This one keeps coming up year after year. This is not a "ban on commercial fishing", per se, (as the only freshwater commercial fishing allowed in NYS WAS for baitfish, but that went by way of the DoDo with VHS.
The ban is actually selling panfish caught by recreational anglers on a sporting license. We are already prohibited from catching and selling AND AND ALL GAMEFISH in NYS. And due to the contaminent levels measured in fish from some bodies of water, actual commercial fishing in NYS was halted years ago.
Which I find incredibly funny, because Ontario and Ohio allow commercial fishing of Lake Erie, and it isn't like Canadian or Ohio waters are pristine while NY waters and fish are poison....
Personally, I believe if you are selling your catch, you should have a commercial license of some kind. A sporting license is for personal consumption, if you intend to eat your catch. But the selling of panfish is NOT hurting freshwater panfish populations on the whole. I cannot speak to specific bodies of water east of me, but, it sounds like the waters in question have a potential for overharvest regardless (lack of creel limits).
With the absence of science supporting the commercial practices of recreational anglers being non-existent, the number of anglers potentially being affected being so low it isn't worth the money and effort, and the health concerns being more smoke and emotion than fact and reality (a can of Starkist tuna has more contaminants than a jack perch!), with our neighbors to the north and west of us continuing to sell catches from the Great Lakes each and every year, should we really get bent and divide our ranks over this issue?
I do not sell fish I catch. I find that personally offensive, as I have a sporting license, not a commercial license. However, that is MY OWN OPINION. What we will wind up doing is driving more of our own ranks away from supporting the Conservation Fund, through lower license, bait and tackle sales, effectively cutting off our own noses to spite our face! Sure, it may FEEL good to soime of us, but at the end of the day, we have reduced our ranks, and our strengths, further, just for the sake of FEELING good.
Now, if biological/ scientific evidence points to this practice being a problem, then I am 100% for the ban. However, without this critical information, no way....
