Quote:
Originally Posted by keeperreaper
Patrick,
Do you still have that science and data pool from Maine? I'd like to see it. Seems very interesting. I agree with you that 2 @ 28" will be the law. Personally I'd like to see 1 @36" or greater.
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KR...I made a call and cnfirmed a few real numbers jst for you....
In 1997 the State of Maine went from a 33" Minimum Size Limit to the 20-26" Slot. The MRFSS estimates of "Harvest" or "what is kept by anglers" tracked a rise of 1900% and just to make sure no one gets it wrong, the estimate indicated that anglers kept 19 times the number of fish under the slot than the 33" limit. The raw data was 2000 fish kept the last year of 33" and 35000 fish kept (rounded numbers) in the first year of the slot.
Now I must acknowledge that MRFSS has issues but scientists pretty much agree that the issues are with Magnitude (amount of fish) and not percentages such as is estimated in this case.
Bottom line is that if we went to the SF slot in MA the only way the proposed slot will be made to be in compliance with the managment plan is for MA to go to some sort of very short season.
The effects of the slot on future year classes due to huge reoval of pre spawn fish etc need work but all agree the model is frightening.
The SF plan will not work with MA numbers
I think the 1 @ 28 is the right number and I hope we go back to it...I predict this wil happe next year after we get the final poor news on the current concerns with the stock confirmed.
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