It is expected that in 2009 the fishermen could be allowed to take an additional 2.6 million pounds of summer flounder, the first increase in catch limits since 2005. The decision is taken after a scientific reassessment reported that the East Coast flounder population is far closer to being rebuilt than had been thought. It is said that the decision will gets its final federal approval by the end of this year.
For 2009 the proposed quota is 18.45-million-pound that could bring a truce in the long struggle over managing summer flounder, an immensely popular and valuable recreational and commercial fish species also known as fluke. The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission have agreed to boost the quota for 2009 by 2.68 million pounds, from 15.77 million pounds this year. But the quota is to be approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
According to government analysts there would be continuing problems such as slowing growth in the flounder stock and recreational surveys that indicated anglers overran their share of the catch. That led to reducing the quota over the past three years. Coastal states take their shares of the annual flounder quota and fashion rules to conform. Stock assessment reviewers and the Mid-Atlantic council’s own science and statistical committee recommended setting the 2009 quota around 19 million pounds, with 17.87 million pounds as a more conservative low end.
Brian Rothschild, a fisheries researcher and former University of Massachusetts dean, told that there was a buffer in here to make sure the quota is conservative. But Patricia Kurkul, the National Marine Fisheries Service Northeast regional director, said she wanted the most conservative number. She also said that there is still a lot of uncertainty around the (population) model.
