Action Needed Fluke Sea Bass and Scup

ttt. Gerry any updates from your post last week regarding developments in the summer flounder fishery. Again in my opinion, the quotas set coming out of December's joint meeting are the highest I believe for both the commercial and recreational sector at minimum over the last two decades at a period of time when the fishery based on the latest stock assessment shows the stock declining at a rate not seen since the eighties. And the preferred measure (regulations) for the recreational sector haven't really changed from prior years which means size minimums once again will constrain harvest recreationally as always, meaning increased recreational quotas will most likely never be realized even though I'd suspect miraculously the numbers for 2022 when published will say otherwise.

Again management is not addressing the problems facing the fishery, this is more smoke and mirrors than management. Nothing was discussed or changed to address a failing spawning stock, a failing mature female population, unimaginable discard rates, a slot fish, lower size minimums, historically poor recruitment levels, protection of the spawn or a plan to transition the fishery in general to the harvest of more sexually immature fish, a higher percentage males, from the current harvest composition which involves exclusively sexually mature fish with a very high percentage females.

It's unconscionable, in light of recent stock assessments, these were the decisions coming out of that meeting which will only intensify the existing problems facing todays stock.

I hope you have some updates, as mentioned last week, that provide a degree of hope that changes are in the works to address this absolute calamity of errors.

Thanks....Tom