Summer Flounder Fishing Update. Atlantic City & Margate

Summer flounder. New Jersey’s recreational fishermen — and has long been the source of many millions of dollars in tourism revenue each summer.

NJ has petitioned a federal commission to reverse its new restrictions on catching summer flounder in state waters in 2017.

Talk to any South Jersey fisherman. They’ll tell you how important flounder fishing is.  It’s part of a $1.5 billion recreational industry. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC ) sees flounder as “highly prized in the recreational  fishery”. Easily caught from beaches, piers, and boats.

ASMFC is a federal body that is supposed to monitor and protect commercial fish populations from Maine to Florida. They think flounder has been over-fished. They want to put more restrictions on the flat fish so it can repopulate.

Increase the recreational “keep” size of summer flounder caught in New Jersey’s coastal waters this year from 18 to 19 inches, and reduced the number of flounder that an angler may possess in one day from five to three.

It could also shorten this year’s fishing season for flounder, which typically runs from mid-May to mid-September. Flounder caught in Delaware Bay may be kept if they are 18 inches or larger

Size and keep limits vary from region to region. Delaware’s limit is 17 inches and a four-fish possession limits.

Because the female fluke tends to be larger than the male, it argues the 19-inch limit means those that are kept will “overwhelmingly be reproductive females.”

These restrictions an “economic disadvantage” for New Jersey.  Many want a new study of the flounder population and fish size in New Jersey’s waters.

It is actually better for the commercial fishermen that use to nets to keep the smaller 14 inch flounder. Everything that comes up in there nets is likely to die. If they could only keep the 18 inch flounder and bigger like the recreational fishermen, all of those smaller fish would have to be thrown back in the water and not count against their quota.


I remember fishing great bay back in the 70’s and early 80’s. There were so many boats that you Had to be attentive as to not drift into them. Now, even on a pleasant weekend you need binoculars to locate perhaps a dozen boats engaged in fishing. The days of coolers overflowing with fluke, weakfish, blow fish and other species are over and they’re not coming back. The goal now is to prevent extinctions.


The Marine Fisheries Council should finish the job by going to each dock in NJ and shoot holes in all the charter boats hulls. This is a disgrace. Poor scientific data resulting in rash decisions about what I, as a recreational angler, am allowed to keep. For people with smaller boats like me (22CC), there is almost no use in putting the boat in the water during summer months. I can’t fish far enough for tuna or other pelagics unless the ocean is mirror calm so why spend slip fees, gas, bait, ice, food, drink money for 3 fish?? I’m sure someone in NJ government is getting a nice handout from the $1.5BIL spent by us, you’d think they would want to keep that cash cow going.


I’m not entirely convinced that there is a major decline in the overall flounder population. I have no faith in the government survey that determines the flounder population. NOAA uses a trawl net to survey the flounder population. It is my understanding that the commercial fishermen that are trawl netting flounder next to the NOAA boat are pulling up 3-5 times more flounder per trawl than the NOAA boat. The NOAA boat is using gear protectors that keep the nets from snagging on the rough bottom which allows a lot of flounder to avoid being netted. Basically the net is passing over top of the flounder instead of catching them.


I own my own 20 foot boat and if I was worried about the cost per fish, my boat would never leave the dock. I enjoy fishing very much and I also like to eat what I catch, but it is way cheaper to just buy fish at the market. Everyone that owns a boat knows this.


It’s not a recreational or commercial issue. Its a governmental regulation issue. The government keeps raising the recreational size limit in an effort to conserve the population but that only kills more prime breeder female flounder, i.e the ones that produce the most baby flounder

 

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