Summer Flounder, Scup, Black Sea Bass and Bluefish Update MRAC September 13, 2016

Summer Flounder Assessment update July 2016 (data through 2015): Biomass declining Overfishing Poor recruitment for multiple years Approaching threshold 2017 Catch limit will decrease by 30% -17%

Summer Flounder Catch Limits What does a 30% reduction mean? Commercial: Adjustments to open season and/or trip limits will have to be made – to be discussed at Dec./Jan. quota management meeting Recreational: Depends on recreational harvest and if/how much the coast is over -17%

Scup Slight decline in biomass ABCs decline w/ biomass Very large 2015 year class seen consistently in all northern surveys -17%

Scup Catch Limits Perspective from 2015 coastal scup fisheries: Commercial harvested 17.031 m lbs Recreational harvested 5.060 m lbs By 2018, the 2015 year class will be 3 yrs old, mature, and 10.0” total length

Black Sea Bass Catch Limits Catch limits above not based upon an accepted assessment and are probably overly-conservative Assessment scheduled to be complete late 2016, may result in management changes for 2017 Similar to the 2011-2012 year class, 2015-2016s will probably be very strong

2016 Commercial Black Sea Bass To be determined….

Bluefish 2016 Coastwide, commercial quotas depends upon recreational harvest from the previous year Initial estimates of 2015 rec. harvest were very high, these were adjusted and catch limits updated in final Federal Rule dated August 4th, 2016, including state comm. allocations NY comm. allocation ~507,000 lb. Transfers are being secured to increase that to ~757,000 lb. NY is currently open at a 500 lb. trip limit In previous years, NY’s commercial bluefish landings have been around ~1 million pounds.

Bluefish Catch Limits Catch limits increase over next few years Comm. quota remains dependent upon rec harvest NY comm. allocation is ~10.4% of coast-wide quota

Bluefish SSB from 2015 Assessment