This is a very serious subject folks. I don't know what is being said north of NY.
Very simply stated the Magnuson/Stevens Bill says the biomass of fluke has to be at 204 million in 2010. This is an abritrary number dreamed up in the past with the help of the do gooder organizations with all the money that threatened with sueing the commission managers if they did not give in.
Now the scientists say that the 2010 number is unobtainable even if we stopped fishing coastwise today. However the scientists say the fluke biomass is very healthy numbers wise.
What can happen in 2007? There could be a coastwise allocation of 5.2 million for both recs and comms. That is about a 78% reduction. If that is the case it is suggested that NY could have a 6 week season, 2 fluke per day per angler with an 18" minimum. OR, The season could be closed all year.
The United Boatmen of both NY and NJ along with the RFA and I am sure other organizations are working together to get Magnuson/Stevens changed. The Congress is due to work on this in Sept 2006.
That is it simply put. Someone more knowledgeable than me can fill in all the details. Beware!!!
For more info from a NJ based web site please go to
www.mels-place.com/contents/contents.htm click on back to contents and then click on red box.
This is well worth reading.
Capt Neil Faulkner