NOAA fluke harvest 30% reduction for 2016

[finchaser]

meeting is tonight

[robmedina]

ALL politicians lie.

[finchaser]

The 2016 regulations for fluke and sea bass were set by the New Jersey Marine Fisheries Council meeting on March 3rd. The NJ Bureau of Marine Fisheries worked hard to develop various options. A clear majority of advisors and others in attendance supported the following options. The council unanimously approved the following regulations:
Fluke – 5 fish at 18” with a season beginning on 5/21 and ending on 9/25 except for Delaware Bay where there will be a 4 fish limit at 17” and at Island Beach State Park where there will be a 2 fish limit at 16”.
Sea Bass – 10 fish at 12.5” from 5/23-6/19, 2 fish at 12.5” from 7/1-8/31 and 15 fish at 13” from 10/22-12/31.
Striped Bass – An overview of the 2015 fishery was given but the regulations, including those for the bonus bass program will remain the same.

[bababooey]

The 2016 regulations for fluke and sea bass were set by the New Jersey Marine Fisheries Council meeting on March 3rd. The NJ Bureau of Marine Fisheries worked hard to develop various options. A clear majority of advisors and others in attendance supported the following options. The council unanimously approved the following regulations:
Fluke – 5 fish at 18” with a season beginning on 5/21 and ending on 9/25 except for Delaware Bay where there will be a 4 fish limit at 17” and at Island Beach State Park where there will be a 2 fish limit at 16”.

So they shortened fluke season for most of NJ? Guess I can live with that. Thanks for the report.

[voyager35]

JMO but it is always on the backs of the recreational fishermen. Meanwhile the commercial netters can take 14" fluke and we have to throw them back. These regs actually encourage folks to target the females because they are bigger. When I was a kid we had a fantastic fluke fishery in jersey. I don't think we will ever see that again till they start to manage them like stripers and regulate fishermen to take smaller fish and limit taking of the larger. Otherwise it is like smoke and mirrors, robbing Peter to pay Paul, and the numbers never really grow. We just maintain and maintain.
I am not a stats guy, just speaking from experience. I wish the SSFFF could get involved and show them some sort of analysis that shows better overall future growth if we were allowed to keep only smaller ones and limited on the larger ones, say no fluke above 24" or so. That would be a good start.
Anyone know the SSFFFs official position on this?

[basshunter]

^^^ Very well said and I agree. I think that is wishful thinking though.

[finchaser]

^^^ Very well said and I agree. I think that is wishful thinking though.

We fought it and are pushing for NJ to be on its own again next year we(SSFFF ) have scientists working with Noaa trying to get a sex based quota right now we thrown back males and kill females as most fluke over 18" are females suggested a mixed bag limit where maybe lets a few smaller fish will be able to be kept would really benefit surf guys.

NJ never came close to the 2015 quota NY and CT went way over even utilizing our qutoa we are grouped in with them. Since we were so far under we really don't have a 30% because we are not exspect to reach our state quota for 2016 either
AS far as the seabass with warmer water the lager seabass ended up in RI and MASS as far up as ME where they were decimated as there really was no bag limit parse up there