Fishermen Fear Another Surprise Fluke Cutback

by John Geiser 
Asbury Park Press 1/22/06

(from Jersey Coast Anglers Association February 2006 Newsletter)

Fluke fishermen are hoping that the National Marine Fisheries Service does not decide the fish need additional protection.

It was about this time last winter that Patricia A. Kurkul, northeast administrator for NMFS, began dropping hints that the numbers were not as good as originally thought. The biomass was not growing as fast as expected, and recruitment was not as good as NMFS hoped.

The biologists had predicted the year before that total allowable landings (TAL) for 2006 would be 33 million pounds, up from 30.3 million in 2005. Instead, Kurkul claimed that the TAL had to be dropped to 23.59 million pounds, which was ultimately done. Fisheries management is aiming to increase the fluke biomass to 204 million pounds by the year 2010, and Kurkul maintained that only by cutting back to 23.59 million pounds could the management plan have a better than 50 percent chance of achieving this goal.

John V. O'Shea, executive director of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, took opponents of the cutbacks to task recently in the ASMFC's publication, Fisheries Focus.  "None of the speakers expressed concerns about not meeting the rebuilding target by 2010 or of the consequences of a possible partial or full moratorium in 2009," he stressed.  "What was clear was that those present were speaking passionately from their individual and short-term perspectives. They want more fish to take home next year, and they want more fish for their customers to take home so they can stay in business another year."

Most of the anglers and party boat captains who spoke at the ASMFC meeting in Galloway, of which O'Shea was referring, would agree with his second sentence.

Bruce L. Freeman, research scientist with the state Bureau of Marine Fisheries, has revealed that the coastal release rate of fluke was 85 percent in 2005, the highest ever. Coastal landings in the recreational sector were 3,838,729 fluke in 2005. Anglers probably released 20 to 25 million fish, many of them hooked and released perhaps a dozen to 20 times during the course of the season.

Biologists have put the mortality rate of released fluke at 10 percent; so the kill beyond landings could be very high.

New York overfished its quota again in 2005, this time by 23 percent, landing 1,041,825 fish, second only to New Jersey's 1,315,026 fish. New York will be forced to take a 38 percent reduction this year.

Connecticut overfished its quota by 18 percent, landing 211,426 fish, and requiring a cutback of 35 percent. Massachusetts undershot its quota by 10 percent, but will still have to cut back 15 percent.

New Jersey was under its quota of 1,873,000 fish by 30 percent, and thus could stay the same this year or the season could be lengthened a bit on either or both ends with its 10 percent liberalization factor.

O'Shea pointed out that scientists claim the fluke biomass is not as large as had been expected, "probably due to unaccounted for removals from recreational harvest and commercial discards."  The government's claim that the biologists' projections on the progress of rebuilding the stocks that would allow a harvest of 33 million pounds this year were wrong "probably because of unaccounted for removals" is unsettling.

Thomas P. Fote, legislative chairman of the Jersey Coast Anglers Association, reminded that fishermen have been cutting back for years waiting for the day when they can land more fluke.  "It's not happening," he said. "We've been saying all along that they don't know how to manage a recovering stock."

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