[Broad Bill]

Here's the irony of a brutal process. In 2021, regs were 3 fish at 18" and a 121 day season. That didn't work, so we switched to the regs of the last 2 years with two paper thin slots between 17" and 18" and one fish over 18" with a season length of 149 days. Still a 3 fish bag limit. That didn't work leading to a supposed 28% reduction in quota. So now the solution is to revert back to the regulations that didn't work in 2021 of three fish at 18 but instead of 149 days we're dropping it by a whopping four days to 145 and believe essentially the same regulations that didn't work in 2021 will now miraculously work in 2024 and 2025 and lead to an almost 30% reduction in quota.

Everyone wants longer season which many have said on this site will be used against the sector in future regulations because it increases fishing effort and mortality. Others have said they don't want short seasons because once you give in to a short season you'll never get those days back. That's the dilemma of regulations and why we live through these discussions every year and nothing changes because not one thing about any of this focuses on issues impacting the stock. In 2018, we said enough is enough and doing the same thing over and over again with the same or worse results is the definition of insanity. That's exactly what we're doing again by reverting back to 2021 regulations which didn't work then and now we're expected to believe will work over the next two years. Why?

Continue killing breeders and sexually mature fish, get penalized in landings and mortality rates associated with longer seasons while commercial fisheries continue to mop up the ocean targeting the breeding population and killing tens of millions of juvenile fish in the process. All management is doing is reshuffling the deck and there'll be a day when this philosophy catches up with them, us and the fishery. We're almost there now. No one likes doom and gloom predictions but continuing to use the same regulations that failed the fishery in past years makes sense why?

When the green hulled boat was having historic trips working a concentrated school in the fall last year until it got too far offshore, how many of the fish in those schools are going to get whipped out when the commercials find them before they have an opportunity to drop their eggs. Target breeders both recreationally and commercially, kill tens of millions of juveniles in the process and commercially pound the stock during the spawn, truthfully who cares what the regulations end up being. Our government and the regulatory bodies in charge of managing this stock have turned their back on the recreational angler and this fishery so choosing which bread crumbs option we want doesn't seem a priority when the stock is being mismanaged into the ground.