When it comes to summer flounder or fluke, the management approach to the fishery is about as divisive as the name itself!
While New Yorkers are looking at a regional approach that would put an 18-inch fluke limit, four fish bag and 128- to 135-day season in place for multiple states in a region to possibly include Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey, the idea that Cape May anglers would be forced to accept an 18-inch summer flounder while Delaware fishermen are fishing on a 16-inch size limit is causing concern in the Garden State.
Therefore, the New Jersey Chapter of the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA-NJ) along with several other organizations are supporting Option 2 within the Draft Addendum XXV to the Summer Flounder, Scup, Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plan for Public Comment, which would specifically allow states to lend or give their underutilized quotas to states in need of fish to offset an exceedance of its annual harvest target or to liberalize their regulations.
Under Option 2: Utilization of Additional RHL, once states with the opportunity to liberalize their recreational fishery in 2014 have finalized their management plan, any other state would be allowed to request access to the recreational harvest limit (or RHL) that is not going to be utilized by that state.
Based on the 2013 recreational harvest information coming from the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP), there are six Atlantic Coast states which can liberalize their regulations in 2014 based on last year’s numbers, with three states that will be forced to take a reduction in harvest. Because Massachusetts significantly fished under their RHL in 2013 according to MRIP, that state can take a 304% liberalization, while North Carolina in turn can liberalize upwards of 195%. Capt. Nowalsky said that Massachusetts anglers fished for 132 days in 2013 on a 16-inch size limit, while North Carolina’s season was open year-round with a 15-inch size limit. Considering that North Carolina especially can’t liberalize their season, size and bag much more than that, there should be additional quota available to states in need under Option 2 measures in the current addendum.
Nowalsky and the RFA-NJ chapter members are concerned about the push to create regions of shared limits, particularly because of the ‘accountability measures’ which were hardcoded into the Magnuson Stevens Act back in 2006. In 2013 for example, MRIP showed that Connecticut went over RHL to the point that that state must make a 67% reduction in harvest, while New Jersey must take 21% and New York 15% in 2014. Based on the punitive nature of the ‘accountability measures’ and the payback mechanisms in the law, if MRIP shows a similar overharvest in 2014 in that region, instead of sharing an 18-inch size limit these same states could end up looking at 19- to 20-inch size limits in years ahead as payback.