Doesn't this sound familiar.....more research is needed to determine the health and biomass of one of fish stocks? This is from the NATIONAL FISHERMEN, and has been up on their website since the beginning of the month, but now with the recreational season almost upon us, I just wanted to point this article out as to where the fishing industry and fishery regulators are as far as the fishing closure to the southern New England blackback stock.
The current analysis model managers use says the southern New England/Mid-Atlantic spawning stock biomass of 3,368 metric tons estimated in 2007 was just 9 percent of the target of 38,761 metric tons. But landings and discard mortality that year totaled 3,016 metric tons — and still, fishermen see winter flounder out there.Interestingly comparisons are made back to the 1960s when landings of winter flounder were at their highest:
The fishery’s historic peaks date to 1966 when nearly 12,000 metric tons were landed, and another boom around 11,000 metric tons in 1981. Blackbacks were easy to catch in the early 1980s and supported a tidy business among small-scale draggers.Many questions remain as to:- Whether there has been a shift northward in this fishery as a result of Bay and Harbor water temperatures rising over the last two decades dramatically effecting spawning- Stock biomass decreasing not due to fishing effort, but as a result of some natural phenomenon - Higher prevalence of predators in the mid-Atlantic region Bays reducing juvenile stockAt the end of this little article, this point was brought up:
During a May research cruise from Cape May, N.J., to Montauk, the Northeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program inshore survey using Wanchese, N.C., skipper Jimmy Ruhle’s dragger Darana R saw a “two-to-one [ratio] in apparent percentage of winter flounder to summer flounder,” Brady says.Go here to read the complete article:
FISHERMEN - MARCH 2010 - Northeast Groundfish Research is called for to determine story behind winter flounder numbers
One does wonder on the health of this fishery, but I can point out that many hook and line fishermen are seeing more winter flounders being caught off the beach in depths of water greater then 50 feet now then
The current analysis model managers use says the southern New England/Mid-Atlantic spawning stock biomass of 3,368 metric tons estimated in 2007 was just 9 percent of the target of 38,761 metric tons. But landings and discard mortality that year totaled 3,016 metric tons — and still, fishermen see winter flounder out there.Interestingly comparisons are made back to the 1960s when landings of winter flounder were at their highest:
The fishery’s historic peaks date to 1966 when nearly 12,000 metric tons were landed, and another boom around 11,000 metric tons in 1981. Blackbacks were easy to catch in the early 1980s and supported a tidy business among small-scale draggers.Many questions remain as to:- Whether there has been a shift northward in this fishery as a result of Bay and Harbor water temperatures rising over the last two decades dramatically effecting spawning- Stock biomass decreasing not due to fishing effort, but as a result of some natural phenomenon - Higher prevalence of predators in the mid-Atlantic region Bays reducing juvenile stockAt the end of this little article, this point was brought up:
During a May research cruise from Cape May, N.J., to Montauk, the Northeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program inshore survey using Wanchese, N.C., skipper Jimmy Ruhle’s dragger Darana R saw a “two-to-one [ratio] in apparent percentage of winter flounder to summer flounder,” Brady says.Go here to read the complete article:
FISHERMEN - MARCH 2010 - Northeast Groundfish Research is called for to determine story behind winter flounder numbers
One does wonder on the health of this fishery, but I can point out that many hook and line fishermen are seeing more winter flounders being caught off the beach in depths of water greater then 50 feet now then
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