Scup

The commercial Scup possession limits are now out. Go to:
http://www.ct.gov/dep/cwp/view.asp?A=2588&Q=411794
for the March 13, 2008 regulation change.

Beginning May 1, the bottom trawl and fish pot limits will be 50 pounds
Hook and line and/or gill net will be 25 pounds.

Once quotas are reached things can be shut down completely.

Being a commercial pin fishermen what the above means to me is:
1. Very unlikely the scup quotas will be reach after May 1. The reasoning behind this is the trawl guys are not going to target scup because it would be a losing cause to waste diesel fuel for 50 pounds of scup. Pot guys like myself will probably have a ball going after 50 pounds of scup because I can use my rowboat once I have set my pots out. Since the demand for scup will out strip its supply, the price of scup will likely rise to well over $2 per pound. I would be more than happy to row out and check my pots and make a mere $100 plus per day on scup. Why pot fishermen are allowed a larger quota is likely due to the extremely low death rate of any undersized fish.
2. The commercial hook and line pin fishermen will likely put out a couple of scup pots to cover themselves (it is perfectly legal) so that they can still come in with 50 pounds. This is still a drop in the bucket since they would not be allowed any more than 50 pounds per boat unless someone else aboard had a commercial license and a letter of endorsement. Therefore, two recreational anglers in a single boat fishing last year could have caught 50 fish (approximately 50 pounds) which is now the same as what commercial boat can come in with regardless of how many are aboard. This year, the commercial guys are not going to even come close to what they had last year. While it is true extremely large limits existed for the first couple of months of this year, the price of scup had dropped so low, and with skyrocketing fuel prices, the trawl boats (the only ones that would go out during the winter months) were not a very happy lot targeting scup. I believe the measures taken are going to really help this species out. The recreational anglers will have been cut back by 25 to 10, and the commercial fishermen have been cut back to the point where it is no longer prudent for them to even target scup. My prediction for scup this year is that it is going to be one of the best years we ever had for scup. We will not be allowed to come home with much, but it should become very easy to reach ones legal limit.

__________________
"Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go" by William Feather