One last post on this thread and I'll leave it at that. Dan you can have the last say, but clearly we view a number of issue impacting not just the fluke fishery but all fisheries differently.

Here's what I believe. Fact, increase in the world's population both domestic and abroad coupled with an explosion of health crazed consumers including the sushi market explosion have brought the demand for fish and shellfish to record levels. That demand has caused wholesale prices and the size of the global fish market (estimated at ~$150 billion in '19) to hit record levels as well.

Here's an excerpt from an article "The Rise and Fall of the Codfather, America's most notorious fishing criminal":

Last year, the U.S. government hauled in a big fish: Carlos Rafael, dubbed ‘the Codfather.’ For years, Raphael was the largest player in New England’s groundfish industry, but last September he was handed a four-year prison sentence and a partial seizure of his groundfish fleets and permits. The charges against him include false labelling and falsifying fish records in order to exceed fishing quotas, as well as cash smuggling and tax evasion. Illegal fishing is big business, and the Codfather’s story is just one example of how it is harming the oceans.

Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) Fishing around the world has an estimated value of $23 billion USD annually and accounts for up to 30 per cent of global catches.

One person essentially ignored every regulation involving multiple species, primarily ground fish, paid $1.75 million dollars to have his scales altered to under report actual weights, falsified FVTR reports (one rare instance when he got caught he reported 1,365 lbs of scallops on board when in fact he had 12,356 lbs.), mislabeled fish to avoid daily and seasonal quota limitations, bypassed the supply chain by selling directly to the NY based black market, owned distribution outlets himself to control and circumvent regulatory compliance and got away with it for 30 years. Law enforcement officials were found to be involved to pull it off. A majority of the commercial operators in New Bedford knew about it but elected to either turn a blind eye out of fear or simply by choice so it went undetected for decades. It wasn't until the FBI got involved (for money laundering cash from black market sales in NY) that NMFS and F&G got involved in a joint sting operation which ultimately took him down. If not for the FBI's money laundering investigation, he'd still be in business or someone else would have purchased his operation for the $175 million he was asking.

Story is well documented and there are hundreds of articles on-line you can read which illustrate just how out of control the commercial industry is with illicit practices. Don't think the "Belford Pirates" earned that distinction because they were "Guardians of the Ocean".

Dan we agree that a majority of commercial operators play by the rules because they're upstanding people and or they have to. Their livelihood depends on it and if caught and they lose their permit(s) it's game over for them. I believe a minority of operators don't play by the rules causing extensive damage to every fishery they target. As much as efforts have been stepped up to address compliance, lack of enforcement resources and based on the sheer amount of dollars involved in this industry, I don't agree enforcement is nearly as iron clad as you make it appear. We simply can disagree on that point.

Question for you, boat sails off shore during winter harvest. Not 100% certain of daily / weekly limits but let's assume it's 1,500 lbs. per trip. Boats are electronically monitored as you mentioned but there's no one from F&G on board which means the catch is not monitored or weighed until it's back at the dock. Assume on this trip, 5,000 lbs of fluke is harvested, operator calls in 2 hours in advance of the 6:00 am to 6:00 pm weigh-in guidelines so F&G is at the docks to meet the boat as required but before he returns, he offloads 3,500 lbs of his catch to a runner boat 5 miles offshore that runs it up to NY harbor, offloads it in any of a thousand different places without risk of detection, gets $5 / lb. for his efforts or $17.5k more for the trip and it's on the menu in NY restaurants later that evening selling for $40 a plate. How would that be detected? Think that doesn't happen? Carlos Raphael made multiple tens of millions a year and accumulated a fortune basically doing just that. With the limited resources F&G is hamstrung with, who would even know?

As far as the 2018 fluke season is concerned, we must have fished different oceans. Since our boat was destroyed in the Seaport Inlet Fire, we charter multiple times a year now. In June and July I had six charters scheduled (won't mention boat names but they were reputable and local). One was cancelled due to weather, two were cancelled because we were told the fluke fishing was terrible, one we went on and 5 keepers were caught between six very good fisherman plus the captain and mate with every boat around us having the same kind of day and one we were told to fish for a different species because the fluke fishing was that bad. August improved dramatically for just about everyone and we had one trip in early September with a very well known local charter and had an outstanding trip. If you based your opinion about the health of every fishery on his catches and reputation alone you'd swear every fishery was in great shape. I'm sure most of you know without naming names who I'm referring to. I think for most, even though I know you don't agree, 2018 wasn't just a mediocre year it was a very off year for the majority even though the network you run with would say otherwise.

As far as the NMFS data and recruitment numbers we have to work with, it is what it is. I don't buy the argument that the numbers are wrong for the last 30 years. This isn't a recent anomaly and if your implying the numbers are wrong you're de facto implying Rutgers "Sex and Size" study is wrong. You yourself in this thread said commercial operators increased mesh limits to allow 14" fish to escape their nets. First I heard that and it defeats the entire purpose of them being given a 14" size limit to begin with which again means they're targeting larger females. I don't believe between the weight of the catch and pressure caused by the trawl that smaller fish covered up by larger fluke will find their way to the top and swim back out unscathed. So again what that means is the recreational and commercial harvest consists almost entirely of female fluke. Combine that with commercial harvest during the spawn without understanding the impact it has on egg production and the numbers are what I'd expect. What other fishery do you know that has data strongly suggesting a reproduction problem and allows commercial harvest or any harvest during the spawn. How can any fishery survive when you harvest nothing but females and commercial harvest pounds the biomass during the spawn. Answer is it can't and the data is exactly what I 'd expect it to be based not on science but based on common sense.

Dan you can have the last say, everyone knows my position not just of the summer flounder fishery but fishery management in general. There's not a fishery with commercial exposure that will survive without regulations, not with $150 billion dollars at stake. Recreational anglers fish because they enjoy it, commercials fish to profit and make a living, inherent conflict in motivations. As I said, I believe a high percentage of second and third generation commercial operators play by the rules but a minority percentage don't and are destroying one fishery after another at everyone else's expense. Current enforcement resources can't possibly control what's going on at sea, it's simply not humanely possible.

There's other issues at play here but in my humble opinion there's three things which should be considered. Re-establish slot and I would make it 14" - 15", somewhere in that range. Start with three fish possession limit initially, 2 fish within the slot and one fish over 18". That should help party and charter boats and allow a big fish for recreational one fish tournaments. Second, when the recreational season ends, the commercial season does as well through December 1 so the spawn is protected. Leave their annual quota the same, re-allocate the timing of the harvest so as not to coincide with the spawn. Third have the powers to be address the wholesale price differential between smaller and larger fluke to eliminate the problem of hygrading. I realize two and three are a long shot with commercial lobbying power but they're changes which need to be considered and in my opinion adopted. After three years, re-assess the impact on the biomass and recruitment and based on the data and science plot the course accordingly. In addition, if enforcement isn't addressed, regulations won't matter if the above statistic is remotely correct in that 30% of annual harvest goes unreported. In addition, a study should be conducted both offshore and inshore to track and understand more of where the reproduction problem is occurring. It shouldn't be difficult to assess and in my opinion is the key to rebuilding this fishery.