seeing significantly less striper spawn), but also could change where their predators are during X amount of months a year. I feel like it's fair to say that sharks play a big role in their numbers as well, and it seems to me that more and more come North every summer. I'm of the opinion that it is however partially new anglers and unintentional deaths, and the commercial side over harvesting.

I definitely think there should be much more research. I also think that the population should see a slight increase in the next years because some states are recognizing the problem. Like how New Jersey made the slot limit 7 inches smaller in July 2023.

Our GOVERNMENT is to blame!!!!! The stuff they spray out of planes to kill us on purpose !!!!!

Recreational poachers all I could say they keep 5-20 striper you actually have a video up about it