Quote:
Originally Posted by Detour66
Bill, You know way way more about this than I do. So everybody should just give up? So what about all the pro- recreational clubs and organizations. Should they just lay down and do nothing? What are they charging yearly dues for? I feel your frustration about this cause. I feel the same way too about the way our government screws the recreational fisherman. But for NOAA to admit this it seems like finally some data for those on the front lines of this fight to work with.
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Detour no we shouldn't just give up....ever. You're points are valid and I didn't intend to minimize them. If I did, my apologies. Like many others, I'm disgusted with a fishery and the management of that fishery as a whole, specifically for New Jersey, which went from unlimited to 10 to 8 to 6 to 5 and finally to a 3 fish possession limit in a little over two decades and from year round open seasons to substantially shorter seasons while commercial catch values have increased over the same timeframe. All so the recreational community can subsidize catch values of the commercial sector by increasing our size minimums so commercial concerns can benefits from significantly greater market values of larger specimens while killing multiple millions of juvenile fish in the process. This is the philosophy of the brain trust managing the stock.
Should we contribute to sport fishing groups we believe will make a difference, absolutely. As a matter of fact, I personally believe these groups need our support now more than ever.
My intention was to manage expectations because truthfully I can't remember the last time the recreational sector received an upside surprise when regulations were announced. That combined with the attached graph and summary article from the recent August 2023 MAFMC meeting published on their website at the below link leaves me again with very guarded optimism.
https://www.mafmc.org/newsfeed/2023/...eeting-summary
42% decrease in summer flounder quota is the option of choice for 2024 - 2025 by MAFMC based on catch statistics being overstated by as much as 30% - 40%. 10.62 million lbs. reduced to 6.35 million, try wrapping your head around that logic. And once again, recruitment is low for unknown reasons when we've been wiping out the spawning class of this stock for over a decade because of asinine, reprehensible and irresponsible regulations. Maybe something will change between now and 2024 but history certainly doesn't support that happening.
