Founded by a group of concerned fishermen, Save the Summer Flounder Fishery Fund (SSFFF) is governed by a board made up of private anglers, for-hire captains, and members of the tackle industry. The group has no political affiliation and is neither a recreational nor commercial fishing lobbying group – instead, the sole focus is developing private funding to improve the science they hope can deliver better management decisions for summer flounder.
To date, SSFFF has spent over $190,000 of donations and grants to fund the research towards more refined stock assessment models specific to fluke. It was SSFFF-funded research that was responsible for sex-specific mortality data included in the last stock assessment by renowned scientist Dr. Mark Maunder, which was instrumental in preventing the closure of the summer flounder fishery at the time.
Today, SSFFF is working in conjunction with other stakeholders to provide funding for fisheries science veteran Dr. Patrick Sullivan in his collaborative effort with both Rutgers and Cornell University on work that hopefully will shed more light on the overall fluke stock. The project goal is focused on how to best create a refined assessment model to more accurately portray the state of the fishery. SSFFF is hoping to present the results of this effort at the next scientific peer review which is expected sometime in 2016 or 2017. It’s the stock assessment process that determines the overall health of the stock and is the basis for subsequent regulations and quotas.
There are actually several different SSFFF-sponsored projects currently underway focusing on sex-structure in the summer flounder population. SSFFF recently funded a parallel project with Rutgers scientists Dr. Daphne Munroe and Jason Morson to collect information on sex composition of discards by recreational fishermen. Once completed, these scientific findings will be incorporated into the comprehensive sex-specific stock modeling tools being developed by Dr. Sullivan. Both projects are critical components in helping create a new fluke stock assessment model in time for the next NOAA Peer Review.
“To date we have operated primarily on donations from private individuals, charter and party boat captains and a few local fishing clubs,” said SSFFF board member Greg Hueth, who added that except for a few larger donations from the American Sportfishing Association, Recreational Fishing Alliance, New York Fishing Tackle Trades Association and New York Sportfishing Federation, SSFFF has not received financial support from larger sport fishing groups or organizations. “We’re hoping collectively to change that now that we’re heading into the fluke and tournament season.”
Hint, hint for you fluke tournament organizers. Staff from The Fisherman Magazine attended a stakeholders’ project update event recently hosted by SSFFF, where each and every attending individual we spoke to commented how they felt that the group has done a remarkable job in bringing divergent interests together with members of the scientific community.
In terms of collaborative effort between the public and private sector, this cooperative effort could be a template for better fisheries management in the future – particularly given that the work SSFFF has been involved with has been welcomed and well regarded by NOAA scientists.
It’s time for all of us who enjoy fluke fishing from New England down the Mid-Atlantic coast to be part of the solution, as SSFFF and your fellow saltwater anglers are in need of support. The organization is seeking to raise another $25,000 by this summer to complete the new stock model; the total project cost is somewhere between $60,000 and $80,000 and to date SSSFF has already secured most of the funding. In other words, $25,000 gets us across the goal line towards this monumental research project.
“By banding together with other stakeholders and helping fisheries managers arrive at decisions based on better science, we can do more to ensure a stronger fishery with fairer public access for years to come,” said Dave Arbeitman, one of the SSFFF founders and current board member. “Every single dollar helps; and every single dollar goes directly to the scientific effort,” Arbeitman said.
If you or your club has not yet made a donation to better science, checks can be made payable to SSFFF and mailed to P.O. Box 86, Brielle, NJ 08730. You can also go to www.ssfff.net. And again, if you’re planning to run a club fluke tournament this season, you may want to consider earmarking a portion of the proceeds towards the science that can help us keep fluking in years ahead!
