Back in the 60's and 70's there were more party boats and recreational boats targeting whiting and ling than there are today. It's not even close. Every port Highlands, Belmar, Point Pleasant had bottom fishing boats targeting them in the spring and fall during the day as well as a number of boats which ran the long gone "Magic Hour" trips from 3-9 during the fall. Who remebers the fishery every year at the cedars with flounder and ling when they came in to spawn. Every party boat in the highlands was in on that fishery to start the spring season. It NEVER effected the biomass! And until the Russians cleaned the bottom of them they were as abundant as any fish I've ever seen. For anyone who isn't old enough to have experienced those days, you have no idea how tremendous a fishery it was year in year out. The numbers were staggering. Both ling and whiting were both wiped out in a few years by commercial pressure. And while the commercial pressure has been reduced because the fishery was destroyed, it hasn't stopped. I've seen on at least a half dozen occasions in the last five years heading to the canyons acres of small whiting and ling floating on the surface from continued dragging. These are 5-6 inch fish which aren't marketable, dead discard by commercial vessels. The biomass was destroyed and we still allow unlimited netting! In my opinion, this has nothing to do with climate change, habitat change or anything else. These fish have very predictable habits and are an easy target for today's technology and are being wiped out one species after another.