IF THE National Marine Fisheries Service has its way, there will be no summer flounder season in New York or New Jersey for the next two years.
Summer flounder, or fluke, makes up almost 50 percent of the summer charter and party boat business, and without this fishery, the recreational fishing business could collapse.
William T. Hogarth, administrator of the NMFS, has sent out a letter to the head of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council saying that if current measures fail to meet targets, he will close the fishery in federal waters.
“Let me stress that if the measures implemented by the states to manage the 2008 recreational fishery are not effective to constraining harvest, the NMFS is prepared to close the summer flounder recreational fishery in the exclusive economic zone if the recreational harvest, when added to the commercial quota, threatens to result in the overall quota being exceeded,” Hogarth wrote in a letter to W. Peter Jensen, chairman of the council.
The letter is a “bow shot” to warn the Mid-Atlantic council, said Tom Fote of the Jersey Coast Anglers Association.
As we said in Wednesday’s column, under the new Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation Act (MSA), there is not much that can be done to fight the shutdown of the fishery.
The manner in which Magnuson-Stevens now defines over-fishing is a major problem. Basically, anything that affects the rebuilding of a fish stock or causes a temporary dip in stock size is deemed “over-fishing,” even when it has nothing to do with fishing mortality.
For example, if poor weather conditions hamper spawning success, and recruitment falls in the following year as a result, the problem is “over-fishing.” The law will be interpreted as recreational anglers killing too many fish, even though they fished within their season, size and bag limits. Under the plan, anglers still will be charged with a severe penalty in the form of quota reductions or complete closures the following season.
Though all the historical numbers indicate summer flounder have been on a solid growth path for the past 10 years and that the fish are more abundant now than anyone can ever remember, stocks will not reach the target by the arbitrary deadline set by the act.
According to the MSA, “over-fishing” is occurring even though the recreational harvest of summer flounder is at its lowest level since the management plan was first instituted almost 20 years ago, and even though the NMFS’ own scientists agree the biomass is higher than at any time since stock assessments started being made.
Under the new MSA, there is no room for considering and acting on those facts, and we are facing more reductions.
The council, commission and NMFS officials will meet in December for a final decision on the 2008 measures.