The following is an edited, synopsized e-mail from Tom Fote from the Jersey Coast Anglers Association:

Process for Proposing Options for Fluke Regulations for 2008

I was sent an e-mail asking how a person can submit an option to be considered for the 2008 summer flounder regulations. I figured that my reply to that e-mail might help anglers better understand.

Last year there was much talk from anglers proposing many different options. At this time the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife has no flexibility to implement such options.

If you want to submit a proposal, then you need to submit it to Tom McCloy at the Division of Fish and Wildlife.

Here is the process that the Division of Fish and Wildlife will go through to set the regulations for 2008: 

The Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council (MAFMC) and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) will hold joint meeting in Port Jefferson, N.Y.,  on August 7 and 8 to set the total quotas for summer flounder, black sea bass, scup and bluefish for 2008.

The ASMFC can delay its actions on setting quotas until another meeting, and that's what they did last year.

The MAFMC and the ASMFC will then meet in December to set the recreational size and bag limits for 2008. If the ASMFC  decides to allow "conservation equivalence" (a process that involves allowing a state to propose a deviation from the size and bag limit based on scientific evidence) it will send out tables to the states that will show different options that states can pick from.

The tables leave little room for new ideas.

They MAFMC and the ASMFC will also know if NJ went over the quota for 2007.  If the Marine Recreational Statistical Survey says NJ went over the recreational Total Allowable Catch (TAL), then the tables will reflect that extra reduction. 

There are not going to be any good options for 2008, because apparently the quota is going to be smaller. We are catching lots of legal fish, so we're probably going over the small TAL for 2007.

Sometime in early 2008, the NJ Marine Fisheries Council Committee for summer flounder will have a meeting with its advisors to look at options and try to come to consensus. After that meeting, the full council will vote on recommendations for the size and bag limits for 2008 at the next NJMFC full meeting and forward those recommendations to the commissioner for approval.

I hope this helps you understand the process. If any state is proposing any deviation from the tables, then that deviation will require the necessary scientific documentation and analysis to prove that it is conservation equivalent.  The Division of Fish and Wildlife really has no necessary data to do special management plans.  At this time the Division of Fish and Wildlife has no money to gather the data.

We are pretty much stuck with what comes out in the tables.  It is also not going to help if we go over the current TAL.

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