Smoke this!

[Mr. Sandman]

George,

Thanks for this post. I have been critical of the DFM and their ability to manage any fish and in particular using rear-view mirror and selective data approaches to justify legislation to appease their commercial interests.

This is EXACTLY what I mean...yeah no one is catching much of anything, the fish are sick, predation (from other species like seals) are up, forage fish populations are in the crapper, actual catch numbers and mean sizes are down (from a number of sources) and despite what he said YOY index is NOT strong it is pretty weak, don't forget they changed the way YOY index is computed SO if they used the older method (which was used for many years prior ) we would be well under the threshold, it is only with this new model that things appear healthy.

All this is being ignored.

THIS is why the gamefish bill is important, it takes DMF OUT OF THE LOOP. These guys are a bunch of fools who have not helped out fishery but help destroy it.

The main reason they are saying this is to protect their OWN interest...their job.

Bottom line: IF YOU WAIT UNTIL YOU SEE DISASTER CATCH RESULTS IT WILL BE TOO LATE TO DO ANYTHING! It would be better to trim the take BEFOR we get into a bad situation.

WTF??? How stupid are these people?

[numbskull]

While we are at it, SOMEBODY PLEASE EXPLAIN THIS TO US GUYS WHO ARE TOO STUPID TO FIGURE IT OUT ON OUR OWN

The recreational catch/release and catch/keep has decreased 3 fold since 2006, yet the commercial take is steady (only because an increase was turned down by 1 effing vote). Yet I keep seeing the same pie chart over and over showing that recreational fisherman kill 4x what commercial fisherman kill. HOW CAN THAT BE if the recreational catch is 1/3 of what it was and the commercial catch has not changed? For that ratio to stay the same the commercial catch needs to be REDUCED by 2/3. SO WHY ISN'T IT ?

[Nebe]

Originally Posted by numbskull

While we are at it, SOMEBODY PLEASE EXPLAIN THIS TO US GUYS WHO ARE TOO STUPID TO FIGURE IT OUT ON OUR OWN

The recreational catch/release and catch/keep has decreased 3 fold since 2006, yet the commercial take is steady (only because an increase was turned down by 1 effing vote). Yet I keep seeing the same pie chart over and over showing that recreational fisherman kill 4x what commercial fisherman kill. HOW CAN THAT BE if the recreational catch is 1/3 of what it was and the commercial catch has not changed? For that ratio to stay the same the commercial catch needs to be REDUCED by 2/3. SO WHY ISN'T IT ?

I have no personal knowedge to back this up, but the reason that the catch numbers in mass commercial sector has not changed is that it is a poundage limit. What I am getting at is that I am certian that the time frame to land that allotted poundage took longer to achieve last year than it did in years past. for example 5 years ago, the season could have been open for 2 weeks to reach the limit, but last year it could have been open for a month or longer.

[MakoMike]

Originally Posted by numbskull

While we are at it, SOMEBODY PLEASE EXPLAIN THIS TO US GUYS WHO ARE TOO STUPID TO FIGURE IT OUT ON OUR OWN

The recreational catch/release and catch/keep has decreased 3 fold since 2006, yet the commercial take is steady (only because an increase was turned down by 1 effing vote). Yet I keep seeing the same pie chart over and over showing that recreational fisherman kill 4x what commercial fisherman kill. HOW CAN THAT BE if the recreational catch is 1/3 of what it was and the commercial catch has not changed? For that ratio to stay the same the commercial catch needs to be REDUCED by 2/3. SO WHY ISN'T IT ?

I don't know what chart you are looking at, but it has to be for a specific period and a specific geography. On the entire Atlantic coast the amount of fish killed by recreational fishermen has gone from about 90% some years ago to 80% today. Also the commercial take has not been steady, the commercials didn't get a quota increase until well into the 1990s striper boom years.