[JohnR]

This is what cracks me up. You've got to admit that the comm groundfish guys probably did a boatload more damage to the cod & haddock stocks then any cod boat ever could or with all of the pressure possible from the rec sector. Yet these guys are saying that we are just as responsible for the crash of those fisheries? Yeh, right. Or worse, that recs should be held accountable for damage they never did. Same, same old story...

It's taking away the ball and going home on a grand scale, that's all. "I can't play there so now neither can you" That's all. Want to see the decline? This is NOAA's data for commercial landings by pounds in Mass.

1986 Commercial Cod Landings: 46 Million Pounds - 46 Million in one year in Massachucettes alone. How much could the rec sector possibly contribute to that? (Well I couldn't find out because the data wasn't on that DB)

1988: 61 Million Pounds
1990: 72 Million Pounds
1991: 62 Million Pounds
1992: 42 Million Pounds
1993: 36 Million Pounds
1994: 27 Million Pounds (Starting to see an alarming trend here - it must be that the 18 foot skiffs out of Plymouth are hammering the fish again)
1995: 21 Million Pounds
1996: 23 Million Pounds
1997: 22 Million Pounds
1998: 20 Million Pounds
1999: 18 Million Pounds
2000: 19 Million Pounds

Yeh, now I understand why the rec should pay for decimating the groundfish stocks...