Don't feel completely under siege, Mark. I'm a fly-only catch and release "conservationist" who doesn't have a problem with commercial fishing, at least as it is done in MA with hook and line. At least not too big a problem, and not the highest priority
.
And let's be careful to sort out user groups and their motives. Charter does not equal commercial.
The reason that charter captains want lower size and increased bag limits is that charter customers seem to like to keep fish. There is still a sizable sentiment afloat that the day has not been a success if you don't bring home some meat.
Fish population models are garbage, we all know that. There is not even a reputable source who will tell you what % of fish that summer in MA come from the Hudson or the Chessie or another spawning ground. We plain don't know that much about the fish, b
ecause we can't.
What we do know with half a degree of certainty is that females don't reach spawning age until they're at least 28". Males can spawn smaller and younger, but that's an evolutionary trick to make sure that spawning can happen if there's a mature female ar
ound. Darwin's preference is for larger mature males to do the job.
We also know that people like to eat fish they catch, whether we approve of it or not. And we know that there are scads of fish in the 20-24" class to be caught. And we know that the 34" limit found most of us catching 32" fish and the 28" limit has mos
t of us catching 26" fish.
The Maine slot limit, one fish daily from 20-26" or one trophy over 40" protects cows in their prime spawning years. These fish are indisputably the future of the fishery, and you don't need population models to prove it. Encouraging the harvest of 28"
fish absolutely imperils the breeding stock before it has had a chance to breed.
We need to do the right thing at home, and then we need to lean on ASMFC to do the right thing up and down the coast.
[And then, maybe, we can grandfather the commercial licenses and let the current commercial guys get rich until they all die and there's no new licenses <g>].