Summer Flounder Commercial Regulation Changes

[Gerry Zagorski]

Looks like some changes coming to the Commercial Regulations for Summer Flounder. Quotas and seasons looks like they remain the same but they’re going to allow the them to keep Summer Flounder as a by catch when fishing with smaller trawl net diameters for other smaller species. I assume the by catch will count towards their quotas.

https://www.icontact-archive.com/arc...68e0c7a3f95c98

[Broad Bill]

Received notice of this change four days ago. They're passing this under the smokescreen of reducing discards by other small mesh netters when in fact the driving force is increasing catch values for the commercial sector. Now instead of summer flounder being an incidental by catch while targeting other species like sea bass and porgies, these small mesh operators will actually be able to target and retain summer flounder and be allowed to keep an amount yet to be disclosed. More pressure on the stock during winter months when the biomass is most concentrated and most vulnerable to netting. They're also moving the line where these exemptions exist 5 miles west, more inshore, and issuing more exemptions to make the last remaining biomass more accessible to commercial operations. At the same time, the definition of "flynet" is being liberalized to further allow more carnage to the stock while wintering offshore. Short term decisions benefitting the commercial sector with unquantifiable risks to the stock itself. There's no safe harbor for this fishery and without some protection to the stock and spawn itself, the fishery will not survive.

Quotas cut by over 40% and then this. Where's the comparable liberalization for the recreational sector. And so everyone's aware, Michael Waine from ASA is on the Committee responsible for passing these changes.

And they say they'll monitor the impacts of additional harvest and discard rates to determine the impacts these revised regulations will have on killing more summer flounder. That's equivalent to the fox guarding the chicken coop as discard information is based on self reporting from commercial operators on vessel trip reports they fill out with any discard numbers they arbitrarily elect to report. Numbers generated by the same people benefitting from these changes. If the recreational sector self reported, you can bet our landings and discard numbers would plummet.

Fair and equitable distribution and access of the resource, the regulations governing this fishery have gone from absurd to completely insane.