July 7, 2016 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
The Commission’s Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass and Bluefish Management Boards met via conference call to review the latest recreational harvest estimates from the Marine Recreational Information Program. Most notably for both bluefish and black sea bass, the final 2015 recreational harvest estimates were uncharacteristically larger than the preliminary estimates. Based on this information, the Board discussed the need to change state recreational measures for the 2016 fishing season. While no management action was taken for bluefish since the 2016 annual catch limit had not been exceeded, the Board briefly discussed the possibility of transferring unused recreational quota to the commercial fishery (as allowed under the FMP). However, based on final 2015 bluefish harvest estimates, NOAA Fisheries anticipates the 2016 recreational quota will be fully utilized, prohibiting any transfer to the commercial sector. NOAA Fisheries will be releasing a final rule on 2016 bluefish fishery later this month. The Board and Mid‐Atlantic Fishery Management Council will discuss the final rule at their joint meeting in August.
Taking several factors into consideration, the Board chose to not take any management action for the recreational black sea bass fishery. Its decision was based on (1) the validity of the harvest estimates given the significant change from preliminary to final numbers; (2) concern about changing recently promulgated state regulations; (3) concern regarding socioeconomic impacts to the for‐hire industry; (4) difficultly in enforcing mid‐season regulatory adjustments; and (5) the potential for increases in discard mortality under more restrictive measures. The Board discussed a number of ways NOAA Fisheries could improve the annual specification process for these species. These include providing a more timely delivery of final recreational harvest numbers from the previous season, which would allow the states to more precisely tailor their regulations; incorporating vessel trip reports in its preliminary harvest estimates; and seeking ways to increase sample sizes in the for‐hire fishery to more accurately represent catch and effort in this sector.