Public meetings and fisheries management are like oil and water. They're required to be had but you're never given enough time to speak, the audience your speaking to isn't interested in what's being said, in many cases they know less about the fishery than the attendees and if you say something they don't want to hear you risk being escorted from the meeting.

Big government could care less about public input. Sounds harsh but it's been proven over and over. It's a legislative requirements that factors zero into final regulatory decisions.

It saddens me to make this post but how many times do we have to be misled into attending a public meeting for input, how many times has ASMFC and MAFMC made greater transparency with the public a key strategic goals all for decisions to repeatedly be made without any consideration and in most cases contrary to the public's input, both from the recreational and commercial sectors. If you're going to ignore valuable input and contribution from people who actually spend time on the water, don't insult them or waste their time asking to attend public sessions if you have no intention of valuing their input or incorporating them into policy decisions. Truthfully it's a disgraceful and insulting part of the process.