February 4, 2014 — New Jersey anglers will see reduced fluke catches this year, to the benefit of neighboring New York, under a decision made Tuesday by an interstate fisheries pane
The decision also could mean two different fluke sizes in the Delaware Bay, with a smaller keeper size in Delaware waters and a larger one on the New Jersey side.
New Jersey was on the short end of a 9-2 vote at the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission meeting in Virginia as the East Coast states that land the popular flatfish, also known as summer flounder, voted in new measures for the 2014 fishing season. Only Virginia voted with New Jersey.
“Virginia realized it wasn’t fair,” said Tom Fote, a New Jersey representative on the ASMFC, an interstate panel that regulates migratory fish. “Our allocation is basically going to New York. It sets a bad precedent where they basically take fish from one state and give it to another, because New York has been crying for six years.”
New York has complained its anglers are allowed fewer fish per day, and they must be larger to be considered keepers. The system in place since 2001 awards each state a quota, and the states get to determine their own measures, called a “conservation equivalency,” to meet that quota. New Jersey has received 39.1 percent and New York 17.6 percent of the East Coast quota, the two highest amounts of the nine states that fish for fluke, since 2001.
Read the full story at the Press of Atlantic City