December 23, 2014 — The following was released by The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC):
Arlington, VA – The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Management Board approved Draft Addendum XXVI for public comment at the Joint Commission/Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council meeting in Baltimore, Maryland earlier this month. Draft Addendum XXVI proposes alternate management approaches for the 2015 summer flounder recreational fishery, including regional management options that are intended to provide more equity in recreational harvest opportunities along the coast. The states of Massachusetts through Virginia will be conducting public hearings on the Draft Addendum throughout January. The details of those hearings follow:
Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries
January 8, 2015 at 6 PM
Bourne Fire Station #3, Meeting Room
53 Meetinghouse Lane
Sagamore, Massachusetts
Contact: David Pierce at 617. 626.1532
Rhode Island Division of Fish & Wildlife
January 7, 2015 at 6 PM
University of Rhode Island, Corliss
Auditorium
South Ferry Road
Narragansett, Rhode Island
Contact: Jason McNamee at 401.423.1943
Connecticut Dept. of Energy and Environmental Protection
January 6, 2015 at 7 PM
Marine Headquarters
Boating Education Center, Building 3
333 Ferry Road
Old Lyme, Connecticut
Contact: David Simpson at 860.434.6043
New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation
January 22, 2015 at 6:30 PM
Bureau of Marine Resources
205 North Belle Mead Road, Suite 1
East Setauket, New York
Contact: John Maniscalco at 631.444.0437
New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife
January 12, 2015 at 7 PM
Toms River Township Administrative Building
L.M. Hirshblond Room
33 Washington Street
Toms River, New Jersey
Contact: Tom Baum at 609.748.2020
Delaware Dept. of Natural Resources & Environmental Control
January 15, 2015 at 6 PM
DNREC Auditorium
89 Kings Highway
Dover, Delaware
Contact: Stewart Michels at 302.739.9914
Maryland Dept. of Natural Resources
January 13, 2015 at 5:30 PM
Ocean Pines Library
11107 Cathell Road
Berlin, Maryland
Contact: Steve Doctor at 410.213.1531
Virginia Marine Resources Commission
January 14, 2015 at 6 PM
2600 Washington Avenue
4th Floor Conference Room
Newport News, Virginia
Contact: Rob O’Reilly at 757.247.2247
Draft Addendum XXVI was initiated to consider the continuation of the adaptive regional management approach for the recreational summer flounder as established in Addendum XXV, which allowed for the use of regional management for the 2014 fishing season only. Regional management measures required states within a region to utilize the same size limit, bag limit, and season length. Addendum XXV was developed to address a growing concern that summer flounder management measures prior to 2014 were not providing recreational fishermen along the coast with equitable harvest opportunities to the resource. Its adaptive regional management approach was designed to allow the management program to adjust to past, current, and future changes to the resource and the fishery.
Under the provisions of Addendum XXV, the Board also approved the continuation of ad-hoc regional management approaches for the 2015 recreational black sea bass fishery. Addendum XXV allowed for the Board to extend the ad-hoc regional management measures by northern (Massachusetts-New Jersey) and southern regions (Delaware-North Carolina (north of Hatteras)) utilized in 2014 for up to one year. This approach has been used since 2011 and offers some advantages over coastwide regulations, which can disproportionately impact states within the management unit. The Technical Committee will work with the states to develop regional management measures for Board consideration and approval at the Commission Winter Meeting in early February. Under the stipulation that the northern region states implement management measures to account for overages in previous years and constrain harvest to 2015 recreational harvest limit, the Board and Council approved federal waters management measures for recreational black sea bass that include a 12.5-inch TL minimum size, a 15 fish possession limit, and an open season of May15-September 21 and October 22-December 31.
Fishermen and other interested groups are encouraged to provide input on Draft Addendum XXVI either by attending state public hearings or providing written comment. The Draft Addendum is available at http://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file/5499c682SFlounderDraftAddendumXXVI_PublicComment_Dec2014.pdf and can also be accessed on the Commission website (www.asmfc.org) under Public Input. Public comment will be accepted until 5:00 PM (EST) on January 23, 2015 and should be forwarded to Kirby Rootes-Murdy, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, 1050 N. Highland St., Suite 200 A-N, Arlington, Virginia 22201; 703.842.0741 (fax) or at krootes-murdy@asmfc.org (Subject line: Draft Addendum XXVI). For more information, please contact Kirby Rootes-Murdy at krootes-murdy@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.