I have to disagree here with several things. I am not a biologist, but based on my own experiences, blackfishing has improved somewhat over the past couple of years. IF things are as bad as they say, the stock arrived at it's current condition as a result of commercial overharvesting and poaching by bandits posing as "recreational" anglers. If you remove these two problems, the situation will improve, albeit more slowly than with striped bass. Banning of traps and more intensive enforcement of current regs will go a long way to improving things. I see no reason to further restrict recreational anglers when it was not their doing in the first place. Not to mention that the poachers will continue to poach with the current lack of enforcment and fines that border on humorous.
Another problem that we have is that any time a species is severely restricted or closed, it adds further pressure to other species. In this case, there will almost certainly be an increased effort on stripers, ling and winter flounder. Can these species support this added effort?
As far as making head boat captains totally responsible for the actions of their clientele--NO WAY! I ran head boats down in Florida where captains are held accountable and it is a disaster. No matter what you do, people will cheat and it is unfair burden on the captain. I personally was issued a summons because some guy kept 2 short yellowtails under the ice packs in his food cooler, while the guy went on his way without so much as a warning. Why should a captain pay a fine because some jerk tosses a short blackfish in a food cooler when nobody is looking? Now, if the captain is found to be complicit with ANY violations or fails to properly advise his fares of the rules, than I say hammer him.
I don't know what the answer is, but I am sick of these reductions being shoved down my throat when I had little or nothing do with the cause.
Gamakatsu