Kudos to Jim White

[Chesapeake Bill]

John,

You are right. Scaling back on all fisheries is the way to go. My point was that MD could reduce the limits and mandate circle hooks for live lining and thus reduce mortality. This increases the number of fish that make it to the ocean--hence an increase in the smaller sizes. In the summer we catch a ton of 19-28" fish.

I'm all for reducing the commercial catch as well. If we could reduce teh nets here in MD I'm for that as well.

[Sea Flat]

I say 1@36" too. There are a lot of 30" fish out there that could have a chance to spawn before being taken. The average recreational fisherman is not going to catch many, if any, fish over 36". That would more than cut the recreational angler take in half and then they can follow suit by making the commercial take half of what it currently is too.

But, this is all a moot point unless the ASFMC reduces the take. How they can ignore current catch numbers and the fact that the commercial quota was not even reached last year is ridiculous.