|
Mike,
There is a meeting Jan, 20th in Gloucester. I believe that qualifies as the North Shore. Nice turnout at Buzzards Bay tonight. Quite a bit of non striper stuff, but key was the charter boat striper stuff. One charter captain says they need 2 to compete with RI if RI goes to 2 but the rest of the crowd was clearly in the 1 at 28 corner. Just because RI tries to go to 2 is not a reason for MA to do it, also most other states are at 1 for their charters already, even VA and NC.
Lots of MSBA guys that I knew were there (for 1@28) also a good number of Cape Cod Salties (all for 1@ 28 it appears). Slipknot and a few others from SB.Com too. Captain Dave Peros a charter guide from Monument Beach spoke and he definitely is in the 1@28 corner. He reminded the Marine fisheries that the vast majority of public comments to ASMFC in the fall were in favor of 1@28, 1@30 or 1@32. Patrick Paquette got his MSBA points across too about going far enough now so we don't lose to seasonal closures in future. 0ne rule at 1@28 would be easiest to enforce too which was mentioned by crowd and Fisheries management team as well.
All public comments must be submitted by 1/23/15 to the division of marine fisheries. They do review and tabulate the responses so there is time to be heard. Let's give them the ammunition they need to go at 1@28 across the board for recreation and charters. Rather be safe then sorry because of not going far enough now then have it worse in 3 years (with shortened season?) as this only has a 50% chance of success as it is.
A good meeting with good crowd input and a good job by Paul Diodoti and team to gather information.
Bill
|