Summer flounder rules in for revamp

[rumster]

Originally Posted by emcjim

Thanks for your suggestion, Tuna John. I just sent the following comment. Feel free to copy and paste the parts that you agree with.

Fluke stocks must be re-building. My log shows that I caught more in 2014 than in any other year. On many trips in Northern NJ, however, keepers were few, or none, because the vast majority were less than the 18” minimum. Comments:
1. Please use stock data and catch data from the same year. In the past, this apparently was not done. Catch data should be available for the most recent year (2014), but do not use it unless you also have a stock assessment for 2014. Otherwise, we anglers are unfairly penalized for a re-building fishery.
2. Please recognize the economic impact of the recreational fishery for fluke. Commercial fishermen may have a stronger lobby than we sport fishermen. However, recognize that many people make their living in the recreational fishing Industry. Party-boat captains, charter-boat captains, their crew members, bait-and-tackle shop owners, and their employees, owners and employees of boat-building companies, marina owners, and their employees. So it’s not one man’s livelihood versus another man’s “sport” -- it’s one industry versus another industry. I believe the recreational industry has a much larger gross revenue that the commercial industry, and therefore the recreational fishermen should be allocated more than half, perhaps 60%, of the total allowable catch.
3. Regional regulations are a good idea. Combining NJ, NY and CT for 2014 made sense to me – I hope this continues.
4. The present bag limit is 5. I personally would be willing to reduce the bag limit to 4, while lowering the minimum size to 17”.

Why in gods name would you automatically agree to a decrease in the bag limit??? It`s sad that the fishing community has been beaten senseless with ridiculous regulations based upon faulty data to the point that we suggest decreasing our bag limits further. I appreciate your enthusiasm and agree that something has to be done, but if we as the fishing community are to roll over and openly suggest decreasing our own bag limits we are done. There has to be a better option.