[Broad Bill]

Larry your correct, entries are on a decline but 125 boats with probably an average of 4 anglers per boat. 500 people fishing and twin 6.4 pounders winning the most prestigious fluke tournament is quite frankly unbelievable.

Yet the powers to be manage this fishery the same way even after having to reduce commercial quotas by 42% a few years ago with proportionate decreases recreationally. Here's the problem that creates. If commercial quotas are reduced by that much, what do you think commercial guys are going to do. They're going to catch even larger fish that bring higher values to compensate for the reduced quota which just exacerbates the problem. A higher percentage of the larger females are being harvested with a much higher rate of discard mortality. That's why the abundance of just sub legal fish every year never manifests itself in keepers the following year. The commercial winter fishery pounds the stock causing irreparable damage.

Unless these regulations are changed, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy that this fishery will disappear. I've been saying it for years, the data supports it, and we've been seeing the consequences over the last decade or two, in particular since 2018. If management doesn't stop using increased size limits to manage the recreational sector and doesn't do something with the unabated slaughter by the commercial fishery and doesn't address protection of the stock during the spawn, we'll be the last generation to enjoy this fishery. GUARANTEED.