I dont think we are seeing a serious population decline, but I have noticed a decline in the numbners of really large fish over the last two-three years.
But, I dont blame the commercial guys. I blame the bozos who decided that that once the stocks had rebounded, it was ok to lower the limit to 28", and then decided it was OK for people to keep 2 fish a day, despite evidence of decling stocks of larger fish.
I dont keep fish generally speaking, and I dont begrudge people that do when the regs alllow them to. But we need to see some change in the regs. I imagine that in the last few years, hundreds of thousand of fish that would have been released under the old regs were kept. Those fish could not grow to larger fish, resulting in the fewer numbers of large fish over the last few years. also, the regs as they are currently do nothing to assist the growth of smaller fish to replace the larger 28" class fish being taken. Competition for food amongst the smaller fish is not reduced because the numbers of smaller fish, like 14-20 inches, is not reduced under the current regs. Therefore it is harder for these fish to get bigger, and once they hit 28", they are harvested.
this seems to be the perfect situation for a slot limit, like taking a couple 16-20 inch fish to reduce the numbers in that class and allowing the remaining fish to get bigger quicker, and allowing one larger fish, say 36+ inches, to taken per day. This would allow people to take trophy fish without opening the floodgates on taking larger fish to wipe out the 28" inch fish in a few years, which will result in a collapse later on as the breeding fish disappear. It would also reduce the numbers of smaller non-breeding fish and allow them to grow faster to replace the few trophy fish taken. Thats my two cents, but, I guess the powers that be decided that was not a good idea.
e-sea-e
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