[Gerry Zagorski]

Originally Posted by Broad Bill

Gerry while I respect your views and intentions, mine are different for a lot of reasons. Both fisheries should never be in the position they are today and if these "managing bodies", and I use that term loosely, were doing their jobs, we wouldn't be faced with two incredibly struggling fisheries. Everyone involved in the management of these stocks should have seen this coming a mile away and addressed it as this didn't happen over night. You have to ask yourself why that is. Decisions should be made to fix these problems today, not next year, two years from now or beyond. The same people throwing out talking points now are for the most part the same people who put us in this position to begin with and the stock, many small businesses, for hire / party boat operators including your sponsors and recreational anglers will be the ones who feel the pain. Commercial on the other hand always seem to see their catch values increase regardless of quota cuts because of basic supply and demand principles. That and these Committees and Councils protect commerce by making sure they harvest the fish with the highest market values which typically means the breeding stock of every fishery further compounding the problem.

It has to change and if it means a tea party approach so be it because 20 or more years of waiting for NMFS, ASMFC, MAFMC, ASA and all the individual fishing organizations to come together to save our fisheries has been an abject failure. We keep on this pace and there won't be a stock worth fishing for in the ocean and thousand of owner operators and small businesses will get crushed financially. As I said earlier, Chris Moore, Executive Director of MAMFC, acknowledges this latest decision for what it really is, another failure by ASMFC. Collectively, NMFS, ASMFC and MAMFC aren't getting it done, why would anyone believe they're going to find religion over the next two years. I've had too many exchanges with these people and know they don't give a shit about recreational anglers. We'll see what happens by 2026 but I'd bet it won't be pretty and will require more remediation then because of their indecisiveness now and then what?

Enough on the subject, I wish you and your family a Very Merry Christmas along with all the members of the site.

And all the best to you and yours Tom!