Fluke and NMFS

[Bluewater Sportfishing]

here are a few other things to consider also.
the amount of seafood that the american people eat has gone through the roof in the past ten years. sushi bars are on almost every corner in a city block. What this demand means is the commercial boats became alot more efficant in thier netting and dragging. double pair trawlers need to be stopped. nmfs needs to do this. these trawl boats can and do wipe out the complete entire school of fish in one pass. the fish cannot sustain this pressure. a purse seine will circle the school but at least 1/3 of the school is left. When I say school I mean a school of thousands of metric tons( a metric ton is 2200lbs) there are too many boats fishing thus there have been govt byouts to get the smaller boats out but give the quota to the corp that baught out the other boat. rob..you brought up the nmfs is now going to lower the the flounder to 14 for the commercial draggers. we all know that will only hurt the problem and not fix it. that is what nmfs is famous for. but on their behalf..the are almost gaurented to be getting major pressure from the big corporations.where do you think they get the funding money for their research? Other problems include commercial fishermen try to set the market. be the first one in to get the big money for their catch. problem with that is the last one in knows the market price is going to be low so they then need to catch more to make a little money.. that is wrong and we can blame our hunger of seafood for that. The govt also trades quota with Foreign countries for other goods and services...thats a public resource that they are giving away. the unused quota from this years GBT fishery down south went to mexico if I'm not mistaken.

there is so much going on that we are not aware of because we are not at the meetings. I reason why we dont go is we all have day jobs that would require us to take a day off from work. the meetings are also geared for the commercial fishermen and realy have no bearing on us. what we can do is go to the mettings and protest the quotas and research methods they use.
there are almost 5000 members on this board and coutless lurkers that if, by some small miracle all showed up we would have a voice the public meetings are all up for the public to see and know when they are its just getting everyone there!!

[Deep C]

I'm not saying take em to court... Yet... Let them know though that you are willing to go that way though... Thats what sets up many of the really dopey rules they set in place like the circles in billfishing... That was direct of a suit by bunny huggers... Sad but it seems thats what it takes sometimes...

[gottaflylee]

This is a direct quote from the article.
"I personally question the accuracy of the numbers, but that's what they are working with,"

I feel that this is most of the problem that NMFS has. They can't collect data properly.
That has been what I have found to be true with my dealings with them. This will make some of you mad but then you get some half a$$ org. like CCA involved in something... they will take the data and twist it around so bad you couldn't un twist it if you had to. I hate it when people from instate thinks they know what is better for our fisheries and water than people who lives there & makes a living from it. I really thought that the Saltwater fishing license would be great for NC but now I think in 5 years after it goes into effect that commercial fishing in NC will be a thing of the past. Ok CCA fans bash away...I can take if. At one time I was on your side but now...

[MakoMike]

Guys,
Just FYI the commercial fluke size limit has always been at 14 inches as long as I can remember.