Fishing Communities in Dire Trouble!!

[stevelikes2fish]

Thank you Captain for the above article. It's being shared on social media as we talk here. When we ALL unite and take a stand, then maybe heads will turn. It will take 100% participation of this great forum. We need to get organized. It is time to fight back!!!

[Reel Class]

Great post Bob. I'm sharing this also.

[hammer4reel]

Thinking there are another four or five not on that list gone from AH area.

Definetly shows how harsh the last few decades have been on the fishing industry here .

Other states don't have to feed others like our resources here do nationwide .
I think if you want the benefits of what comes off our shorelines you should have to live here .

Don't see Colorado and other western States sending us their elk etc.
So don't see why we have to give up our great resources for all the other states that we should be enjoying for living here

[pectoralfin]

Black Sea Bass-Commercial quota increased 50%. Recreational decreased about 8%

Bluefish- If we don't catch our quota, "Transfers from the recreational sector to the commercial are allowed in the FMP as a means to avoid drastic fluctuations in the commercial fishery quotas. However, these transfers are only made if they do not adversely impact the recreational fishery."

And more cuts to come!!!

[Capt. Debbie]

A great post with a staggering difference.

Problem is to prove stats you need a history every 10 years. 1976, 1986, 1996.etc. That shows what is normal and what Magnuson did. Tremendous amount of work. Capt Bob obviously did a tremendous amount of research to gather all this too.

When I first started fishing in then 60's almost all the boats save the Fisherman are gone before Magnuson. Delmar, Lazy Bones, Palace, LB Fishing Pier, etc. Businesses evolve and shrink too.

The PB's obviously work from fares received. People pay the fares. The rest are reasons why the number of fares (people fishing) go up and go down.

I'm not sure I would fish more often if fluke regulations were for 10 fish at 14 inches. Or weakfish were 10 fish at 10 inches. Usually the season open/ close dates dictates me going or not. Would we stop fishing if it were like NYS was 2 fluke at 20 inches? I would not. I guess some might.

Often motivation to fish is you like the sport and the day out and away. Not necessarily a home caught dinner awaits. Of course that's nice too.

Remember the old saying: even a bad day of fishing is better than a GOOD day at work? I think season open /close dates drive fishing more so than how big and how many I can keep.

Again, it a lot of parsing things out. Capt Bob did a GREAT JOB!

[Gerry Zagorski]

Great post Bob and it certainly puts things in perspective with facts to back it up.

Magnuson needs to be reformed for any long term relief or we are going to be fighting for scraps like we find ourselves doing every year.

[Hunter 2]

Thanks for the informative post Captain.

[reason162]

Correlation doesn't necessarily = causation.

Fewer people fish today, and the reasons are myriad. But feel free to satisfy your confirmation bias in w/e piece of data you come across.

[GDubya07]

Great post and information

It is a shame what is going on

GDubs-

[dfish28]

One of the best correlative posts I've seen on these topics, thank you Captain for taking the time to put this out there on "paper", now we just need a set of eyes from the right place to read it, maybe need a Washington D.C. Fishing.com to get interest, hopefully we can say "in time, this too shall pass"