THE news on summer flounder keeps getting worse with last week’s announcement by the Summer Flounder Management Board that there will be further reductions for 2008.
At the meeting last week in Port Jefferson, L.I., the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC) and Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) Summer Flounder Management Board approved a 15.77 million-pound total allowable landings (TAL) limit for the 2008 summer flounder fishery, a 1.3-million-pound reduction from 2007.
Translated, anglers will be limited to 6.3 million pounds of fluke next year, the lowest recreational quota in the history of the fishery.
It can be expected that if the 15.77-million-pound TAL stands, anglers again will see minimum size limits increase, bag limits decrease and shorter seasons in 2008, despite the fact that there are currently more fluke than ever. The mismanagement of this fishery will manifest in more fish being killed, due to discard mortality, than fish being brought to the dock. Discarding within the recreational summer flounder fishery has proven to be wasteful and very discouraging to anglers.
There also were decreases in the TAL approved by the council for both sea bass and scup.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in partnership with nine state fish and wildlife agencies, including New Yorks DEC, is starting a three-year pilot program to make it easier for hunters, bird-watchers, stamp collectors and others who want to conserve our nations wetlands to buy Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamps, commonly known as Duck Stamps.
This new program, debuting Sept. 1, allows the fish and wildlife agencies to sell stamps electronically through their individual automated licensing systems, providing a special receipt as proof of purchase. This proof of purchase, a code given to the purchaser instantly, will be accepted as evidence of a Federal Duck Stamp purchase for 45 days, time enough for the printed stamp to arrive in the mail.
Duck Stamp purchasers now will be able to buy an electronic duck stamp from these nine states’ retail licensing locations, by telephone or Web site. Every waterfowl hunter over the age of 16 is required to buy a Federal Duck Stamp in order to hunt waterfowl. In addition, Federal Duck Stamps provide free entry into any national wildlife refuge in the country that charges an entrance fee.
For more info about the Federal Duck Stamp program go to http://www.fws.gov/duckstamps/.
“The Duck Stamp program provides much needed funding for wetland conservation, and it is important that they are marketed appropriately for today’s Web-savvy public,” said Matt Hogan, Executive Director of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. “The E-Duck Stamp meets the needs of modern day hunters and stamp collectors and ensures continued success for wetland conservation.”
