Reds, our commercial harvest is out of line with other states in the ASMFC. Yet, our recreational seasons continue to come underfire. This reallocation may even stand to benefit some watermen through enabling them to make more per fish harvested as currently the gold resource is being sold a copper prices.
Given how this reallocation is intended to be used and stated as protection in case of a larger take under current regulations, I doubt the ASMFC will redistribute to other areas along the coast. Hopefully, given the concerns over some stock indicies starting to arise at the ASMFC, I doubt such a move would be done anytime soon and could be used to push back at other states for other conservation moves to take place. Should stock numbers look good in a few years and Maryland remains at or below its target on the recreational side, then DNR may need to look at seasons and regulations for both commercial and recreational.
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