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Zach,
1st of all let me point out that I am NOT a regulator. what I am is an interface between the fishermen (all fishermen both commercial and recreational) and the regulators. I represent you before the councils and the commision. That's the reason I'm looking for imput from folks who have solutions to offer but may not have the time to appear at meetings.
As far as my opinions go, I don't like IFQs. They concentrate the fishery into the hands of big player with bog boats and squeeze the little guys out. That's been demonstrated time and again in the Pacific Northwest fisheries that have adopted IFQs.
I would prefer to keep the dragger portion of the commercial fluke fleet on the offshore grounds during the winter and keep the inhores fish during the summer for the hook and line commercials and the recreational fishermen. Draggers create havoc with all of the inshore species and the other fishermen that target them when they are dragging inshore during the warm weather. But I have to keep in mind that the vast majority of the fluke draggers are state licensed boats that can't fish in federal waters. IIRC there are only about 1,500 federally permitted boats in the fluke fishery. So the states are going to have to allow some dragging inshore when the fish are available or put those state licensed boats out of the fluke business.
A slot limit for recreational fluke fishermen is unnecessary and unwaranted. It would dramatically increase the numbers of fish killed by the recreational sector, since there would be a lot more keepers. This would have to translate into draconian bag limits to keep the catch within the quota. A bag limit of one fish a day would be equally unpalatable to private boaters and party/charter operators. Plus it would do nothing for the fish. Fluke begin to breed at about 14-15 inches so cacthing 19 or 20 inch fish does not materially affect the breeding biomass. If an when we reach the target biomass under the rebuilding plan we should see size limits start coming back down as well as possible increases in the bag limits, but until we get there we have to live within the quotas dictated by the rebuilding plan.
There is no way on God's green earth that the government should or will get involved in setting a price for the fish. If they did try to, it would IMHO be an unmitigated disaster. Let the market set the price. Of course that means that jumbos will always pay more than smalls but I don't think hi-grading is all that big a problem. No fisherman in his right mind is going to shovel money over the side in the hopes that the next tow will produce more money. I suspect that the only hi-grading that takes place is at the end of the trip, when they might be over the trip limit and they throw back the smalls and keep the jumbos. Cetainly not so big a problem that we should have the government step into the marketplace with all kinds of unintended consequences should they not get the price right, like huge increases in imported product.
Thinning the "commercial herd" isn't really necessary, as long as we can fish within the quota and reduce the regulatory discards. It really doesn't make a difference if one hundred or one thousand boats fill the quota. But the key is reducing regulatory discards, which are spurred by lots of (state licensed) boats and the resulting low trip limits. But I would note here that there is a fine line in setting trip limits. MA has relatively high trip limits during the summer, high enough to make it worthwhile for a dragger to target fluke. Most of the other states have much lower trip limits, like 50 or 100 pounds, not enough to make it worthwhile for a dragger to untie from the dock. This allows the bycatch from the boats targeting other species. like squid, to be sold and avoids wasting it. Maybe part of the solution to reduce regulatory discards is for states like MA to reduce their trip limts to 50 or 100 pounds. That's not a solution that the MA draggers are going to like and as I write this the RI draggers are doing everything they can to increase their trip limits.
I could go on and on, but I don't have the time right now. If I see you at the RIMFAC meeting next Monday, I'll buy you a beer afterward and we can kick it around some more.
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