flounder Archives - Page 18 of 23

New England Fishery Management Council Approves Witch Flounder Specifications; Recommends 2017 Gulf of Maine Cod and Haddock Recreational Measures

January 26, 2017 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC):

The New England Fishery Management Council has approved new witch flounder specifications for the 2017-2019 groundfish fishing years. Allocations will be based on an acceptable biological catch (ABC) of 878 metric tons (mt). When adjusted for management uncertainty, the ABC results in an annual catch limit (ACL) of 839 mt. This value is almost double the 441 mt ACL currently in place for the 2016 fishing year, which ends April 30, 2017.

The specifications are part of Framework Adjustment 56 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan. The Council approved other framework measures in November (see list next page) but held off on witch flounder specifications pending the completion of a new benchmark stock assessment.

During its Jan. 24-26 meeting in Portsmouth, NH, the Council: (1) received a briefing on the new assessment; (2) made several decisions related to the assessment itself and witch flounder specifications; (3) approved revised 2017-2019 annual catch limits; and (4) voted to submit Framework 56 to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for approval. The target implementation date is May 1, the start of the 2017 fishing year.

The assessment was conducted as part of the 62nd Stock Assessment Workshop (SAW)/Stock Assessment Review Committee (SARC), which wrapped up in December. The SARC and independent peer reviewers concluded that neither the overfished nor overfishing status of the stock could be determined, so both are now considered “unknown.” The model used to conduct the assessment was rejected because it exhibited a problematic retrospective pattern, meaning it tended to underestimate fishing mortality and overestimate biomass. The SARC instead used an “empirical approach” and based its conclusions on: (1) a three-year/six-survey moving average of exploitable biomass estimates; and (2) the mean exploitation rate observed from 2007-2015, which was 0.060.

The Council supported using this empirical approach but noted that the 2018 and 2019 ABCs are likely to change based on the 2017 operational assessment for witch flounder. The Council requested that the operational assessment consider changes to the exploitation rate used under the empirical approach.

Following the witch flounder discussion, the Council voted to submit Framework 56 to NMFS for review. The framework also contains:

A Gulf of Maine/Georges Bank northern windowpane flounder sub-annual catch limit (sub-ACL) for the scallop fishery;
A temporary, two-year modification to the existing accountability measure policy for the scallop fishery so that accountability measures only apply when the scallop fishery exceeds its sub-ACL for George Bank yellowtail flounder or northern windowpane flounder and the overall ACL for that stock is also exceeded;
An increase in the herring midwater trawl fishery’s Georges Bank haddock sub-ACL from 1% to 1.5%; and
Proposed 2017 U.S./Canada quotas for shared stocks on Georges Bank.

Recreational Measures: In other groundfish related actions, the Council also asked NMFS to consider implementing the following Gulf of Maine cod and haddock recreational fishing measures for the 2017 fishing year. NMFS has the final say on this action, so the Council’s vote is only a recommendation.

Gulf of Maine cod – zero possession;
Gulf of Maine haddock – a 12-fish per-person bag limit, a 17” minimum size, and two closed seasons:Sept. 17, 2017-Oct. 31, 2017 closed
March 1, 2018-April 14, 2018 closed

Recreational fishermen have exceeded their 2016 sub-ACLs for both stocks, and three months remain in the fishing year. Preliminary figures indicate that 192% of the Gulf of Maine cod sub-ACL has been harvested and 115% of the recreational fishery’s Gulf of Maine haddock sub-ACL has been taken.

Therefore, based on the best scientific advice available, the Council agreed to recommend zero cod possession for 2017 on all recreational trips by both private and for-hire vessels.

The Council then focused on trying to maximize recreational fishing opportunities on haddock while avoiding impacts on cod.

Southern Windowpane: The Council voted to ask NMFS to consider all possible remediation methods available to put in place a one-year exemption to the pending accountability measures for southern windowpane flounder for fishing year 2017.

Priorities: The Council reviewed its 2017 groundfish priorities, which include, among many other actions: setting ABCs and ACLs for all stocks; supporting operational assessments for all stocks; reviewing groundfish catch in “other” fisheries; revising Atlantic halibut measures; improving the recreational management process for Gulf of Maine cod and haddock; and launching a groundfish monitoring amendment.

Read the full release at the NEFMC

How Smart Fishery Management Saved The Atlantic Sea Scallop

January 24, 2017 — Scallops taught the United States an important lesson in sustainability.

A smart fishery management plan was meant to relieve suffering cod and flounder populations, but it also prevented the Atlantic sea scallop market from fizzling out in the ’90s.

In 1991, New England fisheries yielded 37 million pounds of scallops. Scientists started to worry when scallop landings dropped to less than 10 million pounds in 1994.

Then, regulators closed three fisheries along the Georges Bank, an underwater plateau between Massachusetts and Nova Scotia. They also temporarily stopped issuing new fishing licenses, and they rotated access to certain fishing grounds.

Read the full story and watch the video at Newsy

Marine center gives New England flounder sustainability tag

January 17, 2017 — PORTLAND, Maine — A Maine marine research institute says it has added a species of New England flounder to its list of sustainably harvested fish species.

The Gulf of Maine Research Institute says it is adding the American plaice to its list of species that can carry the “Gulf of Maine Responsibly Harvested” brand.

Fishermen from New York to Maine typically catch 2 million to 4 million pounds of American plaice per year. They are among many flounder species used for seafood.

The American plaice is also called the dab and it is a species of flounder commonly caught in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank off of New England.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Jersey Herald

Party boat captains irate over summer flounder cuts

December 20th, 2016 — Few things are causing more ire among recreational fishermen than the summer flounder cuts.

Some party boat captains have called it “nail in the coffin” measures that are being taken by fishery management that starts from the top down with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“It seems that every time we make a sacrifice there ends up being less boats on the water. It seems like they want us off the water,” said Gambler party boat owner and captain Bob Bogan.

Bogan’s summer flounder business depends on tourists. He said they will be less likely to pay a fare if they can keep very little or none of the fish they catch.

Also of concern to him are the party boat customers who come out to fish for table food. They are being shut out, he said.

“People will spend $50 if they can catch $25 or $50 worth of fish. They’re not going to pay to come home with nothing,” he said.

What New Jersey’s recreational season length, bag and size limit will be is still to be decided. But it’s looking like it will be amount to less fish in the cooler for anglers, and fewer trips on the water.

The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council is recommending a 3.77 million pound recreational harvest limit for 2017. That’s down from 5.42 million in 2016.

The council said states or multi-state regions will have to develop customized measures that will achieve the coastwide recreational harvest limit. New Jersey has in the past got the largest share of that harvest limit.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press

Flounder controls set to tighten, despite South Jersey pleas

December 19th, 2016 — A federal regulatory council voted this week in favor of drastically cutting next summer’s flounder harvest, despite strong protest from South Jersey fishermen and politicians.

No final state bag or size limits were decided at the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council meetings in Baltimore, but the organization did approve a 40 percent reduction in the coast-wide summer flounder catch for 2017.

The number is subject to change pending data still coming in from this season’s catch, but fishermen targeting fluke will likely face much stricter controls on the fish they can keep next summer.

“The stock is currently in a state of overfishing,” said Kiley Dancy, a fishery management specialist at the council. “It’s not looking great right now.”

Local government leaders and fishing-related business owners fear the new regulations could hurt South Jersey’s economy.

“Basically, I came out of there understanding that they want to shut down fishing,” said Robin Scott, owner of Ray Scott’s Dock in Margate, who attended the meetings.

Jim Donofrio, executive director of the New Gretna-based Recreational Fishing Alliance, has even vowed to appeal the decision by asking President-elect Donald J. Trump’s incoming administration to strike down the restrictions.

Bob Martin, the commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, said he was “greatly disappointed” by the decision to tighten controls on flounder.

“In effect, these actions will result in a moratorium on one of our most important recreational fish species,” Martin said in a statement Thursday.

Read the full story at the Press of Atlantic City

Fisheries officials seek count of booming seal population

December 19, 2016 — NANTUCKET, Mass. — Fisheries officials in Massachusetts are seeking a head count of the booming seal population that’s drawn great white sharks to Cape Cod waters in greater numbers.

The Cape Cod Times reported earlier this month that state Division of Marine Fisheries Director David Pierce said determining the size of the gray seal population size is “extremely important” for ecosystem management in New England at the recent Nantucket Seal Symposium.

But National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials warned the count could cost as much as $500,000.

New England fishermen have been calling for a seal population count for years to gauge its impact on cod, haddock, flounder, striped bass and other important species.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Gloucester Times

Pallone, New Jersey DEP push back against summer flounder cuts

December 16th, 2016 — This was one of the more consequential Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council meetings in recent memory.

The council’s decisions that were made this week in Baltimore will have a major impact on fishermen, starting with recommendations for cuts to summer flounder, special management zones for artificial reefs, and final rules for a coral protection on the Continental Shelf.

SUMMER FLOUNDER

Anglers are facing the most restrictive fluke regulations yet as a 40-percent cut in the allowable coastwide harvest is being recommended.

It’s based on models that show summer flounder was overfished this year and its biomass is on the decline. Fishermen and legislatures refute that science.

Congressman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) is asking NOAA to postpone any cuts until a benchmark assessment is complete. He said there continues to be legitimate concerns that the random sampling heavily relied upon by NOAA and the estimates produced are inaccurate.

The state Department of Environmental Protection is also taking a strong position against the reductions, which it said will cripple recreational and commercial fishing in New Jersey and be felt sharply throughout the Shore economy.

On Wednesday the council approved a non-preferred coastwide measure for a 19–inch minimum size limit, a four-fish bag limit and a season from June 1 – Sept. 15.

Read the full story at The Ashbury Park Press

NEW JERSEY: Fishermen can protest Summer flounder catch limits with letters

December 13th, 2016 — Before I get into any recent fishing catches, I want to cover some very distressing news concerning next year’s fluke regulations. To say that the reports I have gotten are negative is being kind.

NOAA Fisheries has announced that their flounder assessment from last summer shows the summer flounder population is declining, and anglers are catching too many fish.

To address this problem, the federal government is proposing a 30 percent reduction from catch limits already determined for 2017, and then the next year another 16 percent reduction from current 2018 allocations.

According to predictions from “The Fisherman” magazine, the result of this could very possibly be something like a two-fish per day daily catch limit, a 19-inch minimum keeper size, and a three month long season during the summer months. I told you that you would not like this news!

The only positive thing that I can tell you is that these cuts have not yet been made, but are in the works. According to “The Fisherman,” there are a couple of things that we as concerned anglers can do.

First, we can send a note to NOAA Fisheries expressing our opposition to these cuts. Try to keep your comments within the bounds of polite discourse, and be sure to include your contact information.

Read the full story at the Ashbury Park Press

JIM HUTCHINSON JR: WILL ANGRY ANGLERS RESPOND TO FLUKE FIASCO?

November 28th, 2016 — Seriously, reading any further is just going to make you incredibly angry.

There’s no way to sugarcoat this, the coastwide quota for summer flounder (fluke) in 2017 is expected to be cut by about 40%. That means a shorter season, lower bag, an increase in size limits, or any combination of the three.

Pardon my French, but I told you that you’d be pissed!

The question is, what are you – what are we going to do about it?

NOAA Fisheries recently announced that their July 2016 summer flounder assessment shows continued overfishing and a fluke stock biomass in decline; in response, the federal government proposes a 30% reduction from catch limits previously implemented for the 2017 season, along with a 16% reduction from current 2018 allocations.

Because the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP) showed gross overharvest in the recreational sector in 2016, that means we’re officially “overfishing” the fluke stock. That’s not to say the stock is in trouble, but because MRIP showed anglers caught too many fish this past summer, we now have a summer flounder stock that is experiencing statutory overfishing.

Read the full story at The Fisherman

NILS STOLPE: Why is the summer flounder quota being reduced 50 percent in two years (with another major reduction for the following year)?

October 20, 2016 — Summer flounder, also known as fluke, support recreational and commercial fisheries that are among the most important in the mid-Atlantic and southern New England. They have been a mainstay of recreational fishermen either from their own boats or on for-hire vessels, support a large directed commercial fishery, their incidental harvest is important in other fisheries and they are near the top of the list of must-have meals for summer visits to the shore. Hundreds of party and charter boats depend on them for all or for part of their annual incomes, thousands of private boats seek them out every summer, and much of the business bait and tackle shops do every year depends on the fishery. Hundreds of commercial fishing boats target them or take them incidentally in other fisheries.

To say that the summer flounder fishery is important to tens of thousands of people from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras would be an understatement. The fishery is more important to both recreational and commercial fishermen than any other in the Mid-Atlantic and southern New England.

“By 2010 the fishing mortality on summer flounder had declined to its lowest level in at least 30 years, and summer flounder stock biomass was the highest since the stock assessments began in the 1960s” (from The summer flounder chronicles II: new science, new controversy, 2001–2010, M. Terciero, Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries, Dec 2011).

But in a memo dated 25 July 2016, the Chair of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC), wrote “the revised understanding of the stock status produced by the assessment update indicates reductions in the estimates of SSB, and increases in the estimates of annual Fs.” So 5 years after declaring that the summer flounder stock was at its highest level in half a century the managers decided fishing mortality was greater that it had been thought to be and that there were fewer summer flounder than was previously estimated.

Following a quota cut for both recreational and commercial fishermen of 27% for the 2016 fishing year it was decided that a 31% cut was necessary in 2017. That’s a 50% reduction in landings in two years.

The NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, MA conducts annual bottom trawl surveys in the spring and the fall that have been continuous since 1963. They are designed to give a relative measure of the abundance of the various species caught. The chart on the right shows that there has been nothing particularly dramatic going on with the summer flounder in either the spring or autumn survey, seemingly nothing that would warrant such draconian quota cuts (note that beginning in 2009 a new survey vessel was employed, resulting in higher absolute catches).

With the quota reduction in 2017, commercial summer flounder landings are going to be at their lowest point since 1974. From 1950 to 2014 annual commercial landings averaged 7,200 metric tons. The 2017 quota will be one third of that. In the words of the head of NMFS in 2011 ”in 1976, federal management of marine fisheries was virtually non-existent. With the exception of state managed waters, federal activities were limited to supporting a patchwork of fishery specific treaties governing international waters, which at that time existed only 12 miles off our nation’s coasts.” In twenty-three of the twenty-six years between 1950 and 1976, pre-Magnuson years with no significant management of summer flounder, commercial landings were higher than they will be in 2017, which will be the fortieth year of intensive management of the fishery. This management has involved annual surveys, at least 100 meetings (usually involving at least a dozen people and usually held at coastal resorts or conference centers) and over 8,000 pages (either dealing with summer flounder alone or in combination with sea bass and scup, which are all included in the same management plan) of reports, calculations, charts and tables, memos, meeting notices and on and on.

Kind of makes you wonder what’s going on with summer flounder management, doesn’t it?