Summer Flounder

Mr. Colvin distributed to the Board a timetable for coming to decision regarding 2004 recreational fishery management measures for summer flounder and scup.   Summer flounder is operated under a state-by-state harvest quota that historically has not required a pay-back of state harvest exceedances from the previous year.   But the following year, such states must make their recreational fluke measures more stringent.    Data from the MRFSS survey have indicated that New York's recreational catch of summer flounder in 2003 was substantially larger than its quota and measures to reduce New York's catch by up to 45% may be needed for 2004.   Mr. Colvin noted, however, that the NMFS catch estimates are being questioned as inaccurate by many with knowledge of New York's recreational summer flounder fishery.   NMFS MRFSS staff undertook a detailed review of all the information and calculations that led to their initial catch estimate and will report their results to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council at their joint meeting to be held later this month.   A final decision on the amount of harvest reduction required by New York anglers in 2004 will be made at that time.   New York will then need to prepare its summer flounder conservation equivalency harvest reduction proposal for 2004, to be submitted to ASMFC for technical review by 20 February 2004.    Anglers should know what types of reductions will be required by March 2004.   Mr. Colvin noted that, at the late January MAFMC meeting, the idea of specifying a three-year recreational harvest quota would be discussed as a way of avoiding the annual adjustment to regulations that is presently practiced.

In response to a question from Councilor Freierman, Mr. Colvin clarified that exceedances of New York's recreational summer flounder quota are not "taken" from the following year's commercial summer flounder quota for New York.

Scup

As with summer flounder, the MRFSS estimates of New York's recreational harvest of scup in 2003 is well above the state's quota for last year.   ASMFC may adopt a regional quota for this species in 2004, doing away with the state-by-state quota approach used for the past several years.   A new addendum to the Scup Fishery Management Plan has been prepared by ASMFC laying our several management alternatives and is presently undergoing public review & comment.   At the late January 2004 joint ASMFC-MAFMC meeting, ASMFC will select a management option from among those listed in the addendum.   Whether 2004 will see a regional recreational scup quota, or a retention of the state-by-state approach, whether and to what extent New York will have to repay its apparent 2003 scup overage, are questions that will be answered at that meeting.   Once the answers to the questions are clear, New York will prepare its proposal for recreational scup fishing management in 2004, which will be due at the end of March 2004 and their approval given by mid-April 2004.

Mr. Colvin noted that, the above notwithstanding, decisions regarding summer flounder and scup recreational fisheries management in 2004 will likely be made on the same basic timetable.   New York is promoting a regional approach to recreational scup fishery management in 2004.   Mr. Colvin observed that the ASMFC Monitoring Committee has itself expressed skepticism that New York's 2004 recreational catch of this species could have been as large as the MRFSS estimate.   The committee actually recommended an adjustment (downward) to the catch figure.   A similar adjustment was not recommended for the estimate of last year's recreational catch of fluke in New York.   The problem appears centered around the MRFSS estimate of recreational fishing effort on these two species.    This lowering of New York's estimated 2003 recreational scup catch has yet to be done.   If it is made, and ASMFC opts for regional management of recreational scup fisheries in 2004, this would have the effect of making the other states in our region pay for what clearly were over-the-quota catches by New York in 2003.

Several Councilors and individuals in the audience commented on various deficiencies in the MRFSS approach to estimate marine recreational fishing catch and effort.

 

Page last modified Monday, March 29, 2004 by George E. Carroll