Flounder Reductions Opposed by Fishermen

In front of the iconic party boat fleet docked along Channel and Inlet Drive in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey Department of Environment (DEP) Commissioner Bob Martin, vowed to over 200 members of the commercial and recreational fishing industry to fight the quota reductions pending for summer flounder in 2017 that will be devastating to New Jersey fishermen if enacted.

NOAA Fisheries has approved an 11.30 million pound acceptable biological catch (ABC) for summer flounder in 2017 which represents a 29% reduction from the 2016 ABC. On top of that, NOAA Fisheries reports that recreational fishermen exceeded their recreational harvest limit in 2016 and that the recreational harvest limit in 2017 would need to be reduced by the amount of the overage. The result is that the recreational sector is looking at close to a 40% reduction in 2017 which will represent the most restrictive measures in the history of the fishery's management.

At today's event, Commissioner Martin reinforced Governor Christie's commitment to call on NOAA Fisheries to maintain the summer flounder quota at 16.26 million pounds in 2017. Furthermore, Commissioner Martin indicated that he will be reaching out to other of coastal states and ask that they push a similar message to the highest levels of the Trump Administration.

Speakers today included industry leaders such as Jim Donofrio, Executive Director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance and Jim Lovgren, 3rd generation commercial fisherman based out of Point Pleasant. Also present was Representative Frank Pallone (D-NJ) who submitted a letter with Senator Cory Booker to Assistant Administrator Eileen Sobeck in December 2016 insisting that summer flounder measures be maintained at status quo until a benchmark assessment can be conducted. Mr. Pallone acknowledged today that Congress needs to amend the federal law to prevent this issue from happening again or in other fisheries.

"We are very thankful to Commissioner Martin, Deputy Commissioner Glass and their team for their efforts to help New Jersey fishermen and the fishing industry on this issue," said Jim Donofrio. "Immediate action is needed to save our 2017 fluke season but we all know that the long-term solution lies with passing amendments to the Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act that will correct the flaws within that law."

Earlier this week on "Ask the Governor" that aired on NJ 101.5, Governor Christie reassured Jim Donofrio that he would be reaching out to other coastal governors and forwarding a joint message to President Trump that the summer flounder quota needs to be maintained at status quo in 2017. On January 20, 2017, Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus issued a memorandum suspending the implementation of any new federal regulations until reviewed and approved by agency and department heads. This memo would force the Department of Commerce to review the summer flounder situation prior to taking action against any state that fails to change their regulations in response to the 11.26 million pounds quota.

Rebuilding efforts focused on summer flounder since the early 1990s increased the stock size to historic levels of abundance in 2007. Since that time, the stock has displayed average to below average recruitment and the spawning stock biomass has dipped, prompting the reduction. However, the stock is NOT overfished and biomass continues to be extremely high when compared to the stock size over the last 25 years. In addition, independent reviews of the summer flounder stock assessment find that there are significant deficiencies and that improvements to the modeling approach can be made. It is expected that those changes would lessen or eliminate altogether the need for a quota reduction.