May 26, 2017 — The state’s summer flounder season will begin Thursday as scheduled despite an Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission board motion Monday to not accept New Jersey’s new rules.
Recreational anglers in state waters will get to keep up to three summer flounder per day that meet the 18-inch minimum-length requirement. The season will run through Sept. 5.
The state Marine Fisheries Council last week adopted the regulations, which they believe achieve the conservation equivalency the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service requested.
“We are going forward with the regulations, because we strongly believe that we have passed regulations that meet the conservation equivalency of the Commission’s proposed quota limits,” state Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin said Wednesday.
Last year, anglers in the state were allowed to keep five fish at 18 inches in the ocean and four fish at 17 inches in the bay.
In February, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission approved reductions that would have limited New Jersey recreational fishermen to three fish at 19 inches in the ocean and three at 18 inches in the Delaware Bay.