April 3, 2014 — For the past several years, when it comes to summer flounder anyway, its been a matter of tweaking the regulations to fit the data. Last year, for the first time in a long time, the actual size limit on the fish went down a half inch to 17½ inches. New Jersey even gained a some extra days of fishing at the end of the season when unused quota from other states was shared with the New York and New Jersey.
This, year however will be a little different. For the first time, summer flounder will be managed on a regional basis.
It used to be that the only certain things in life were death and taxes. Now we can add new fishing regulations every year to the list.
Coming up with the new size, season and bag limits for each species every year is not an easy process. In the most simple terms, fishery managers take into account the number of fish caught the previous season and the health and vitality of the fishery then through a series of models and formulas, develop harvest quotas for the commercial and recreational fisheries.
They then develop regulations that enable fisherman to harvest the resource without endangering the health and sustainability of the fishery.
However, the number of variables involved in fishery management make it one of the most inexact sciences. Questionable data, poorly understood fisheries and hidden environmental factors make it nearly impossible to get an accurate picture.
Add competition for limited resources and conflicts among state and federal agencies and the process becomes increasingly unwieldy.
Even with all of those obstacles, fishery scientists do an incredible job of monitoring stocks and providing anglers with as many fishing days as possible, despite governmental constraints and the intrusion of political agendas.
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