SUMMER FLOUNDER ARE NOT BEING OVERFISHED !


The truth on flounder numbers is leaking from the fisheries management system .

The new model that is being used on summer flounder proves anglers are not overfishing and overfishing is not occurring. , but the full results of the peer review of the summer flounder stock assessment will not be
released until July 28. Among other things it has been learned that the target biomass has been cut significantly from the original 214 million pounds.

Now government scientists admit that there are probably four times as many fluke today as there were 50 years ago. The rub was that NMFS believed there should be twice as many again, and Congress went along with it.

Clinging to this mistake would have meant closing the fluke fishery next year or the year after in an attempt to achieve an arbitrary biomass of 214 million pounds by the end of 2012, and, when that was not attained,
keeping it closed until it was reached.

It is believed that the new summer flounder model with a new reference point that fisheries scientists have adopted presents not a biomass half-built, but one that is at least 72 percent restored.

Furthermore, NMFS lawyers are working on a new interpretation of the Magnuson-Stevens Act's 10-year rebuilding target.

Many have been asking for years what would happen in 2013, 2014, 2015 and thereafter, if the summer flounder stocks did not ever reach 214 million pounds ?

Someone, not listening to environmentalists, finally got the point.

The new interpretation, which may come out any day, is more pragmatic: something like, the intent is not lost, but keep on fishing.

No one expects a fluke bonanza in 2009; in fact, the leaks reveal a conservative approach. A slight quota increase, perhaps, depending on this year's landings, but probably not much of a change in minimum size, season or possession limit.

The part that really bothers most fishermen, as they gradually learn what is happening and what happened in the past: another failed system.

We've been fishing under this system for all this time, and they suddenly sat down and moved the starting point

NMFS was actually talking about a five-million-pound quota a couple of years ago, NMFS talked about a closure. Now they're saying, if we get to the end of the period, and the fishery is not rebuilt we just keep going.

Recreational anglers been saying this all along…... Re-interpret the intention of the law.

All of these years recreational anglers have been making sacrifices, and now NMFS says there is another model, another way. It is time to get tough on elitists in the sportfishing media who supported the phony fisheries management model so vehemently for years.

NMFS kept insisting the model and strategy was valid, The elitists and environmentalists stated that the Northeastern recreational fishermen were not dealing with reality. Now we've been proven right. .

The recreational flounder fisherman has been held hostage to another flawed NMFS system.

Stay tuned!!