It was a sight that appalled Outer Banks anglers. Bobbing in the waves were hundreds, maybe thousands, of dead striped bass, a catch prized for its fight and sold on restaurant menus as "rockfish." They'd been cut loose from a commercial vessel's nets.
Video of the scene, shot off Bodie Island last weekend, made a splash on YouTube. Internet boards soon lit up with angry anglers denouncing their commercial counterparts. Many suspected the dead fish were the byproduct of high-grading, a legal practice in which watermen – limited by state rules to 50 fish a day – discard smaller fish to keep larger ones.
By week's end, the state acted swiftly to quell the controversy and, in a rare move, changed long-standing regulations.
Come Monday, watermen operating trawl boats will be allowed 2,000 pounds of stripers, not 50 fish, in order to discourage the practice of tossing dead fish into the sea.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA).
