they'll be closing it up here early too I'm sure, right about the same time that summer flounder closes, so there is nothing left to fish for until the striper bite in November.
They did nothing to stop the draggers from making whiting extinct in the NY Bight. I used to watch them shoveling the red hake(ling) bycatch over the side cause they were worthless. The head boats used to survive the winter on whiting, I used to catch them in the surf, now they don't exist!
Then they pushed the head boats toward sea bass by restricting summer flounder, then they restrict seabass because cause everybody is fishing for them. Now you have head boats targeting ling because it is the only unrestricted fish left.
So, now cod start showing up here because the draggers stopped fishing for whiting. You know they'll start dragging the ling grounds again looking for cod and they'll start shoveling ling over the side again. And NOAA won't stop it. They'll probably restrict recreational ling!
OH! And they had to protect spiny dogfish from commercial harvest! Are you kidding me! What next? Skates and sea robins....bergalls?
