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I love fluke but I fell asleep reading this long-winded albeit informative article. This should not be that complicated. It is a small flat fish that the masses enjoy catching and eating. We followed the rules to our own demise I guess it the conclusion. So the rules were f'ed up and now we all pay...I ask you, are you really surprised at this? Look at the way they count how many rec fish we take, this is an absurd and error prone approach. But they keep on keeping on….Further, to make laws governing the fishing limits based on these extrapolated results is utterly moronic IMO.
Frankly I don't understand exactly what the goal is of "management" really is and I KNOW they have demonstrated they don't know what they are doing time and time again. It is all a bunch of crap. They have been trying to re-build codfish for 25 years and they still suck at it. You cannot allow commercial fishing to the extent they do and expect any improvements in the fishery. They keep patting themselves on the back for saving the SB, BUT THEY DIDN’T DO JACKSH*T! It was SHUT DOWN for a decade, with clean up of coastal run off problems that allowed the SB to recover, IT WAS BECAUSE OF THEIR MANAGEMENT THAT THE SB GOT INTO TROUBLE IN THE FIRST PLACE!!! They caused the friggin problem!!!!!!!!!! But somehow it was morphed and spun they they saved the fish. THE FISH WOULD NOT NEED THEIR SAVING IF THEY WERE DOING THEIR JOB IN THE FIRST PLACE.
I follow the rules but I have NO FAITH WHATSOEVER in the ability of this regions fishery management. They just muck it up.
Dogfish in trouble...give me a friggin break
Tuna regs...totally screwed up esp when you look at what is done overseas and what is done here.
SB bycatch dumping and high grading....plenty of photos but they refuse to admit it goes on don't account for the catch as a commercial catch.
forage fish...too little too late (this should be the fishery managements slogan)
Taking breeder cod off Boston each fall. How can you expect to rebuild a fishery when you take these ripe fish during the breeding cycle no less? You can walk across the boats out there for gods sake and it is a small area. Shut it down, all together, everything for 10 years, then regulate it carefully, that is what it will take IMO.
Scup, weakfish, tog, winter flounder….The list is endless they are a bunch of overpaid idiots without a plan and poor communication skills.
IMO the "user group" theory is what doomed the success of fishery management. There are fish and fishermen. That’s it. There is economic benefit (and personal enjoyment) to the masses and there is economic benefit to the few, end of story. Regulate what is best for society based on that, not some political pressure to keep a "tradition" going that was a bad idea to begin with. It really pisses me off when I hear the Director talk about a fishery that is a tradition and that is why we keep it. WRONG, do what is right! Tradition is being used as a political spin tactic to avoid changing the status quo. Rod and reel SB fishing in MA is the perfect example.
end of rant
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