Write all the letters you want,it won't help Go to you local food store and ask them what kind of flounder fillets they are selling summer -winter-yellowtail? I bet they don't know or won't tell you.
If they don't know you can ask for someone who does, and by law they must tell you.
We should focus our attention on the enablerlers of the commercial boats, for selling 14" flounder in a state were it is illegal to catch. Write a letter to shoprite and say wtf is with this.
I'm sorry, but the commercial size limit and recreational size limit have nothing to do with each other. If you think raising their size limit up to match ours is the answer then I would suggest some research into how fisheries management and fisheries themselves work. I'll try and touch on a few of the more pertinent points as relates to size limit. The 14" size limit was chosen years ago because it a) allows the fish they catch to spawn at least once before being removed from the population and b)Nets are only effective to a point. Having 20" mesh won't work, so increasing the size limit on the commercial side will only raise discards through the roof. Yes, it'll stop them from KEEPING 14" fish, and 15" fish, and 16" fish, and 17" fish, but it will not stop them from KILLING those very same fish.
You see, since the recreational size limit has gone up we are now killing just as many fish from discards as we are from keeping them. Yes, the recreational sector was estimated to have thrown back 25 MILLION fish last year, with 10% H&R mortality. That's 2+ MILLION dead throw backs. They estimate we kept about that same number. Our discards have now exceeded the commercial discards.
The commercial sector doesn't have a 10% H&R mortality rate, it's got an 85 to 90% H&R mortality rate. So while one in ten we catch dies when we throw it back, 8 or 9 of theirs will die. And you want to RAISE their size limit? That is ridiculous.
The Magnuson Stevens Act states that the NMFS must reduce "to the extent practicable" discards in all fisheries. Not only will raising the commercial size limit send discards through the roof, but if someone wants to push the subject you could argue against us being able to have these size limits at all. Yes, they totally suck, but the alternative was to have a season that was extremely short along with 1 or 2 fish bag limits. If you want 16 or 17" fish with the quota we have right now you would be looking at 1 fish with a season of less than 1 month during the summer, or maybe one month if you were lucky.
The fact that our discards have gone so high is a giant red flag just begging to be noticed by the enviros, and you think it's a bad thing that the commercials don't have the same thing??? If it's so crappy for us, why would you want to wish it upon someone else?
