Selling Fish

[lowaccord66]

I am 70 years old, am a lake shore property owner and have been fishing the lake and connecting rivers all my life. I have been around many commercial fishermen and buyers during a lot of that time. I can safely say there are less people today selling their catch than even 10 years ago. I have a friend who is dead set against commercial fishing because he says the fishing is terrible now and it is because all the fish are being caught and sold. I don't think the fishing is terrible for those who know how to catch them. In his case I write his opinion off to that green eyed monster...

Commerical fishing is replete with opinions for and against...I fished commercially for stripers for quite a while.  Now...this is a bit of an apples and oranges comparison and for the record I am neither for or against commercial fishing.  I am against commercial fisheries management.  If you have chased what in my opinion is the most majestic sport fish in the sea for more than a few years you'd notice the issue with the numbers.  Despite a few solid yoy averages the popularity of the sport of surfcasting for them, combined with commercial fishing and poaching it's really wiping them out.  Now more foreboding is that in the past there was a moritorium because of over harvest.  Now keep in mind this is the ocean...theres a bit more space than champlain...more spawning areas, more biomass and a heck of a lot more water to hide in...it doesnt matter.  The powers that be reduced the rec harvest while barely taking a dent out of the commercial quota.  Stripers still demand a high price and are still getting hammered on in an ecosystem so much larger than champlain. 

One thing I have known to be true of a few fishermen in either case...salt or fresh is when many have a tough time catching...the "its fished out" 

[troutcrazy]

The price for perch dropped so low last year that many people stopped selling them.

That graph doesn't reflect the number of perch in the lake.  It reflects the fact that people are selling fewer fish.

[Champlain Islander]

A lot less local people are fishing. Check out the license plates at popular spots especially on the weekends. Lots of NY, Mass, NJ, NH and CT. Quite a few of the popular local fishermen that everyone knew have passed on. Taking a tour mid week through the Islands tells the story. F&W's only answer to less licenses sold is to raise prices to cover the expense. When I grew up almost everyone had a hunting / fishing combo. Not so today. One issue that generates a lot of license sales are the continuous bass tournaments held every summer. Almost every weekend during prime summer months there are tourneys held both amateur and pro. The out of state participants all buy Vt licenses. Without that I would bet the state license sales would drop to record lows.

[thefishingweatherman]

Commerical fishing is replete with opinions for and against...I fished commercially for stripers for quite a while.  Now...this is a bit of an apples and oranges comparison and for the record I am neither for or against commercial fishing.  I am against commercial fisheries management.  If you have chased what in my opinion is the most majestic sport fish in the sea for more than a few years you'd notice the issue with the numbers.  Despite a few solid yoy averages the popularity of the sport of surfcasting for them, combined with commercial fishing and poaching it's really wiping them out.  Now more foreboding is that in the past there was a moritorium because of over harvest.  Now keep in mind this is the ocean...theres a bit more space than champlain...more spawning areas, more biomass and a heck of a lot more water to hide in...it doesnt matter.  The powers that be reduced the rec harvest while barely taking a dent out of the commercial quota.  Stripers still demand a high price and are still getting hammered on in an ecosystem so much larger than champlain. 

One thing I have known to be true of a few fishermen in either case...salt or fresh is when many have a tough time catching...the "its fished out"

I grew up on the Maine coast, fishing striped bass, bluefish, mackerel, etc. While the ocean is a lot bigger than Champ obviously, there are some major differences between commercial fishing for striped bass, and panfish on Champ. Commercial fishing for stripers is similar to that of perch on champ, mainly insofar as sport fishing being the "commercial" fishing type. Combine this fishing pressure on stripers with by-catching from trawling, poaching, etc, and you may be able to argue it's reducing their numbers in an unsustainable way, but I will leave that to the fisheries biologists. With the collapse of more traditional food fish populations, such a Cod and Flounder, eating striped bass has become ever more popular, for better or worse. For another thing, stripers are large predatory fish, which are more susceptible to overfishing, due to their relatively smaller numbers on the food chain. Obviously the ocean's size can make it seem like there's still an endless supply, but of course there isn't. Their preferred habitat hugs the coastlines, which makes them more vulnerable to sport fishing and potential overharvesting. Throw in the fact that many of the fish they feed on are themselves commercially netted, water pollution/damming issues on many of their preferred spawning rivers, and there are a number of forces conspiring against them. Doesn't mean they are doomed, though, and if wikipedia can be believed, The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission states that striped bass are "not overfished and overfishing is not occurring." As you said, perch vs stripers is more apples to oranges. A more apt comparison might be between Lake Trout and Striped Bass. If you are against "fisheries management", what system would you replace it with? Seems fishing anarchy would swiftly lead to their destruction, as history has shown with other species.

And yes, I agree some people are quick to blame others for catching all "their" fish, rightly or wrongly. I have noticed most of these people don't seem to think that perhaps they are simply fishing in a bad spot, refuse to alter their tactics, or both. It usually sounds like an excuse to go home, crack a beer, and plant themselves back in front of the TV, to watch their sport fishing heros catching fish after fish.

[mudchuck]

I lived thru the 10 year moratorium as a young adult on stripers (aka rockfish in MD/DE/NJ), and let me tell you as a youngster seeing 55 gallon trash cans full of "keeper" sized stripers at Elk Neck State Park because people caught so many then realized they had to clean them because back then there was no market to sell them to fish mongers was disgusting to say the least.
The laws of unintended consequences certainly had an impact on that moratorium, as the blue crabs took a hard hit because the stripers were eating the crabs almost out of existence in the Chesapeake Bay.

That said, yellow perch are like others have posted an apples to oranges comparison.
Panfish in general have faster growth rates, and are much like cottontail rabbits with breeding, in that they make so many for a reason...attrition due to predation among others.

I wouldn't be too concerned about perch being overfished, and trust the state biologist about the amount that can be caught in Champlain vs. inland waters.
However, of more concern is the state thinking of cutting back on a broodstock fish hatchery funding and closing Salisbury which might have unintended consequences for the trout game fish stocking.

[Champlain Islander]

I hope the state finds a better way to save money and leave the state hatcheries in operation.