The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC) and Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) met jointly in Baltimore on December 10-13th to set recreational measures for summer flounder, scup and black sea bass for the 2013 fishing year.
Summer Flounder: Wave 5 MRIP data showed that only New York and New Jersey exceeded the 2012 recreational catch quota by approximately 15%. As most other states were under their respective quotas, it is not clear whether any reduction will be necessary. The Council approved conservation equivalency and the ASMFC and individual states will determine state-specific size, season and bag limits to control catch to not exceed the 7.63 recreational harvest limit.
Scup: The preliminary scup catch estimate for 2012 is 4.63 million lbs and significantly below the 2012 recreational catch limit of 7.55 million lbs. Therefore, the Council approved less-restrictive management measures for 2013. Scup management is a hybrid of both conservation equivalency and coastwide management. For federal waters, the Council manages scup with coastwide measures and voted to recommend a reduction in the minimum fish size from 11 inches to 10 inches, an increase in the possession limit from 20 to 30 fish, and maintained the year round open season. The ASMFC voted to continue conservation equivalency in state waters and states will develop state-specific management measures for approval at the Commission’s February meeting.
There was no discussion regarding the ongoing amendment to reconsider the present scup commercial and recreational allocation of 78%/22% and I will continue to monitor this amendment and provide updates later in 2013.
Black Sea Bass: Black sea bass was the most controversial decision as MRIP Wave 5 data reported an overage nearly double the 2012 recreational catch limit, despite restrictive measures in place in both federal and state waters. The bad news is that, under the existing management plan, overages must be accounted for and deducted from the subsequent fishing year, which would be 2014, as final catch data for 2012 will not be final until mid-2013. If required, such a deduction could mean no recreational black sea bass fishing in 2014.
The good news is that both the Council and Board view the 2012 overage as strong evidence that the black sea bass fishery is rebuilt, very healthy and abundant and expanding into areas where black sea bass was rarely caught in past years. Therefore, the Council initiated a series of measures to avoid any significant catch reductions in 2014 including:
In the meantime, the Council maintained generally the same management measures for federal waters in 2013, including a 20-fish possession limit (5-fish reduction in bag limit), a 12.5 inch minimum fish size (0.5 inch increase) and an open season from January 1st – February 28, May 19th through October 14th, and November 1st through December 31st. However, this is subject to the ASMFC ability to develop an addendum at its February meeting to allow for state-specific or regional approaches for management and set appropriate conservation measures for state waters in 2013. If the ASMFC is unable to take this action at its February meeting, the Council will have to modify federal waters measures and severely restrict black sea bass fishing in federal waters in 2013 to achieve the 1.85 million lbs recreational catch limit. Obviously, both the Council and ASMFC’s meetings in February will be crucial to attend and/or monitor.
