The following article is an edited version of a February 5 e-mail from Tom Fote from the Jersey Coast Anglers Association:

Tom McCloy at the AFMC meeting on Monday gave me the below tables they are going to present to the Summer Flounder Board on Thursday.  If they are approved on Thursday by the Summer Flounder Board the New Jersey Marine Fisheries Council will hold an advisors' meeting to receive comments and then probably discuss and vote on it at their March 6th meeting.  The NJMFC does not have an easy job in making a decision, since the southern part of the state needs the early season, and the party and charter boats need the bigger bag limit to survive. There are no good choices, but they will have to choose one.  I thought we might only have choices with a size limit that was between 18 ½ and 19 ½, and at least we are doing better than that.
 
I am hoping that the benchmark assessment finally corrects the bad science and we can go back to realistic quotas.  We all make mistakes and I hope that this year NMFS can admit that their targets are wrong and stop killing the recreational and commercial fishing industry.
 
Here are the numbers:
 
17 ½ inch June 28 through Sept. 8 with a two-fish limit
17 ½ inch July 4 through Sept. 2 with an eight fish bag limit
18 inch May 24 through Sept. 8 with an eight-fish limit
18 ½ inch May 17 through Oct. 17 with an eight-fish limit
 
I will send out an email after the ASMFC Summer Flounder meeting finishes in Alexandria on Thursday. Have a good time at the boat show (Atlantic City Boat Show) and stop by the JCAA booth to get information on getting the pots off the reef bill. Bill Figley will be at our booth two of those days to discuss it.

Editor's Note: See also Fluke Showdown: The Most Important Fight Anglers Ever Faced and Coalition Aims to Fund Research Disputing Government's Fluke Data.

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