[CaptTB]

One reason some people (it is not just the partyboats mind you) don't want a later start could be:

A later start gives you less savings. You need to close far more days in the early part of the year to achieve the same reduction as closing fewer days later. The majority of landings do not come in May and June, therefore when you give up May and/or June days you get less value for them then days from summer and fall when more Sea Bass are caught, primarily due to more people fishing overall.

It is like bag limit in some fisheries. When you drop from 20 fish to 10, people think "Hey, we took a 50% reduction!"

However, since the vast majority of anglers rarely catch 10 (making this up for an example, not saying these numbers apply to sea bass) when you drop from 20 to 10 you really gave up almost nothing. You gave up fish that are almost never caught, therefore it does next to nothing in reducing your landings the following year.

Same goes with season. Giving up days from a time of year where a small percentage of the fish are caught does not yield as much reduction as giving up days from a time when most of the fish are caught.

610 fish caught in May and June = an average of 10 fish per day.

6100 fish caught in September and October = an average of 100 fish a day.

A day in May does not have the same reduction value that a day in September does.

This is but one reason people have fought in the past to not lose a month to save a week or two.