Nwe Blackfish and Sea Bass Regulations Imminent

[Perfect Drift]

Originally Posted by CaptTB

The federal government comes up with these numbers, not a charterboat captain from south jersey.

The simple fact of the matter is they calculate that the average catch per person (fish taken home) from ALL trips by ALL fishermen from ALL states equals less than 10 keepers per person per trip. Whether you believe that or not is irrelevant, those are the numbers they use and therefore those are the numbers we are forced to work with.

So, when you go from 25 to 12, according to the governments math, you save 0%. Since the average person does not catch twelve keepers anyway they give you no credit for reducing the bag limit until you drop it below the number that the average angler catches. Then you START getting savings, but until you go well below the average number you still get little.

Wanna sea bass for 4 fish?

If the answer is yes then go to the meetings and state your case.

Thanks for the clarification TB. I have never heard of anything so stupid in my life.

[snowbank104]

how many party boats in jersey go for sea bass in the summer just wondering

[Madman9132]

i thought there where talks of a longer season in the winter. Dec-Feb. What happened to that??? i know the offshore knuckle heads get better Jan and Feb.. Not trying to start anything.... Just curious what happened to that proposal.. And thank you for taking the time to go to these meetings as well as keeping us up to date.

[SaltLife1980]

This is the tenth time they say they are going to change things for the better.. I will believe it when i see it..

[Islander II]

I did not know that they used an average. So why don't they make the bag limit 5 or 10 fish. Do you really need 25 fish per person? I realize that is the way they figure the tonage, but if they lowered the bag limit, that would lower the average. Simple math. If the average is lowered, than maybe they would extend the season and give the party boats their winter fishery back. Give and take.

[Angler Paul]

Islander, Please read Capt. TB's post on page 1 of this thread. Reducing the bag limit to 10 would do nothing. Going to 5 fish would allow us to have a longer season but there are a lot of people who would not want to pay all the money just to keep 5 sea bass especially on those long range trips.
We are still hopeful that we will be able to have a January and February season in 2013 but no definite determination has been made on that at this point.

[Islander II]

I did read the post. Give and take

[CaptTB]

Originally Posted by Islander II

I did read the post. Give and take

But the problem with lowering the bag is for the first year at least you will still get 0% savings. if the current CPUE is below ten then only dropping below ten will give you any savings, period. If you wish to lower the CPUE over time then you can certainly do what you suggest, but that will still not have any effect on the current year. Therefore, you get 0% savings by cutting the bag limit in half or more.

[Solemate]

Well if lowering the bag limit doesn't help then increasing it shouldn't hurt. Maybe we should all just take the night off.

[eagleyankfan]

Originally Posted by Islander II

I did not know that they used an average.

How else, logically(or as scientifically possible) can it be done? Give each individual angler a number of fish he/she can catch? They don't just give a random number of fish to keep. Have hope that "the number givers" are 1) trying their best to find a solution for the fishery and 2) they are using the best data possible.

We have seen that number 2, at times, inaccurate but they seem to adjust.

Have faith in the guys fighting the cause....