[Broad Bill]

As many fish as recreational anglers kept, which was significant, it didn't put a dent in the fishery. Every year the biomass was solid. Reason being whiting and ling were primarily an inshore winter fishery with some bottom fishing boats targeting them during the summer in deeper water. Both stocks had tremendous spawning strength. As soon as foreign factory ships and domestic small mesh netters targeted them, both stocks virtually disappeared in a few years, something no one ever thought possible. Shows just how destructive commercial netting can be when there's no boundaries or closed seasons.