Bush in St. Michaels
President George W. Bush is coming to St. Michaels this weekend. And it's not to have dinner with the Cheneys and the Rumsfelds. No, he's expected to make a major announcement about striped bass, with Rep. Gilchrest at his side.
What's he gonna say? A North Carolina paper is reporting that he will either declare the species a gamefish or direct fisheries managers to do so.
That, according to news reports, would make the species off-limits to commercial fishermen. And it would, by my reckoning, have a major impact on bay fishermen, many of whom have turned to striped bass fishing as other bay resources (crabs, oysters) have become unreliable.
The Sun will cover the event, and I will try to figure out how to blog from home so I can put something up here and let everyone know. (I am a bit of a technophobe -- a wonderful characteristic for a blogger.)
I just had smoked rockfish for lunch today in Annapolis, and was reminded that the recovery of the species is one of the Chesapeake Bay's few success stories, along with fish-passage goals. So this development kinda surprises me, and I'm not just saying that because smoked rockfish is such a darned good thing. I'm saying it because I figured this was an area where we were doing fairly well. If a moratorium were to come down the pike, so to speak, I'd expect it for one of the species that is nowhere near recovery (and I'm not naming names here).
Speaking of Gilchrest, he has had fish on the mind lately. He just introduced a bill that would put a moratorium on the harvest of menhaden form both state and federal waters. If passed, that could end what is left of the Omega protein fishery in Reedville.
(This post was written by Rona Kobell.)
