Good News For 2018 Fluke Regs

[Gerry Zagorski]

Just in case you haven’t heard, we got some good news from the Atlantic Marine Fisheries Management Council meetings.

First and foremost, thanks to some MRIP stats that worked in our favor for a change, there was a potential for an additional 17 % liberalization from 2017 to 2018 quotas/regs. There were some amongst the council who wanted to be on the conservative side and keep keep things status quo from 2017 to 2018. Adam Nowalsky who represents NJ on the council, made a motion and it was passed to take advantage of the increase. More details on the regulations and options to come but it looks like we will have more favorable regulations next year.

It’s also my understanding we now have a cleaner path to have different regulations in our state then others within our region. If you remember last year, this had to be escalated up to the Federal level for us to get our proposed option approved which differed from the options our region was presented with.

All in all some very encouraging news and BIG thanks to Adam Nowalsky for continuing to represent our interest here in NJ....

One word of caution here. Nothing has materially changed in the way the fisheries are managed. It was purely by the luck of the draw that the MRIP Roulette numbers came out in our favor this year. For this reason many things need to fundamentally change if we are to are to sustain our Fluke fishery and do better job utilizing and managing the resource. Magnuson reform on the political and legal side and the work the SSFFF is doing on the science side of things to mention a few.

Thanks everyone for sticking with the fight and getting involved. Although we still have a long way to go, a lot has been accomplished which will hopefully set the stage for more sensible regulations for us and the Fluke.

Job well done and an early Christmas present for us but there's lots more to be done. Stay involved, support the organizations and groups that help support you and lets keep the full press court on!!