North Carolina 2024 fluke season:

[hammer4reel]

Originally Posted by reason162

Draggers, yes. But also northward movement of the biomass, along with seabass and probably every other species due to climate change.

That movement is partially irrelevant , because those NC boats destroyed their biomass , and now fish as far as Massachusetts to continue their landings back in NC .

If they can’t catch those landings in their waters , they shouldn’t be still getting such a high weekly quota .

Even while it was lowered from 30k to 15k a week , when they fish our waters here they can still keep on average 5 times more a week than our commercial fleet here can

[Broad Bill]

Originally Posted by hammer4reel

That movement is partially irrelevant , because those NC boats destroyed their biomass , and now fish as far as Massachusetts to continue their landings back in NC .

If they can’t catch those landings in their waters , they shouldn’t be still getting such a high weekly quota .

Even while it was lowered from 30k to 15k a week , when they fish our waters here they can still keep on average 5 times more a week than our commercial fleet here can

Virginia protects their Chesapeake bunker harvest at the expense of all other states. NC protects the harvest of all species including stripers at the expense of all states. Why are Mid-Atlantic States not afforded the same benefits for a biomass which primarily stages off our coast. NC's quota should be changed but you know there's money being moved around behind the scenes preventing that from happening. A few years ago, NY sued for this exact point, not sure what the outcome was. Commercial quotas are still being set based on harvest statistics from 40 years ago and as always there's more focus on commercial harvest and the allocation between states than their is on the health of the stocks themselves. Fisheries management equals $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. We want it to change, changes need to be made at the top and the management of stocks needs to be removed from the Department of Commerce as I've been saying for years. Does anyone hear think Gina Raimondo, Secretary of Commerce, gives a rats ass about the recreational angler or the health of fisheries? It's all about economic impacts. The ocean's fisheries are the last gold rush on the planet involving natural resources.

[reason162]

Originally Posted by Broad Bill

Ask those same anglers how many cod, pollack, winter flounder, mackerel and haddock they're catching today versus 30 years ago. Why do stripers, makos, swordfish, whales, weakfish, tuna etc. still range from the Gulf of Mexico, Florida up to New England and Nova Scotia as they have for years? Why are we seeing more whiting caught this year than the last 30 years? Reverse global warming? Why did Florida see an unusual amount of gator bluefish this year? Maybe the resurgence of sea bass pushed lobsters out of their habitat. Maybe the continued destruction of habitat by commercial netting has pushed them out. Maybe black sea bass are moving because their food source is moving and the population has increased threefold and the competition for food has forced them to look elsewhere. Maybe red hake have moved because of the resurgence of commercial scallop harvest which are needed for the juveniles to survive? Point is, no one really knows for sure. Personally I believe habitat change, commercial pressure and bait displacement has more to do with shifts in biomass concentrations more than science has proven it has anything to do with global warming. Too many stocks seem unaffected. How many summers have we seen numerous reports that the fluke fishing sucked because the water temps were too cold during summer months? For every stock or species anyone can say has shifted north due to climate change, there's probably two to three species which can be argued have not changed their migratory patterns or geographic concentration in decades. Add blackfish to that list of fish which typically never change their yearly migration which was just discussed in a recent thread and their probably more sensitive to water temp changes than most fish.

Every species is affected differently based on their life/reproductive cycles and migration patterns. Anadromous fish like striped bass have to deal with a different set of climate challenges than summer flounder. GOM cod stock collapsed due to overfishing - but combined with warming waters is deemed unrecoverable despite decades-long virtual moratoriums. Ditto winter flounder. It's the 1-2 punch of overfishing + climate change that nails the coffin shut on many species, and it makes no sense to focus on one while dismissing the other if you're serious about conservation (which you are, Bill).

[reason162]

Originally Posted by hammer4reel

That movement is partially irrelevant , because those NC boats destroyed their biomass , and now fish as far as Massachusetts to continue their landings back in NC .

If they can’t catch those landings in their waters , they shouldn’t be still getting such a high weekly quota .

Even while it was lowered from 30k to 15k a week , when they fish our waters here they can still keep on average 5 times more a week than our commercial fleet here can

The word "partially" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there - at least we're lucky fluke and sea bass have a population left to shift (and room to shift to, right into our backyard).

You're pushing at an open door here re NC's obscene comm quotas.

[june181901]

Once again I'll beat the same roll on the drum. The commercials are organized and are funding lobbyists in state capitols ( in this case Raleigh) and the recreation anglers couldn't hit the floor if we fell out of bed!

[AndyS]

What is the difference between summer flounder and southern flounder?
Can You Identify North Carolina's Three Species of Flounder ...
Second, the most distinguishing feature between species is the type of spots: Southern Flounder (left) have “non-ocellated spots” on the body, whereas Summer and Gulf Flounder have ocellated or “eye” spots. In addition, Summer and Gulf Flounder each have distinctive patterns

[Capt John]

Fisheries management equals $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. We want it to change, changes need to be made at the top and the management of stock needs to be removed from the Department of Commerce as I've been saying for years.

So have I my friend, so have I.