The poor striped bass as well as blue fish and other delicious edible fish have suffered over the years. The Day reported on Oct. 28, "Changes loom for striped bass regulations."

The state director of Marine Fisheries convened a 160-person expert panel at the Mystic Hilton to discuss the problem for the first time in 15 years with the object to reduce the commercial and recreational bass catch by 25 percent. For years bass have been so abundant it was a fisherman's delight.

Many causes have been offered for reduced striped bass, from global warming to nuclear power plant warm condenser discharge to factory ship fishing and ocean water pollution, but no real credible correlation is offered.

Has anyone looked at the harbor seal population over the last 30 years? It has increased greatly.

The healthy beautiful marine mammals can be observed sunning on the rocks barking at fishermen and passersby after gorging themselves on their known diet of many pounds of choice fish per day.

Did the experts look up the population increase of seals? Perhaps the federal authorities might consider declaring open season on seals for a while to solve the problem.