Posted by finfan on October 28, 2002 at 15:02:12:
In Reply to: Re: MLPA Closures. posted by Steve on October 28, 2002 at 13:15:57:
Better be careful out there. A couple others on this board will probably starting calling you ill informed or self indulging if you don't immediately support the reserve concept. I know, I think I've been called just about everything they could think of, including poacher! Heck, I haven't even said I wasn't for the reserve. I only discussed the appropriateness of size.
I for one agree with your comments. If it's good for the goose why not the gander. I had the same arguments earlier with Brad. What amazes me is the number of people that think this is only about "take". Even more so is the number of people so willing to listen to the agency who first established take limits and then does a really poor job of managing those limits.
Maybe the reserve concept is needed, but even more so, we have to do something to improve survival rates in the hatch, especially for baitfish and that includes habitat improvement.
Unlike some, I won't take a single event and try and suggest it is all things, but if size and take doesn't work then ask Ken (who I often have admired for his level headed responses on this board) what he would attribute the growing abundance of white seabass to?
I could be wrong, but it seems to me that restrictions on take methods (gill net banning), size, bag and season limits along with a hatchery program have done wonders for that fishery. Did I miss something - where is the white seabass reserve?
I guess my biggest fear is what seems to a constant approach by F&G that says - when we (and I mean F&G) can't figure out how to manage it properly we just need to shut it down. As a whole (and I mean divers (hunters and photo dwibs)and fishermen), we need to start putting F&G's feet to the fire and stop letting them cop out.
If F&G could have put a concensus of scientific knowledge behind this, then I would have said yes and yes to the % suggested. But they didn't, they got a bio from Oregon and through a vote of 2 people to one affected the lives of millions. There's only one thing worse than being taken to the cleaners - that's having the governor says he "delighted" by it.