Get your fluking in

[bulletbob]

Capt Dan.. you always post well thought out and very reasonable replies.. You are in the business, have "skin in the game", yet don't BS about how great the stock is, there are plenty of fish around, guys just aren't keeping up with modern techniques etc.. Thats always appreciated.

In my uneducated opinion, a lot of small fish around is a great indicator.. It means that the fish are reproducing well and surviving, and there is a cause for optimism that the future may be better than the present for the fishery... However, a lot is contingent on letting these smaller fish get old and large enough to become big breeders... A lot of them will not make it long enough to even reach 18 inches.. Mopped up before they get to their wintering grounds, or shortly thereafter.... bob

[Broad Bill]

Keep in mind, right or wrong, science assigns a 25% annual mortality rate to every age class. Combined with the level of commercial discard mortality when these fish are headed offshore and staging offshore in the winter, 75% of the body of smaller fish you mention will be dead in two years. Now add in the stock being pounded every year between September to November by a more efficient commercial fleet, that optimism will disappear. Under those circumstances older age classes will take a decade to rebuild once changes to the regulations are put in place before recruitment levels are restored and the gender / age imbalances created in this stock by the regulation are corrected.