The State usually "manages" for maximum harvest opportunity, or, worse, doesn't manage at all, just keeps setting the same season and doesn't monitor what's happening.

Someone starts a petition with NOAA stating that the particular species they're concerned about is going in the $hitter, and they'd like to see the Feds step in with the ESA and save them.

The State does a big study on the critter, and comes up with a great management plan to save them, one that they present to the Feds and say "see, you don't have to impose the ESA, we got it covered!"...and sometimes this study is the first time that the State has actually even looked at the critter's life history, or population status, or relative abundance.

Fish on...

Todd