Montauk bust

[Broad Bill]

One commercial boat found guilty of harvesting 200,000 pounds of illegally caught fluke and sea bass. That's one boat and at a 3 lb. average that would be 70,000 fish. These commercial fisheries are so out of control, stocks with a high price tag on their head don't stand a chance. Remember this is one boat, imagine the amount of fish that are brought to market bypassing protocols intended to quantify commercial quotas. Take this entire site over the course of our lifetimes and collectively we probably wouldn't harvest 70,000 fluke unless you include Roger and Dan and maybe Dave since he has a new fluke rod and Henry lets him fish on his boat:)

https://greaterlongisland.com/montauk-fisherman-convicted-of-exceeding-fish-quotas-by-200000-pounds/

[AndyS]

Makes me want to run out and sign up for Saltwater Registry ASAP !!!

[NoLimit]

Recreational fishing has never had an impact on fisheries.

[Capt. Lou]

I’d love to see this sentencing ! They should impound his boat or put heavy fines in place , but they won’t .
So it’ll be a slap on the wrist and he gets to keep his boat and will continue to crush our resources as if they are his own , pathetic.

[Madcrab]

One commercial boat found guilty of harvesting 200,000 pounds of illegally caught fluke and sea bass. That's one boat and at a 3 lb. average that would be 70,000 fish. These commercial fisheries are so out of control, stocks with a high price tag on their head don't stand a chance. Remember this is one boat, imagine the amount of fish that are brought to market bypassing protocols intended to quantify commercial quotas. Take this entire site over the course of our lifetimes and collectively we probably wouldn't harvest 70,000 fluke unless you include Roger and Dan and maybe Dave since he has a new fluke rod and Henry lets him fish on his boat:)

https://greaterlongisland.com/montauk-fisherman-convicted-of-exceeding-fish-quotas-by-200000-pounds/

Bryan and Asa Gosman and the company they partially own — Bob Gossman Co. Inc. — previously pleaded guilty for their role in the fishing fraud conspiracy. In total, approximately 200,000 pounds of fluke and black sea bass were overharvested, with a conservative wholesale valuation of $750,000.

[AndyS]

Recreational fishing has never had an impact on fisheries.

Much like the bluefish ??

[Broad Bill]

The part of this article and case I agree with is it makes no sense for different states to have different landing quotas which causes an imbalance in the utilization of the stock and promotes this kind of behavior. If for example, one state's daily landing quota is 10% of another states, it puts fisherman operating out of the state with the lower landing limits at a distinct disadvantage as they have to make 10 trips for every one for a boat operating from the state with higher limits. Basically means they incur ten times the operating cost as fuel and labor are their main cost drivers. It's the point I believe Hammer4Reel makes with the larger NC boats versus smaller local netters coupled with the fact North Carolina fills all their quota in the fall and winter when the fish are spawning and highly concentrated offshore making them easy targets.

Selective harvest, the practice of harvesting the size fish bringing the highest market value at the docks that day, drives excessive dead discard and when combined with state landings deviations which favor operators from one state over another, it drives this behavior and extreme waste of the resource. Put every state on the same trip limit and quota allocation system throughout the season and if that doesn't work for an individual state, then fish for something else. In theory, if it takes a NC boat one trip to harvest 30,000 lbs. and other state's operators 15 trips due to lower trip limits, how are the operators in other states going to compete with North Carolina who wiped out their own southern fishery and in the process of doing the same with our own local stock.

There so much wrong with the regulations and how this stock is being managed it's concerning. The federal government, Department of Commerce, obviously favors the commercial sector, states fight among themselves for their percentage of the quota, harvest / landings rules are completely inconsistent and unfairly applied, size limits from 14" and up favor the commercial even while they throw back dead most of the lesser value smaller fish and the commercial sector has access to this resource year round while the recreational sector at best has a shot at it for four months of the year. And who exclusively fishes it during the spawn, it's not the recreational angler. Yet the stock itself and the recreational sector pay for all these misguided decisions and regulations.

Very concerned one day we're going to wake up when it's too late to see we're destroying yet again another fishery which is critical to shore communities economies, charter and party boats and natures balance which needs to exist. Can you imagine the impact on other summer species if summer flounder were one day closed. It's precisely what happened to the winter flounder fishery when drastic cuts were required with summer flounder in the late 80's. When those cuts were mandated, draggers with multi species permits targeted winter founder stocks to survive and that fishery was destroyed literally in a few short years and 35-years has still not recovered.