Well, they at it again.

[tsubaki]

http://www.safmc.net/LinkClick.aspx?...A%3d&tabid=139
NOAA Fisheries Service Announces Closure Date for the
Harvest of South Atlantic Recreational Black Sea Bass
NOAA Fisheries Service has determined that the 2012-2013 recreational annual catch limit of 409,000 pounds for black sea bass has been reached. As a result, the recreational sector for black sea bass in federal waters of the South Atlantic from 35°15.19' N. latitude, (the latitude of Cape Hatteras Light, North Carolina) to Key West, Florida, will close, effective 12:01 a.m. (local time) September 4, 2012, through 12:01 a.m. June 1, 2013.

[ssiredfish]

You know ol' SSIRed is gettin in on this:


I have a hard time, and I mean a REALLY hard time, coming to terms with the fact that if you take an average seabass of 2.5lbs divided by the quota(409,000lbs) that over 106,000 fish were either reported or counted. I have never been solicited for my report nor has anybody I know of. You realize at 5 per person or we'll call it 12lbs/p/p and a high average of 4ppl on a boat so 50lbs/boat that we could collect that much info with so little presence by those claiming we have reached said quota. Okay so if you followed me that means they solicited roughly 8,180 boats for their research.........in three months????? WOW thats gathering trip reports from almost 91 boats a day!!!!!!


......and thats assuming ALL 93 days were/are fishable

S - Steadily
A - Actualizing
F - Future
M - Marine
C - Criminals

[SkunkBoat]

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?

[garagenc]

Most Likely they count fish the way most states do:

The fishery people count what the trawlers bring in, then they count the number of vehicles sitting at every ramp and estimate 4 people per boat times the limit of that fish. So if 5 vehicles (including cars) are at the ramp they count that as 20 people times the number of fish that state allows you to catch that day.

BTW they estimate that for every species of fish that has a limit on it.

That's the crock of crap that steams my ***.