The problem is not with the scientists. I've always had a good relationship with them, regarding both marine mammals—which I've worked on with them for over 30 years—and groundfish. I fished for winter flounder for 25 years, and we worked on that very well together. However, in my opinion, the fishery was closed for no reason. The only reason they gave was that too many lobsters were being caught in the nets.
At the last meeting we had with them, they told us that the resource was doing better, that they needed fishers like me, who had been working with them for 25 years, to have baseline data, and that there had been an increase in stocks of 20% to 30% over the past year, with less fishing effort. However, they still decided to close the fishery. That's incomprehensible.