Scup

I hold a CT finfish commercial license. It is easy to understand how the numbers aspect of estimating quotas can get all fouled up and I can be quite forgiving in this area. My question is, why increase allowable catches for a species that is known to be in trouble?

Let me give a couple of specific examples. Last year, I went to the RI commercial work boat convention held in Providence. The DEP was there and gave handouts as to what the conditions are for all of our local fish species, good or bad. The handouts would indicate the seriousness of the problem, and what they believe to be the cause of the difficulties such as over fishing. In some cases the fishery was deemed to be in good shape such as the Striped Bass fishery. Other species such a Fluke, Scup, Bluefish, Blackfish, Winter Flounder, and Weakfish were in trouble. Here in CT, I could not even come close to catching the recreational limit for some of these species, much less the commercial limit. Apparently, many other CT commercial guys were having the same problem. I will now explain how I see things get played out, and demonstrate just how broken the system is:

There is a historical quota set, which of course is insanity in itself, since what had been done decades ago, may not be in the best interests for the health of a species today. The historic quota can be modified when necessary, but it appears that this only happens after the species (say our winter Flounder) gets into big trouble, and even then the DEP is slow to react. Ask yourself what have they done to help out the dismal Winter Flounder situation! When a specific species really gets on the skids, the landed catches go down. Even worse, when the DEP knows that the decline of the species is due to overfishing, it is madness to allow a generous historic or modified quota to be met. This happened for Fluke. The species is in trouble due to over fishing, so the recreational community has to pay a severe price in reduced creel limits and size increases. However, the historical/modified commercial quota had not been met because in plain words "the fishing had been poor". So what happens is, the commercial fluke season remains open. Right now the commercial fluke season is open because the so called "quota" has not been met. What really rubs salt into the wound, is the following statement taken right out of the CT Marine Fisheries Information Circular:

"Exception:
If after October 1, the Department projects that Connecticut's commercial summer flounder quota will not be landed the trip limit shall be adjusted to account for the number of weeks remaining in the year and the quota remaining so that full use of the quota is assured".

Simply put, the DEP is quota driven and to hell with the health of the species. Even if the recreational season was opened today, those who fish out of small boats (commercial or recreational) cannot reach what remains of the distant productive grounds. The end result is the large draggers now have a free buy to pound a species into submission that everyone knows to be in trouble because our DEP is "must make the allowable quota" driven. For the damage that the draggers do to our ground fishery (keep in mind that the dead undersized fish tossed over the side don't even count toward the daily quota), everyone (including the draggers) has to pay a terrible price. Does anyone doubt that we are all paying for this insanity right now!

I am fully aware that fish wholesalers must have a continuing supply of fresh fish, especially during the winter months, or else they will simply go out of business. Only the draggers seem to be able to provide this needed supply but there has to be a balance set that is based on sanity somewhere. If our ground fisheries fail (and they are failing), then it becomes too late to worry about quotas or what is, or is not, fair.