Sit back and think about that statement for just a second.... the charter fleet a commercial fishery?

You bet!

Any commercial entity that makes its profits directly from the fish resource is a commercial fishery in its most fundamental sense. Economically speaking, the only difference between a charter and a commercial troller/netter is that the charter puts you the angler to work ( under the guise of "fun") to harvest the fish for them, and then sells the fish directly back to you all in one simple pre-paid transaction. Speaking strictly from the standpoint of tangible value for the fish actually harvested (discounting the non-tangible value of the charter putting the angler on the fish), the per unit value of their catch goes up whenever their catch goes down. Even if you catch nothing, they still get paid! Boy, have these guys got us sports duped! We're paying them to have us do the work of hauling the catch aboard, and buying the catch all in one fell swoop. How convenient.

The poor commercial trollers/netters are still doing the work of harvesting the fish for themselves and then have to go out and find a market for their catch. They don't get paid if they don't catch fish, and they are at the mercy of buyers for the ultimate value of their catch. Hardly seems fair, don't you think?