Regulators have approved a 29 percent cut to the quota for the summer flounder fishery next year.
The flatfish, also known as fluke, are among the most valuable commercial species in the region -- and they're highly popular with recreational fishermen in Delaware Bay and beyond.
Kiley Dancy is the fishery plan coordinator for the council. She expects the cut will bring next year's total catch for fluke in the mid-Atlantic down from 23 million pounds to about 16 million.
"As you might expect, we've had a lot of the outcry from a lot of the fishermen, explaining the economic or social impacts that might take place," she says.
She says the commercial fluke fishery was worth about $30 million in 2014, and adds that this cut will mean tighter recreational limits for the species, too.
"It would mean, likely, decreased seasons, decreased possession limits and perhaps increased size limits as well," she says, adding that those details will be hashed out state-by-state this fall. In Delaware, the current minimum size for summer flounder is 16 inches, with a limit of four fish per angler at a time.
The 29 percent cut is less than the 45 percent the council's staff first recommended. That was based on annual stock assessments that have found declining recruitment in the fishery -- meaning, fewer new flounder coming into the population each year.
Dancy says fishermen feel they're seeing more fluke on the water than the regulators are finding in their assessments. Either way, she says 29 percent cut was a necessary compromise -- they expect to spread the full cut out over the next few years.
