Quote:
Originally Posted by Slick Moedee
From a international perspective, nothing.
However, if the trend of the past few years continunes into 2010, the fish we have been seeing will be crossing over into the comm size classes. Thus, the rec landings will need to be reigned in as the comm will start to land more fish and use its quota.
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There's no guarantee that the current year-class we see such an abundance of will keep coming back. With issues of trawlers taking all the herring and Omega vacuuming all the menhaden, I can't imagine there is enough bait to hold the massive class of fish here when they get to that size.
Filling the commercial quota has always been an issue and the regulations can be changed at any time. One comment that has been made here quite frequently is that if we (as in the US) keep failing at filling the quota, then it will go somewhere else. With that in mind, the rec limits should stay the same until science determines them unsustainable due to the commercial sector actually filling their quota. If the commercial quota is getting filled rapidly, along with the rec quota, they can shut it down.
Once these fish get to the commercial size, a lot of recreation tuna guys will probably never be geared up, nor have the boats, to stay in the game.
One of the big buzz phrases thrown around during the striper gamefish status proposal was "Shared Resource". Well, it goes both ways. If commercial SB shouldn't be shut down because it's a shared resource, neither should recreational tuna.