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The pressure is off the ASMFC after this recent YOY bonanza.
Although the current female spawning stock is dropping fast, in several years a new influx will be coming and they can probably squeak by without hitting their mandatory cutback level.
Trouble is that the quality of the fishery is going to drop seriously, at least for larger (say 20lb) fish for about a decade.
For those that target larger fish, the fish we that we have now, are what we are going to be fishing on for the next 8-10 years. Still, since the current fish have now produced a saving year class, they are expendable as far as the ASMFC is concerned.
Sadly, current regulations have taken a tremendous toll on the good year classes of the early 2000's. Continuing those same regulations on the meager classes that are out there now seems destined to deplete them and leave us with a fishery composed primarily of small fish from this year's class (with a limited remnant of true trophy fish from the last good year class) during the later half of this decade.
Bottom line is that the quality of the recreational fishery is not a management goal of the ASMFC. This decision is an expected result once this year's YOY came back so promising.
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