Comment from David Auger

At this time the data suggests that bluefish are not being over fished and that over fishing is not occuring. Additionally, bluefish were declared recovered in 2009, so the future would seem to be good for the bluefish stock. The question I have is why change anything if it's not broken? Currently the FMP specifies that, if 17 percent of the ACT is less than 10.5 million lb, and recreational fishery is not projected to land its harvest limit for the upcoming year, the commercial fishery may be allocated up to 10.5 million lb as its quota, provided that the combination of the projected recreational landings and the commercial quota does not exceed the ACT. Why does the FMP and the council feel the need to "take" as much possible from the biomass? If the total taken in a year is less then what is allowed, why is there a need to use it up? For example several years ago the haddock population was considered to be recoved which resulted in a decrease in the fish size and an increase in catch limits for both the rec and commercial fisheries. At the time the recreational catch limit was 10 fish which was changed to unlimited. Today with new methods being used to estimate the biomass, mortality and catch, haddock is now considered to be overfished again. If the council had left things alone perhaps haddock might not be potentially in trouble again? If something isn't broken don't fix it !!!