May 23, 2017 — Four days before New Jersey was set to open its recreational summer flounder season, a regional fisheries management board did not approve the state’s regulations, which were adopted by emergency action last Thursday.
However, it appears fishermen will still be able to fish on opening day, according to state spokespeople, as the issue gets worked out.
Toni Kerns, the director of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s summer flounder interstate fisheries management plan, said the regulations would not meet the harvest reductions voted on by the commission.
In February the commission voted for a nearly 30-percent reduction in the total coastwide harvest of summer flounder from Massachusetts to North Carolina.
To meet the reduction the commission voted on an option that would give New Jersey’s recreational summer flounder fishery a 19-inch size limit, a three-fish bag limit and a 128 day season.
The state put forth a compromise on an 18-inch fish size limit, three-fish bag limit and a shortened season from May 25 to Sept. 5. The state’s Marine Fisheries Council adopted that regulation last week.