Mr. Colvin informed the Council that, subsequent to its last meeting, the states developed proposals for reducing the recreational catch of summer flounder for 2004 that met the requirements for this species identified by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC) and the ASMFC Summer Flounder Management Board.  The required 2004 recreational catch reductions for scup (porgy), however, were not finalized until just recently.   Now, the states have to develop new proposals to meet the scup reduction target.

Mr. Colvin reminded the Council that the required reduction in New York’s 2004 recreational summer flounder catch (48.5% less than the 2003 catch) was based on the very high estimated recreational catch of summer flounder in New York in 2003.    DEC has identified a variety of combinations of reductions in summer flounder recreational season, possession, and size limits that, if implemented, would achieve the required 48.5% reduction in catch.  Additionally, New York recently made a motion to the ASMFC Summer Flounder Board that sought approval for a different approach.  New York's recreational summer flounder regulations have been relatively the same over the past three years.  In 2001 & 2002, New York's recreational landings of summer flounder were just under 700,000 fish; in 2003, the estimated catch nearly doubled.  New York proposed basing the required reductions in 2004 on a three-year (2001 thru 2003) average, which would have resulted in a required reduction of 20% rather than 48.5%.  In this proposal, New York committed to keeping its regulations (e.g., 17" minimum size limit) in place for three years (2004 thru 2006), despite the fact that it is anticipated that New York's summer flounder quota will increase over this period.  The ASMFC Summer Flounder Management Board rejected this proposal.   Mr. Colvin stated that, in light of the Board’s rejection of this proposal, DEC has not decided what specific combination of recreational summer flounder season, possession, and minimum size limits it will propose for 2004.  Later in the week, Department staff will meet with anglers and representatives of the "for hire" industry to attempt to resolve on the least painful option, although a 48.5% reduction in catch will inevitably be very painful.

DEC is concerned about continuing to achieve required catch reductions in the recreational catch of finfish species mainly through increases in the minimum size limit, which has many undesirable effects.  Raising the minimum size limit typically puts the resource increasingly out of reach of shore-based anglers.  Further, raising the minimum size limit doesn’t reduce fishing effort; it simply makes a portion of the stock temporarily unavailable as the length/frequency of the stock changes over time.  Essentially, the fish grow up a bit into the next size bracket and again become available for harvest.  DEC then has to reduce the recreational catch again, usually by again raising the minimum size limit.  This approach translates into a never-ending incremental increase in the minimum size limit with little or no hope of ever lowering the size limit.

Mr. Colvin informed the Council that New York must reduce its recreational catch of scup by 58% from the estimated 2003 recreational catch of this species.  There will be an ASMFC Scup Technical Committee to discuss and review final scup options.

Councilor Melton brought up the need for fishery management regulations to adhere to National Standard #9 of the federal Sustainable Fisheries Act.  Standard 9 requires fishery management plans to minimize, to the extent possible, unwanted bycatch in marine fisheries.  As a minimum size limit is incrementally raised, by-catch tends to increase.  

Councilor McBride suggested that DEC consider a split open season for recreational summer flounder fishing, with perhaps differential minimum size limits as well.  This would give western Long Island party boats a better ability to compete for customers with New Jersey head boats.

Mr. Colvin stated that DEC has asked the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to review the estimated recreational catches of summer flounder and scup by New York anglers from the 2003 Marine Recreational Fishing Statistics Survey (MRFSS), as these were both much higher than in previous years.  Such an enormous increase in catch is not viewed as credible by many persons familiar with the recreational fishery for these species in New York.  NMFS has prepared a report, which is still under review by DEC.  Mr. Colvin cautioned that it is not impossible that these estimated catches are, in fact, accurate.  This could mean that estimates in previous years were highly inaccurate.  The 2002 MRFSS catch estimates have been found to be way off because of performance problems that came to light a year later with respect to the telephone intercept contractor.   The real surprise in the 2003 MRFSS data is that the recreational fishing effort estimate on summer flounder for New York State in 2003 is the highest in the entire MRFSS time series, which begins in 1981.  The recreational fishing industry has produced business records suggesting that business was down in 2003.

Councilor Tom Melton asked whether a slot size for recreationally caught summer flounder might be considered.  He also felt that the continual upward creep of the minimum size limit must be halted. 

Councilor Robert Danielson asked whether the biomass target for summer flounder and scup were still viewed as realistic?  He felt that the biomass of both species was clearly growing and their respective biomass targets for management purposes should be reviewed and increased.  Mr. Colvin replied that there is an ongoing process of scientific evaluation of the reference point for management.  At present, the scientific advice remains to stay with the current stock reference points.  This won’t change until and unless there are new stock assessments and none are planned.  As the biomass (especially the spawning stock) of summer flounder is being rebuilt, recruitment has not improved.  This was one of the problems that the summer flounder assessment team had in the last comprehensive fluke stock assessment.  They could not see the basis of a stock-recruitment relationship for summer flounder that would enable them to revisit reference points and to switch to a Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) model that might have resulted in different reference points, particularly for fishing mortality rates and possibly for biomass targets.

 

Page last modified Thursday, April 8, 2004 by George E. Carroll