They say the management  council’s scientific advisers recommended an increase in the annual catch limit of up to 1.6 million pounds, which would raise it to 35.55 million pounds for 2012. This would represent a 125 percent increase from a low of 15.77 million pounds in 2008. Furthermore, preliminary scientific data indicates that the summer flounder population has been fully rebuilt to a healthy level in 2011, nearly two years ahead of the congressionally mandated deadline of 2013.

Pew say a continued increase in annual quotas for summer flounder clearly illustrates that the rebuilding provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the primary US law that governs management of ocean fish populations, are working. When fisheries managers follow the science and the law on the books, they can achieve “remarkable successes.”

Read the complete story from Fish News EU