NOAA Approves Recreational Management Measures for Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass
May 23, 2008
NOAA’s Fisheries Service today approved fishing year 2008 management measures for summer flounder, scup and black sea bass recreational fisheries operating in the Atlantic waters from North Carolina to Maine to ensure overfishing does not occur.
All three species are managed under rebuilding plans. Recreational management measures include size restrictions, possession limits and fishing seasons.
In addition to the specific management measures, NOAA’s Fisheries Service intends to monitor the summer flounder recreational fishery closely and, if necessary, close federal waters should projections indicate that the recreational harvest limit may be exceeded by Dec. 31. This is to help ensure that the summer flounder stock continues to rebuild, and to mitigate the need for more severe management measures in the future.
Primarily as a result of overfishing in 2007, coastwide landings must be reduced from the 2007 harvest levels by just over 33 percent for summer flounder and by about 52 percent for scup. Since 2007, landings for black sea bass are estimated to have been 20 percent below the harvest limit, so no further reductions are necessary for 2008.
For specific information on measures for federal and state waters, visit NOAA's Fisheries Service Northeast Regional Office Web site.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 70 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.