Phil Brady Several Quotations

It seems to be a combination of things. A number of different things have come together that caused concern. In 2000-2001 we had a severe drought and we lost the class of several years, especially on the Cape, when they were not able to get out of the ponds. There is also increased predation from cormorants, the seal population is high on Cape and the striped bass population is up. And there's the combo of fishing and poaching.

We've seen a steady, quite dramatic decline in a lot of runs, including ones we've had counters on and anecdotal information from towns. Over the past several years there has been a sharp drop. There's always fluctuation but it's been more dramatic than usual.