[Gerry Zagorski]

Originally Posted by Broad Bill

I'll never understand how these morons can say they're actually managing fisheries. The striper fishery, for the large part, is in a free fall decline just like fluke for the exact same reasons yet NMFS, ASMFC and MAFMC focus on quota cuts while doing nothing to address the recruitment problem. The Chesapeake, which supports 70% - 90% of coast wide recruitment, has seen continuous deteriorating water quality over the years for multiple reasons, the striper recruitment solution is a 15% cut in quotas! Really, what genius came up with that proposal? Historically low recruitment for six years means the fishery is dying. Address the cause of the problem, not the result. These agencies are pathetically inept doing their job and arguably the two most important stocks on the eastern seaboard, stripers and fluke, are paying the price. Send &$#&@/! Omega Protein packing back to Canada. Let USA commercial netters net bunker responsibly in the ocean and sell them to the Canadian salmon farms.

Close the Chesapeake to netting of bunker permanently and do whatever needs to be done to manage the bay back to health. And then close the GD fluke season to commercials in September through October and the stocks will take care of themselves. 15% reduction, does anyone believe that'll change anything. That's on the heels of a 42% reduction for fluke for 2024 and 2025 which will also do nothing as evidence by this past fluke season being one of the worst in recent memory. At least in the striped Bass fishery, management has finally woken up and protected the large breeders. In the fluke fishery the regulations mandate the harvest of the larger breeders which is arguably one of the most asinine management philosophies they could have adopted. Regulations that target the harvest of the breeding population, kill hundreds of thousands of prime breeders during the offshore migration and multiple trillions of eggs in the process. And these *******s are ultimately responsible for the fate of these fisheries.

The recreational sector, ASA or all the Mid-Atlantic and Gulf of Maine states need to file a class action law suit against NMFS for complete mismanagement of these two stocks. They're literally killing these fisheries and the only thing that will change that is a court order to clean up Chesapeake Bay, kick Omega protein the f*** out and stop the commercial sector from harvesting any stock during its spawn which is the primary cause the fluke fishery is in the toilet. If ASA continues to keep their head in the sand, find out what primary manufacturers fund them through excise taxes from recreational spending and boycott those products until they get the message and support the recreational sector and stocks. There's a lot of quality knock offs out there. Virginia and Maryland politicians should be taken to court for their roles destroying not just multiple fisheries but the Chesapeake Bay itself and economic benefits of the striper fishery throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Gulf of Maine states. Two states, Maryland and Virginia, can't be allowed to benefit from the socio and economic benefits of a stock at the expense of eight other states that make up that stocks migration range. If that's the case, stop North Carolina and Virginia netters from coming up and destroying the summer flounder population in local waters during the winter.

Don't hold back Bill and let us know how your really feel

All valid points and it seems every fishery they "manage" gets worse, not better!