Now they want my Haddock too?

[tomytuna]

Learned at meeting last night that there is effort to ruduce the "bag limit " on recreational anglers for Haddock. That's right. Looking to limit you/me charter passangers etc to 7 fish. No problem for midwater pair trawlers to dump tons overboard when they screw up, but don't you dare take more then 7 fish....WTF.

Anyone who cares should attend/comment at next meeting.. regards Tommy

[Charlie Wade]

Can someone explain how they determined that recs exceeded the quota? Dockside surveys and extrapolation? What a joke! The initial recommendation to increase the min. size 2" would have addressed the need to reduce pressure on the stock. Lowering the bag limit will only hurt individual anglers and the charter/headboat guys.

[tomytuna]

Meeting is this Wed. 16th in Rhode Island. Anyone going? anyone care?

[HeavyDuty]

yeah, you guys should be able to charter a boat and go out and take all you can catch....while every commercial boat in the northeast is fishing under a hard TAC. the commercial fleet has taken drastic cuts in days at sea and quota shares yet you should still be able to take all you can...........and you are recreational....hmmmmm really hard to put my finger on the problem

[tuna3]

Not to mention they are all fishing in the GOM closed area that commercial fisherman haven't had access to in years. Sounds like if I was a part of the rec fleet I would just keep my mouth shut instead of raising a big stink, you might just end up having to fish under the same rules as the commercial fisherman......Oh no I can't come home with 4 boxes of fillets anymore!!! you guys are ridiculous

[tomytuna]

Tuna and hea. the quota I work under is the small portion that is allowed to the rec. fisherman. No? I have never been able to take that large amount of fish/fillets you suggest. If this small percentage of TAC is allowed to us, what is your problem if I don't want to limit my clients to only 7? I do not sell my fish. The TOTAL quota for me and others comes out of the recreational side. not the commercial side. So what is your problem?

[Charlie Wade]

In order to fish in the WGOM year-round closed area, a charter boat needs to have an exemption certificate from NMFS for the current year. One of the restrictions of that certificate prevents the boat from selling ANY fish (tuna excepted), regardless of where they're caught. That means the charter guy who takes sports groundfishing in the WGOM area can't even fish in the state regulated comm. striper season. Figure that one out... you can't even target stripers beyond the 3, but if you carry the certificate you still can't participate in a STATE regulated commerical fishery.

Tommy's right -- for the most part charter boats are not and cannot sell fish. The only source of income comes from being a vessel for hire. The point here is that by implementing a bag limit, the number of people willing to plunk down the day rate to go fishing will decline. Smaller market = smaller revenues = fewer fishermen left in business = happy Lubchenco.

[FullStrikeAngler]

Yesterday, the NEFMC rejected the RAP recommendation of an increase in minimum size to 20" for haddock and instead approved a bag lmit of 7 haddock per person. Tough times ahead for recreational fisherman in 2012 especially if they reduce the bag limit on cod which is being discussed as well.

[codfishshark]

Yesterday, the NEFMC rejected the RAP recommendation of an increase in minimum size to 20" for haddock and instead approved a bag lmit of 7 haddock per person. Tough times ahead for recreational fisherman in 2012 especially if they reduce the bag limit on cod which is being discussed as well.

Tough times?????? Give me a break. How about getting shut down for months on end and not being able to produce a paycheck for the winter?? Or being young and ambitious trying to make it as a commercial fisherman to find permits have increased 1000% percent over a year and are no longer and option to buy.

[Charlie Wade]

"...shut down for months on end..."??? The current regs have the cod shut down for half the year -- from Oct. 31 to mid April. The new regs look to be even worse with a two month season and enormous bag limit reductions if what I heard was accurate. I don't know of many charter guys in this part of the country who are making much money fishing during the fall/winter.

Look, this IS NOT about comm VS rec/charter, this is about fishermen of all stripes against a government armed with the worse kind of "pseudo science" hell bent on putting as many of us out of business as they can.