December 6, 2017 — The return to health of the striped bass has been one of the great conservation success stories of recent decades. On the brink of extinction in the 1970s and 1980s, the popular sport fish was brought back to health by sound management.
Lawmakers would be wise to leave that management to the experts and not back a renewed push to manage the fishery through legislation.
The Legislature’s Committee on the Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture heard testimony on two such proposals last week.
One, from former state Sen. James Timilty, a Walpole Democrat, would limit commercial access to fishermen who can prove they have caught and sold 1,000 pounds of striper a year for the past five years.
And a plan by state Rep. Thomas Stanley, D-Waltham, would completely end commercial fishing for striped bass by 2025.
Read the full editorial at the Gloucester Times