Chairman Wise reported on the preliminary findings and conclusions of commercial fishery and recreational fishery winter flounder discussion groups. These groups were charged with identifying possible reasons for the continued poor condition of inshore winter flounder stocks in New York’s waters and suggesting management measures that might effectively address these causes. Both groups had independently identified many of the same factors as potentially being responsible for depressed winter flounder stocks. Flounder recreational and commercial landings in New York are at or near an all-time low, and so it was felt that current fishing pressure is probably too little to retard stock recovery. Other possible factors at play are the following: 1) high abundance of cormorants, seals, striped bass, blue crabs, and other natural predators of juvenile and adult flounder; 2) the impact of navigation dredging on winter flounder eggs; 3) loss of eelgrass habitat in the Peconic and South Shore bays; 4) contaminants; and 5) climate change, particularly the record high summertime bottom water temperatures that several water bodies in New York’s Marine District have experienced in the past few years.

These preliminary findings will be discussed with a broader audience of commercial and recreational fishermen. A work group report that will include findings and recommendations for state action will be presented to the Council at its September 2001 or November 2001 meeting. Chairman Wise thanked DEC staff member Ms. Alice Weber for her technical support to the work groups. Ms. Weber noted that the winter flounder recruitment picture was complex. Recent production of young winter flounder in western Long Island Sound was excellent. Connecticut was not doing well, while offshore populations throughout the Northeast seemed in good shape. Inshore stocks in southern New England, such as in Rhode Island, however, were in a very bad way. Mr. Byron Young of DEC observed that the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) would address power plant entrainment and impingement impacts on young winter flounder and other vulnerable species through fisheries modeling techniques starting in September 2001.