[Capt John]

A few thoughts about the meeting last night pertaining to the proposed 2017 fluke reg's...

First off, nice to see Gerry at the entrance of the meeting room. Haven't talked to him in awhile. (old friend from our Sea School days).

Next, having the meeting, which I'm sure they knew was going to be a massive turnout, in a library which seats only 90 people was a joke.

The meeting was broken down to "questions and comments" sections after Kirby gave his dog and pony slide show trying to justify NOAA's ludicrous numbers and what the options that we are going to be force fed....sorry that's not going to happen.

I had to laugh when I saw the slide showing the "exact" number of fluke caught in NJ in 2016. How the hell did they come up with that? I'm sure not based upon any numbers I gave Quantech in the survey's they have me take during my fluke fishing season. They don't even ask me ANYTHING about quantity of fish from my trips.....so I know that number was pure pull it out of the hat bogus guesstimate.

The comments part of the meeting was the best as numerous organizations gave their thoughts....people with real numbers that can be proven. I got up their toward the end and said my piece telling those who wanted my input that after my spring Striper season comes to a close, I might as well shinkwrap the boat for the next 4 months as who the hell is going to hire me at 2 fish per angler?

Bottom line....this WHOLE process is total BULL****. Now you know why many business concerns don't even attend these meetings any more...they know the cards are stacked against them with all this bureaucracy. Are you aware there are 14 agencies with their hands on dictating weather or not I can fish here in NJ?

Here you go...(this is an email from a very reliable source)

“Under NOAA, you have:
NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Commission),
GARFO (Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office)
MRIP (Marine Regional Information Program)
SAW (NE Regional Stock Assessment Workshop)
NEFSC. (Northeast Fisheries Science Center)
MAFMC (Mid Atlantic Marine Fisheries Council there are...Species Committees
The Scientific and Statistical Committee Advisory Panels.. includes 29 members
Fishery Management Action Team (FMAT includes GARFO, MAFMC, NEFSC, ASMFC),
Monitoring Committee for the FMAT. (Reps from each state, SAMFC, NEFSC, MAFMC, ASMFC, NMFS, US FISH & WILDLIFE) I suspect there are similar department structures for ASMFC and the NE COUNCIL.

As you can see this is a complicated bureaucracy. Add the fact that there does not appear to be anyone to specify what project goals are, set a timeline with a due dates and keep the process on track, it’s not surprising that they have been working on this for 30 years without any results.

In my opinion, the management issues overshadow the poor data issues, which is, on it’s own a big one.”

Now on to my comment of the day.....

The anglers aren’t killing the fluke fishing in NJ, these mismanaged agencies are. Let’s place the blame where it really belongs.

You know, just a few months ago I was seriously thinking about going to a bigger boat...but not now! When you see how the inner workings of this whole process works, and how delicate survival in the "for-hire" business is, making long range business plans is just about impossible. The boat that I have will do for now. Sad....very sad. I wanted to give my people, me and the crew some added comfort and add more days on the water, but looks like that's never going to happen.