Social Media is on fire with angry fisherman: Years of catering to commercial fishing and lobbyists have destroyed the recreational fishing in NJ and elsewhere. Once a pastime where parents could introduce their children to the sport is all but gone.
Entire industries have been destroyed which once supported and promoted recreational saltwater fishing. No more. It had been a slow death over the last decade.
If the state of NJ really wanted to preserve fish like flounder, they would give large commercial haulers catch limits, regardless of the fish caught.
They destroy all fish large and small and every species only to catch one type. Give them a 10-15 ton limit regardless of species and make them find the market to stay profitable like Japanese markets do.
The fishing haulers in the past would get away with all kinds of infractions. Small fluke and other species. Netter would disobey fishing areas and net close to shore, in the bay, channels, etc.
When there was no one to patrol them they would abuse the system. Meanwhile recreational fishermen were being targeted, which is correct but the big offenders were impacting the fisheries much more.