2009 fluke quota likely to increase

[plugginpete]

About time!!! But still not good enough.



Commissions agree to increased 2009 fluke quota


Thursday, August 07, 2008
The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Management Board approved a 15 percent increase in the summer flounder quota for 2009 during their joint meeting yesterday in Philadelphia.

That amounts to a quota of 12.5 million pounds as opposed to 15.77 million pounds this year, but is far below what we were fishing on just a few years ago. Furthermore, the division of that quota provides only 40 percent to the public even though a federal study decades ago stated the recreational catch was seven times the commercial landings. Until that inequity is resolved there will be little relief for the public.

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6th Dist.) is happy with the increase, even though it fell below the 19 million pounds he had requested. He urged Congress to pass his Flexibility in Rebuilding American Fisheries Act of 2008 so it won't be necessary to fight for a reasonable quota every year.

[bababooey]

Ristori put this up yesterday. So now they will be basically shutting the seabass fishery down?


National Marine Fisheries Service has final say on fluke quota

by Al Ristori/For The Star-Ledger Friday August 08, 2008, 12:48 AM


The increase of about 15 percent in the TAL (total allowable catch) approved Wednesday by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) for summer flounder next year falls below what the Scientific and Statistical Committee recommended. It isn't even a sure thing as National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Northeast Region Director Pat Kurkel led the charge for an even more conservative quota -- and it's NMFS that must approve the TAL.

Though the percentage increase was right, the quota figure listed in Thursday's column was a misprint during the rush to get last minute news into the column before the deadline.

The 18.45 millions pounds approved by the Council and ASMFC was a compromise between the S&S Committee's already conservative 19.02 million pound recommendation and the range of 14 to 17 million pounds that Kurkel was pushing for.

It was sea bass that took the big hit this year, with a 50 percent decrease that will do great harm to the fishery, but almost surely be approved by NMFS.