Federal Ban on Scup?

There is a work around, they can surrender their federal scup licenses and fish in state waters.

Inshore fishing (state waters) is usually done by late October. What are they supposed to do after that?

If this comes to fruition this is going to decimate the entire industry, from the bait guys all the way up the chain to the party/charter boats from NJ through New England.

Out of all the species they decide on Scup. Makes sense. ???

With the paucity of legal fluke & BSB, scup have been taking a real pounding the last few years. The Osprey out of Port Jeff has already turned to porgies, not even bothering to try for fluke any more. Scup have become the mainstay of the head boat fleet, which depends on having fares leaving with full coolers.

It's a classic, "Pay me now, Pay me later" scenario. The regulatory bodies knew porgies were being overfished, but didn't have the cojones to reduce the harvest, allowing NMFS/NOAA to slam the door shut.

Just heard the Feds relented. Scup is, once again, legal in Federal waters with a 10 inch minimum size limit.