Carcassman - "I doubt that the fisheries are on actual outmigrants. They would be smaller. The black mouth are on resident fish that stay in the Sound for the majority of their saltwater life. It is a behavior that does occur in wild fish but is primarily supported by delayed-release hatchery fish."

That was my point. The winter blackmouth fishery is primarily a hatchery fishery without a lot of wild fish present. At least that was my assumption. If that's the case why are "impacts" a significant consideration for the fishery? Am I misunderstanding? Are there significant wild impacts in that fishery? And, if not, why do we care about impacts on hatchery fish? Overfishing hatchery fish seems a somewhat oxymoronic concept.

At the same time killing a numerical ton of shakers doesn't make a lot of sense - wild or hatchery - which is why I agreed with the shutdown of the fishery in November when there were swarms of them on the grounds.