Full moon

[Broad Bill]

And here's the residual consequences of what's happening in this fishery which will be significant. I don't have current information on the number of registered commercial operators in the Mid Atlantic region but it's significant. If large and jumbo fluke are getting on average $3 / lb. at the docks, the commercial quota just lost almost 7 million lbs in quota in 2024 or $21 million dollars in wholesale catch value. If the price is $5 / lb. make that $35 million in lost revenue.

If you're a commercial boat owner, how do you compensate for that loss in revenue. From the standpoint of the fishery itself, you target large and jumbo fluke even more now with higher wholesale values which is going to further increase discard mortality and remove even more of the larger breeders from the stock. From outside the fishery, what other stocks do they target to compensate for an almost 45% decrease in quota. Winter flounder, that fisheries already been destroyed. Bluefish, they're in a rebuilding state themselves. Whiting or ling, don't think so. Blackfish, good luck with that. Squid, maybe for anyone with a multi species permit. Sea bass, maybe but we all know what's happened with those quotas even as the stocks been more than rebuilt. Porgies, stock has it's own problems. The ripple effect of these asinine short sided outdated regulations will have consequences to every fishery and every small business dependent on those resources.

[Broad Bill]

Originally Posted by Duffman

Dakota560 and Broad Bill are one in the same no?

First does it matter? Second no we're not one in the same. I've been fortunate to be good friends with Dakota and I very much followed his posts when he was a member of the site. He's also been good enough to share his five years of research with me which I thought was important to continue sharing here and on other sites to educate the public about what's happening to these valuable fisheries, particularly with fluke.

[Broad Bill]

For anyone still undecided about what's happening to what might be the most important fishery to the Mid-Atlantic States, read the reports of a non sponsor, probably the best charter boat captain in the state, and carefully read his reports. As predicted, the July full moon brought in a new wave or body of fish. It always has and always will. Problem is there are very few fish over 18". The regulations in this fishery over the last two decades have killed off the mega breeders of this stock and those same regulation will cause an acceleration of that decline going forward. Fish are being caught in good numbers by people in the know, fish over 18" which on average are 4 year old age class females or 6 year old age class males are being removed from the stock at an alarming and accelerated rate while younger age classes are being killed in the process. There's no winning result with that trend.

Fishing will remain sketchy until the next wave arrives during the August full moon, which will be the last wave migrating west, and water temperatures aren't going to make a difference one bit and the mix of age classes won't change so there might be a slight uptick but it won't be of significance and 2024 will go down as the worst fluke season since the late 80's / early 90's. September, the fish as always will school up in highly concentrated schools and start their easterly migration and the commercials again will kill massive amounts of younger age classes in the process of harvesting the few remaining older age classes meaning the spawn as always will be annihilated, recruitment levels will fall far short of historical levels and discard mortality will run at rates greater than 100% of harvest. We're staring at the tail end of a dying fishery.

[TwoDDs]

Originally Posted by Broad Bill

For anyone still undecided about what's happening to what might be the most important fishery to the Mid-Atlantic States, read the reports of a non sponsor, probably the best charter boat captain in the state, and carefully read his reports. As predicted, the July full moon brought in a new wave or body of fish. It always has and always will. Problem is there are very few fish over 18". The regulations in this fishery over the last two decades have killed off the mega breeders of this stock and those same regulation will cause an acceleration of that decline going forward. Fish are being caught in good numbers by people in the know, fish over 18" which on average are 4 year old age class females or 6 year old age class males are being removed from the stock at an alarming and accelerated rate while younger age classes are being killed in the process. There's no winning result with that trend.

Fishing will remain sketchy until the next wave arrives during the August full moon, which will be the last wave migrating west, and water temperatures aren't going to make a difference one bit and the mix of age classes won't change so there might be a slight uptick but it won't be of significance and 2024 will go down as the worst fluke season since the late 80's / early 90's. September, the fish as always will school up in highly concentrated schools and start their easterly migration and the commercials again will kill massive amounts of younger age classes in the process of harvesting the few remaining older age classes meaning the spawn as always will be annihilated, recruitment levels will fall far short of historical levels and discard mortality will run at rates greater than 100% of harvest. We're staring at the tail end of a dying fishery.

Until the Recreational sector initiates a lawsuit against the Secretary of Commerce, NOAA and NMFS, challenging the disparity of allocations, size limits, etc., nothing will change.
To my knowledge, that has never happened.

I personally agree, that we're staring at the tail end of another dying fishery.

[dales529]

Originally Posted by TwoDDs

Until the Recreational sector initiates a lawsuit against the Secretary of Commerce, NOAA and NMFS, challenging the disparity of allocations, size limits, etc., nothing will change.
To my knowledge, that has never happened.

I personally agree, that we're staring at the tail end of another dying fishery.

Here you go. Probably the first of many. Not sure where it goes on legality but they are trying.
https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/s...constitutional

[Broad Bill]

Any time we see drastic changes in regulations in a fishery, it means the regulations in place in the preceding years leading to those cuts where completely ineffective. This year's fluke, last year's stripers, makos, bluefish and certainly an 80% decrease in gag grouper etc. translated means the management bodies responsible for these fisheries were implementing completely failed regulations. With the resources they have available, you have to wonder how that's possible if they know what they're doing. If any of us owned a business and one year you announced you had to cut your work force by 80%, the first question would be what the hell happened, what caused it and why didn't anyone see it coming and react to it sooner. Then they'd fire the entire management team.

Has anyone been told why the commercial quota for fluke was changed from 15.3 million pounds to 8.7 million or why recreational quotas were slashed and why the agencies responsible for managing it had to make that drastic a cut? I wasn't but I believe the fishing results we're seeing now are the answer to that question which is we've decimated the spawning stock of this fishery with brutal policy decisions and the disastrous consequences of those decisions are now becoming a reality which is we've destroyed the recruitment capability of this stock when the regulation targeted the mega breeders and were killing millions of juvenile and younger age class fish in the process. Good luck finding keepers in this environment. This fishery is in trouble while politicians and management morons sit by stroking their egos and making decisions based on what's best for their pockets or the states they represent and not based on what's needed to save the fishery.

[hartattack]

If you fish NY waters please be aware that minimum size increases from 19" to 19.5" beginning Aug 2

[TwoDDs]

Originally Posted by dales529

Here you go. Probably the first of many. Not sure where it goes on legality but they are trying.
https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/s...constitutional

Thanks.
The plaintiffs referenced in this article seem to be commercials.