Grew up on Long Island, New York. Spent many many days fishing the Great South Bay for fluke, sea bass, porgies, weakfish (a sea trout) and the occasional bluefish. When I hit 15, I was allowed to run the Fire Island Inlet by myself, and spent the next few summers trolling the ocean for bigger bluefish and striped bass.

The striped bass fishery in New York is an example of a well managed fishery. When I was a little kid, they had been all but wiped out by the commercial fishers. They used to haul seine for them, a guy in a skiff would run a semi circular 2000 foot net out from the beach. Then, two 4X4s, one at each end of the net, would haul it up onto the beach. The state realized how effective these nets were, and how depleted the stock was. So, they banned all commercial harvest, and made the sport limit 36" with a 1 fish limit. The stock took a decade or so to recover, and now limited commercial fishing is allowed, but no haul seines, and the sport fishers have a 2 fish, 28" limit. The natives (only one small reservation, really) follow the same rules as everyone else. It's now a productive fishery again. I'll see how productive later this year, I'm visiting home for a week or so.

Dan