As sad as that report is truthfully it's not a surprise. The poundage of fish wasted is staggering but the fact it's a common practice or residual effect of other legal commercial methods is not. Someone please tell me how or why the winter flounder fishery hasn't completely rebounded since it's been alost three or four years since the two fish limit was imposed and for all practical purposes there is no fishery anymore. One or two seasons and we should have seen a massive increase in flounder populations which hasn't happened. Some on the board will say the population has definitely increased but the fish are at the Farms or the Mud Hole or somewhere, I don't buy that for a minute. They probably were at these locations always just no one ever really targeted them there. 40 years ago there were thousands of people fishing for flounder in the spring when they started spawning and heading off shore and you'd catch 40 - 50 fish a day. With the season all but closed recently, these fish should have come back with a vengeance. They haven't. I would guess as mentioned in the article that flounder are being pounded when they migrate off shore by draggers, there's no other explanation. As with everything in life, this is all about money and some %^%#$%# politician is getting his or her bank account lined so that commercial interests can ravage the ocean and other non targeted fisheries while the recreational angler takes it up the a-s! I used to subscribe to abiding to regulations, it's hard to turn a blind eye any more when someone is picking your pocket every day and destroying a resource intended for all of us.

Dakota