100% of the codfish tossed back from Partyboat or Charter boats (discarded on NMFS trip report) are considered DEAD in the eyes of the NMFS and count against any quota or statistic.
This is totally wrong.
They want to put a bag limit of 15 codfish on party boats and charter boats like what is being proposed now. They want to raise the size limit to 23" from 21". More fish will end up being tossed back to get to the 15 fish limit right. This increase in fish tossed back will only say that more fish were killed and in the eyes of NMFS, The recreational take (catch = lbs kept + lbs discarded) will increase when in reality it would decrease because less fish will be kept.
Does this happen with other fish? Does a 14" fluke count as only dead when tossed back from a partyboat? Do all those fluke tossed back get subtracted from NY and other states quota?
Do you see a big problem here!
Capt. Marc
This is totally wrong.
They want to put a bag limit of 15 codfish on party boats and charter boats like what is being proposed now. They want to raise the size limit to 23" from 21". More fish will end up being tossed back to get to the 15 fish limit right. This increase in fish tossed back will only say that more fish were killed and in the eyes of NMFS, The recreational take (catch = lbs kept + lbs discarded) will increase when in reality it would decrease because less fish will be kept.
Does this happen with other fish? Does a 14" fluke count as only dead when tossed back from a partyboat? Do all those fluke tossed back get subtracted from NY and other states quota?
Do you see a big problem here!
Capt. Marc