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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 33 Number 2
October 2005
Summer flounder quota in for unexpected cut
DOVER, DE - One of the Mid-Atlantic region"s greatest fishery management success stories apparently isn"t one. Instead of a 3 million pound increase in summer flounder total allowable landings (TAL) next year, commercial and recreational fishermen could be in for a TAL cut of as much as 10 million pounds from what they expected in 2006.
The most recent stock assessment, which was completed last spring, indicates that summer flounder is not overfished but overfishing is occurring.
According to the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, the total stock biomass and spawning stock biomass both continue to increase. However, recent state and federal surveys indicate a "marked decrease in the abundance."
The combination of the overfishing finding and recently revised biological reference points led the council at its Aug. 8-10 meeting in Philadelphia to conclude that the 2006 TAL had to be reduced.
The question then became, "By how much?"
Two years ago, the council recommended to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) a two-year summer flounder TAL: 30.3 million pounds for 2005 and 33.3 million pounds for 2006.
NMFS approved this recommendation, which resulted in an initial 2005 commercial quota of 18.18 million pounds and a recreational harvest limit of 12.12 million pounds. The commercial quota dropped to 17.9 million pounds after deductions were taken for research set-asides and state quota overages. The TAL is split 60:40 between the commercial and the recreation fisheries.
Dealing with the stock assessment news, the council staff realized the council would have to revise the 2006 TAL downwards to 23.59 million pounds " nearly 10 million less than what was approved two years ago.
The 23.59-million-pound figure would meet the management standard of having a 50 percent probability of achieving the target fishing mortality rate in 2006.
Because the reduction was so huge and the impact on the fishery expected to be so severe, the council staff came up with a constant harvest strategy that would achieve the fishing mortality rate goal but over a longer period of time.
The resulting proposal was to set the TAL at 26 million pounds for 2006, 2007, and 2008, and that"s the approach the council adopted in August.
If the council"s recommendation is approved by NMFS, the coastwide commercial quota for each of those years would be 15.6 million pounds compared to 17.9 million pounds (18.8 million pounds minus research set-asides and overages) in 2005. The recreational harvest limit would be 10.4 million pounds annually compared to 12.12 million pounds in 2005.
State quotas
The commercial summer flounder quota is allocated among the states according to each state"s historic percentage share of the fishery. Those percentage shares will not change, so each state"s initial quota would be reduced proportionately.
According to Mid-Atlantic council Deputy Director Chris Moore, the 26-million-pound split would result in state shares ranging from 72 pounds to 4.3 million pounds.
Side-to-side comparisons of those state quotas from 2005 to 2006 are tricky because the 2005 state quotas have been adjusted to account for research set asides and overages while the projected 2006 quotas have not.
However, just to put this all in perspective, see table at left for a couple of examples of how the council-recommended 26-million-pound TAL could impact a few select state commercial quotas.
Bigger cut?
The big question at this point is what NMFS will do. With its current emphasis on the need to control fishing mortality, some managers and industry observers believe the agency will be hard pressed to justify approving the constant harvest strategy.
The alternative would be to take the big cut upfront in 2006 and increase the quota over the next two years.
According to David Pierce, deputy director of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, who attended the Mid-Atlantic council meeting, that would mean TALs of: 23 million pounds in 2006; 26 million pounds in 2007; and 30 million pounds in 2008.
Because of the uncertainty of what NMFS will do, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission summer flounder board, which handles interstate management of the species and usually meets jointly with the council on these matters, decided to wait to see the NMFS decision before deciding on how to proceed.
"A 10-million-pound slash â?| it"s huge," Pierce said. "It"s awfully difficult to manage fisheries when the second year of planning comes undone."
Industry impacts
The quota cut will be tough for industry.
"The commercial fishermen here are disappointed," said Greg DiDomenico, executive director of the Garden State Seafood Association, which represents New Jersey fishermen and seafood businesses.
"They were prepared for a multiyear quota and this is going backwards," he said.
Ron Borjeson, vice president of the Massachusetts Commercial Fishermen"s Association, said he and other fishermen had been planning for a 300,000-pound quota increase in 2006.
Of the cut, he said, "That"s drastic news, especially when there"s fluke everywhere. A lot of small boats are right on the edge right now with these fuel costs.
"It just seems to me that, systematically, they"re putting us out of business, one by one," Borjeson said.
Recreational fishermen were so angered by the recommended harvest limit cuts that the United Boatmen of New York and New Jersey and the New York Fishing Tackle Trade Association were exploring the idea of organizing a nationwide boycott on fishermen providing voluntary information to recreational data collection programs.
Lorelei Stevens
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