Quote Originally Posted by plugginpete View Post
..The R.I. Marine Fisheries Council is in the midst of a heated public hearing on whether to roll out a trial sector allocation program for the fluke fishery.

Under sector allocation, members of the fluke sector would have the right to fish virtually any time they wanted and could ignore daily quotas, days-at-sea limits and other regulations that fishermen say make their jobs next to impossible.

Supporters of the plan, which include some members of the R.I. Commercial Fishermen’s Association, say that myriad fishing regulations are counterproductive. Fishermen often find themselves throwing perfectly good fluke overboard because of daily quotas or being forced to fish when conditions aren’t optimal.

Some fishermen who are not part of the group pushing for sector allocation say that the program would give a select few fishermen exclusive control over the fishery. They worry that the sector members would fish only when prices are high and non-sector members would have to ride their wake and pick their scraps, or else fish when prices are low and profits are slim.

There could be some logic to this. I know a lot of bad stories about commercial fishermen, Ive met a few guys who say they don't care about the laws.

I have also been to Maine and Rhody a few times, and talekd to a few commercials up there. Many people don't realize how hard they work. Sometimes you make great money, just like you do in other businesses, most times you are just scraping by.

I believe many of the commercial guys want to follow the regs and care about the future. Some of the stories I have heard from them lead me to believe the people in charge of the fisheries sometimes have no common sence. We get mad when we hear they threw back a load of dead fish, but we don't always know the regs that made things turn out this way.

I wish some other members here who know commercials, or a bit more about the commercial regs, would shed some light on this and weigh in with their opinions,

It doesn't look like it will be easy, I hope they make some headway.