[Gerry Zagorski]

The situation we are in right now is a 2 headed beast that needs to be fought politically and scientifically.

The RFA is taking the political route. The good news here is that Jim Donofrio and the RFA believes that the new administration will be much more open to introducing some Flexibility in the Magnuson Stevens Act... As it stands right now, there is no Flexibility built into the Act and Fisheries management, by law, has to take drastic measures if a Fishery is deemed over fished. So the combination of the current stock assessment, believe the numbers or not and no Flexibility, we are looking at a shorter season, lower bag limits or increased size or a mix of all the above.

The SSFFF is fighting on the Science side by trying to introduce detailed sex structured and discard information into the Scientific Assessment model. Similar methods were used very successfully to better assess Halibut stocks several years ago. They've recently funded projects with Rutgers and Cornell to collect sex and discard information and hope to have this information ready to present in the next Peer Review. That is expected some time in 2017 or 2018 and this is when NOAA Scientists get together to review best practices for Stock Assessments.

One thing to be very clear on here and the SSFFF has said all along. This is not about getting more favorable fishing regulations for us... This is to make sure we get the right regulations to sustain the fishery by using better science.

Both these organizations need our continued support.