Has anyone heard for sure on this years ARS season? I heard so much flack was given about the miss management of the closures on them that Goldfinch has got McMaster to sign a bill that Recreational guys and gals can harvest them year round again. 20" minimum and either two per person or two per boat? Of course the new rule that you have to have a descending device on board. DNR sight still has 2022 regs up. Hope this is going to happen.
As far as I can tell, the new ruling, passed last year by McMaster, only applies in State waters, to three miles out. Still no harvesting of ARS in Federal waters, except the restricted season, they offer, which has, historically, been the first, or second, weekend in July.
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Just announced
July 14 and 15
Oh, boy. I had some serious false hopes! Why not at least a month for Recreational Folk? Probably be crappy weather and ruff Seas.
thanks for posting this up Barbawang.
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We are “lucky” to have any days at all with the way NOAA is pushing the impact of ARS as by-catch. There were suggestions of shutting down snapper/grouper entirely for a period of time to rebuild the stock! Until the new stock assessment comes out, this likely won’t change anytime soon and even then it might not.
Nice to see you back!
That was supposed to be the purpose the vast marine protected areas . To re build the stocks! I was there when that battle was fought and the carrot they were dangling was that these areas would serve as nursery grounds to be rotated from time to time . But the rotation has never happened and the greenies want to increase the MPA coverage to thousands more sq miles of closed ocean. The SAMFC is quick to note ARS bycatch as detrimental , but they NEVER mention the reserve of fishes that we can’t touch in the protected areas.