Summer flounder or “fluke,” (Paralichthys dentatus) are favorites of family-level anglers. They are the primary target of the mid-Atlantic’s summer headboat business, and they are highly sought after by commercial draggers. Fluke contribute greatly to coastal economies in the mid-Atlantic, but by every legal and scientific definition, the species is overfished.

Thanks to tighter commercial restrictions and recreational limits, spawning stock biomass is four times what it was just 10 years ago. But more restrictions are mandated by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act, which, with limited exceptions, sets a ten-year deadline for rebuilding overfished stocks. Some fishermen believe that because of such growth in fluke stocks they should not be subject to further regulations that aim to rebuild the population by 2013. These cutbacks would cause temporary economic pain, thus fluke are a divisive issue among anglers, and unfortunately, a source of agreement between a subset of recreational anglers and commercial fishermen. Conservation-minded anglers believe that further sacrifice is a temporary necessity if real conservation goals are to be achieved.

Background

After Congress enacted the Sustainable Fisheries Act in 1996, the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council (MAFMC) amended the summer flounder management plan. However, amendment provisions tried to balance rebuilding with the economic impacts on fishermen, and political pressure inevitably put too much emphasis on the latter. As a result, when the 1999 quota was set, it only had an 18 percent chance of successfully rebuilding the stock within the timeframe established by federal law.

The Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC), a New York City-based environmental group, sued, demanding that the rebuilding plan have a reasonable chance of successfully meeting the 10-year rebuilding deadline. In 2000, the suit ended with a landmark decision that required management plans to have no less than a 50 percent chance of rebuilding the stock. Meaningful size and bag limits were imposed, and until recently, appeared to be working.

Population recovery has stalled, with the summer flounder population only 53 percent restored. While some question the data used to establish the target stock size, it has been peer-reviewed 16 times in the last 23 years.

“The quality of the scientific data on fluke is among the best for mid-Atlantic species,” notes Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission Executive Director Vince O’Shea.

Reckless Management

The current predicament could have been avoided if managers exercised caution instead of bowing to the fishing industries’ pressure to harvest more fish. For years, despite clear signs that fluke were being overfished, managers influenced by political pressure allowed them to be harvested at maximum levels, instead of taking a precautionary approach. Meanwhile, their models failed to account for natural fluctuations and bias.

“If the science is uncertain, why on earth would the MAFMC cling to constantly fishing at maximum sustainable yield?” asks Massachusetts angler Mike Flaherty. “When the data is wrong the surprise is rarely pleasant.”

But commercial fishers and a a small contingent of the recreational fishing industry would like to see managers lower the rebuilding target, without any peer-reviewed science to support their agenda. Yet the provisions of the new Magnuson Act, that require fisheries decisions to be based on the best available science, stand in their way. So this subset of the recreational fishing industry joined ranks with the commercial fishermen, and attacked the law itself. By doing so, they further decrease the likelihood of fairer allocations of the public trust resource for family-level anglers. And by labeling groups such as NRDC as “environmental extremists,” or resorting to absurd accusations that those who support the existing federal law are determined to end all fishing, they undermine their own credibility. By association, they undermine the credibility of the recreational fishing community as being conservation-minded, and the potential for partnership on local habitat and water-quality campaigns with environmental organizations.

Feasibility

Under pressure from East Coast legislators, Congress extended the rebuilding period for fluke by three years, to 2013, when it reauthorized the Magnuson Act in 2006. Commercial and some recreational fishing industry groups question whether it is possible to reach the rebuilding goal by then, claiming that there are factors other than harvest affecting summer flounder mortality, including natural predation, competition for food, pollution and the loss of estuarine breeding grounds. They assert that such factors are not taken into account when creating rebuilding targets, which they predictably call “arbitrary,” “pie in the sky,” and “unscientific.”

Tony Bogan, president of the United Boatmen of New Jersey and New York and one of the founders of Save the Summer Flounder Fishery Fund told the Asbury Park Press, “I’m no scientist, but I personally think it is unrealistic to believe that the stocks can be rebuilt to that level.” But scientists insist that stocks can be rebuilt if fishing mortality is reduced.

“Even at these recruitment levels, the stock has the potential to go to 197 million pounds,” said Jessica Coakley, summer flounder management plan coordinator for MAFMC. “Stock growth, despite growing pressure and high fishing mortality rates, suggests that the current environment can support a large summer flounder population.”

“Flexibility”

Because those commercial and recreational fishing industry organizations did not get what they wanted during the Magnuson Reauthorization (essentially the right to continue to overfish and to disregard the best available science when setting regulations), they have been putting heavy pressure on decision-makers to add what they call “flexibility” to Magnuson’s rebuilding provisions.

In November, Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina introduced the Flexibility in Rebuilding American Fisheries Act (HR 4087). Then in mid-February, Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey sponsored a similar bill (H.R. 5425) the Flexibility in Rebuilding American Fisheries Act of 2008. Both bills would allow fisheries managers to extend the 10-year deadline to minimize negative impacts on fishing communities while stocks are rebuilding. The two bills would essentially reinstate the pre-1996 approach to fishery management, when “economic impact” was more important than sustainable fishing. Delays in rebuilding only reduce and delay the longterm economic gain that may be realized by completely recovering the stock. A strong negative example is the collapse of New England groundfish stocks, and of course the striped bass success story is a testament to what can be achieved through science-based management.

The Jones and Pallone legislation would merely cloak delay with the euphemism “flexibility,” and allow managers to avoid lawsuits and the requirement to recover fish populations. For decades, anglers have rightfully criticized commercial interests for pursuing a course of action that has diminished fish populations on every American coast. Conservation-minded anglers are concerned that a portion of the fishing industry are partnering with these very same commercial fishermen and are resorting to the same goals and tactics used to justify overfishing that robs generations of anglers.

It is all too easy to turn a blind eye to conservation when the pain hits close to home. But weakening current fisheries law will cause far more problems for fish and fishermen in the long run.

—John McMurray

Current Status

In 2007, recreational catch targets for summer flounder were exceeded by all but two states. “They were all over except Virginia and Massachusetts. They were 20 to 60 percent over,” said MAFMC’s Jessica Coakley.

In July, the Summer Flounder Monitoring Committee released a preliminary stock assessment that recommended a 32 percent reduction in summer flounder harvest. However, despite the past history of overfishing, managers bowed to pressure again, and adopted the riskiest option presented to them.

Late in October, Bill Hogarth, then the Assistant Administrator of NOAA Fisheries, sent a letter to the Chairman of the MAFMC, threatening a shutdown in federal waters. “Let me stress that if the measures implemented by the states to manage the 2008 recreational fishery are not effective to constraining recreational harvest limit, NMFS is prepared to close the summer flounder recreational fishery in the exclusive economic zone.”