Well said Mike. I was in on this C-Closure too. It used to be the center of the C was open and then about 10 -12 years ago it was changed to the C and the center opened up. We are the ones in these meetings and have been for many years as recreational bottomfishers that help decide our future.

This yelloweye/Canary rockfish C-closure was implemented indeed for the sake of keeping the YE/Canary kill quota down on the recreational side. Yes we have a kill quota that lets us fish. If we did not, we would not be able to bottom fish at all. The tribal and non-tribal still have a yelloweye and canary quota that they can fill. The recreational side was decided to make it a "no take" quota so that we did not target them.

It was thought that the commercials knew where these fish were and would stay away from them or only take their quota as they believed that they had a better idea where what kind of fish are.

Had we not implemented some sort of tool to keep from killing too many YE/Canaries we would continually lose more and more halibut/ling seasons. When the feds continually lower that quota each year, we have to come up with ways to be able to still fish. So next came the 120' closure line that goes into effect May 21, where no bottomfishing is deeper than 120' allowed after that date for the year. (Next year we are getting a little reprieve and it might go a little later date wise.) FYI Marine areas 2/3/4 has the biggest yelloweye populations on the western U.S. Coastal states.

Norm, We have been involved in most of the decisions on our bottomfish fisheries for years. Thats because we care. I have had to plot areas on my charts with WDFW and we have helped either keep an area closed or look at possibly moving halibut fishing to other areas to keep our YE kill quota down, in years past. As recreational fishermen we are true conservationists as we want to see our fisheries thrive so we can harvest them and keep them healthy. We get new data and have to figure out how to attain our fisheries while doing the least impact on certain stocks. We are always crunching data and rolling with changes when needed.

So you can see how you rub people the wrong way with your assumptions, propositions, and home made power point program. Not sure how you put all of this together with any sort of inner background being that you were in Minnesota. You can read other peoples data and make assumptions, but not all data is correct that people use to pound home a closure. I am usually a little skeptical of people at first until I find out how much they truly know and where they got their data. You have to admit you came into our arena and tried to tell us we were wrong, while we are seeing recovery, you are telling us the sky is falling. Some of your data you refer reference to are people that I do not trust, that have an agenda to close fisheries. Lubchenko was put in as director of NOAA by Mr Obama and they are not using the NOAA Scientists that are in place. What does that tell you? Not using proper science but junk science to shut us down. This is not my first rodeo.