Will making the striper a gamefish simply transfer the catch from the commercials to the recreational anglers and do nothing to help the striped bass population?
No. Throughout the history of striped bass management the organized pressure for expanding the harvest quotas has come from commercial interests. Recreational anglers have tried to hold down the mortality rates to increase the quality of fishing and the health of the striper population. The existence of a commercial fishery also inevitably spawns an illegal element that causes unrecorded but very significant mortality.
