October 24, 2013 — New York wants to see summer flounder managed on a regional basis.
Capt. Anthony DiLernia, a voting member of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC) maintains there are two problems with the conservation equivalency or state-by-state management system currently in place. Under that system, individual states set size, season and bag limits for it’s quota of summer flounder.
DiLernia says the system is an “enforcement nightmare.” Some bodies of water often have two sets of regulations, such as Raritan Bay, shared with New York and New Jersey, or Delaware Bay, shared by Delaware and New Jersey. “There’s a conflict in regulations and it’s difficult to enforce,” DiLernia said.
The second issue pertains to the Magnuson Stevens Act. The act defines a fishery by its location and distribution. In 1997, when the coastwide equivalency system was set up, the epicenter of the summer flounder population, according to the data used at the time, was between Delaware and New Jersey.
Now, says DiLernia, the fishery has changed, with the bulk of the summer flounder concentrated between New Jersey and New York.
“The fishery is different. You can’t keep using a state-by-state system that was established with 1997 and 1998 data to manage a 2014 fishery,” said DiLernia.