Dales sign me up for two spots, might be a third will let you know by Tuesday. Not 100% certain I can make it but will pay you for two spots regardless.

As for everyone's frustration about the regulations, I share those frustration. Personally I feel like NJMFC caved on us but I also realize there's a lot at stake here. Most of us enjoy the benefits of the fishery recreationally, much different situation then if your livelihood depended on it and you had a six or seven figure mortgage on a boat and your earnings depended on this fishery to stay in business. Most here have jobs we wouldn't risk over 2 more fish at 18" and maybe 20 or 25 more days in the season. If we did, our view about the outcome of all this might be slightly altered. Washington knows that and has us by the short hairs in other words. It's not a good situation we find ourselves in but it is the situation nonetheless.

The only way we win this is through the courts, I agree with Dale in that respect. Either MSA is going to be overhauled or the fishery, in the absence of a complete change in NMFS management philosophy, will collapse. And since there's no reason to believe NMFS will suddenly decide to change their management ideologies, we're really looking at legislation to change MSA as our only viable hope. That or an outright Tea Party! Fighting Town Hall is hard enough, fighting the most powerful government in the world is virtually impossible but there are industry groups trying. Most of us, myself included, have no idea how much time and effort these organizations give of themselves to change this situation without personal compensation and they deserve and need our support. Supporting these groups is everyone's personal choice, but if choose not to then either get involved some other way and offer up a different approach to deal with this insanity or don't complain about the work these people are doing on our behalf or the outcomes we have forced down our throats every year. It's disingenuous.

For those who have read my posts, we know what the problems are.

Size limit increases causing the harvest of larger female breeders effectively destroying SSB reproductive capacity. Reproduction strength is down 80% over the last twenty years.

Increased demand for larger sushi grade summer flounder driving higher prices for larger fish at the wholesale level. Secondary issue is unknown impacts of hygrading commercial catch at sea while culling larger more valuable summer flounder.

Continued commercial harvest during offshore migration between September and November, summer flounder's primary spawning period. Inexplicable how NMFS allows this to occur while SSB is being destroyed

Getting the powers to be to acknowledge these facts predicated on their own science and data is another matter all together. Politics at it's worst. It's my hope this ends up in a lawsuit with NMFS's own data used to force change as a result of the negative impacts their policy decisions are causing on the economy which is a direct violation of MSA. Like everyone else, I'm angered having this forced down our throats every year. The only hope we have is that eventually the people working hard representing us will find a way to force the governing bodies to refocus their management efforts on issues confronting the fishery as opposed to managing to benchmarks levels set 41 years ago under MSA. Mandating the same senseless defensive measures year over year will do nothing other than cause continued harm to the fishery.