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John,
I hope to get writen comments in on the dockside sales thing by the meeting, but I'm leaving for Geroge's bank tomorrow, so it might not be possible. As far as dockside sale goes, I have no problme with the guys selling crabs and lobsters, but I have a big problem with finfish. It is illegal (under Federal law)for any federally permitteed vessel to commercialize fish caught on a recreational trip. This means that, unless they did special commercial trips, any party boat would be unable to legally sell fish. Same goes for charter boats. I am concerned that the finfish provisions, as currently written would facilitate this iollegal activity.
As far as the herring goes I think the rules should be strictly enforced. Twelve fish is the possession limit, so twelve should be the max allowable in any pen. Frankly I'd like to see them shut the entire herring fishery for a couple of years to give the fish time to recover. I hear from DEM that almost all of the fish in the runs this year are first time spawners.
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