{"id":4727,"date":"2013-04-02T14:50:32","date_gmt":"2013-04-02T18:50:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/?p=4727"},"modified":"2014-10-10T14:44:09","modified_gmt":"2014-10-10T18:44:09","slug":"sound-fisheries-management-is-no-fluke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2013\/04\/02\/sound-fisheries-management-is-no-fluke\/","title":{"rendered":"Sound Fisheries Management is No Fluke"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"Summer<\/a>
photo credit: Michael McDonough<\/a> via photopin<\/a> cc<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Recently a US Senate subcommittee held a hearing entitled \u201c<\/span>Developments and Opportunities in US Fisheries Management<\/a>,\u201d with testimony by federal, regional and state officials that focused on the need for collaboration in fisheries management and decision-making based on sound science.\u00a0 More than two and a half hours of testimony and questioning by Senators focused on the role of science and the <\/span>Magnuson Stevens Act<\/a> in effective management of our nation\u2019s fisheries, especially summer flounder or \u201cfluke.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

New York and New Jersey have long been embroiled in an interstate conflict over what New York Senator Chuck Schumer has called \u201cour decades long fight to bring fairness, flexibility, and accountability into the management of summer flounder<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 To that point, a reoccurring theme in the testimony was that effective fisheries management requires high quality data and regular stock assessments.\u00a0 This notion was also echoed at a House Natural Resources Committee hearing a week earlier.<\/p>\n

What is clear in the early hours of debating MSA\u2019s reauthorization is that stakeholders across the board are focused on a common top priority \u2013 simply, good science is fundamental to good management<\/strong>.\u00a0 This reality is at the core of the interstate summer flounder battle, with NY arguing that the use of outdated data has led to an unequal allocation of fish between states.<\/p>\n

Fluke is an important species. \u00a0Managed jointly by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council, the 2012 stock assessment indicated that it is not overfished and that overfishing is not occurring.\u00a0 Fishery managers have allocated 60% of the fluke harvest to the commercial fishery and 40% to the recreational fishery. \u00a0While the commercial quota is allocated between the states based on historical commercial landings (a common practice), the recreational harvest targets are assigned proportionally to the states based on estimated harvest data in 1998 using a data collection method called the Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey (MRFSS).\u00a0 Herein lies the cause of conflict.\u00a0 MRFSS is antiquated and is actively being replaced. It is considered largely unreliable by anglers up and down the East Coast and limited in efficacy by managers, and 1998 was 15 years ago.\u00a0 I\u2019m willing to bet the characteristics of the fleet and the fishery have also changed significantly over that time.<\/p>\n

The encouraging news is that new data exists and is ready to be operationalized.\u00a0 According to Bob Beal, the Executive Director of the ASMFC, estimates of the new statistical survey used to estimate recreational catch \u2013 the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP) \u2013indicate changes in the recreational fishing patterns and fishing effort within the region. \u00a0In other words, current data is available for managers to make better management decisions based on what\u2019s happening today, not 15 years ago.<\/p>\n

Accurate, timely science and data is critical to effective fisheries management.\u00a0 When the data is there, let\u2019s use it.\u00a0 And if it\u2019s not, especially in an era of shrinking budgets and resources, creative solutions must be developed and implemented.\u00a0 True to the very title of the Senate hearing, cooperative management presents a significant opportunity for fishery managers, scientists, fishermen and other stakeholders. It could result in benefits to management and environmental performance, as well as cost savings for management agencies.\u00a0 Managers and scientists could do more to incorporate users’ knowledge of the resource so we can have more confidence in their conclusions.<\/p>\n

The recent summer flounder hearing, and the House Natural Resources hearing the week before it, provided a useful focal point for Congress and the states by emphasizing the need for quality data and sound science in managing our fisheries, as well as the problems associated with relying on outdated science in constantly changing ecosystems.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Recently a US Senate subcommittee held a hearing entitled \u201cDevelopments and Opportunities in US Fisheries Management,\u201d with testimony by federal, regional and state officials that focused on the need for collaboration in fisheries management and decision-making based on sound science.\u00a0 More than two and a half hours of testimony and questioning by Senators focused …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8505,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[471,42656],"tags":[157,517,42688,5202,70,42,42689],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-4727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mid-atlantic","category-scienceresearch","tag-data","tag-fishery-management","tag-fluke","tag-monitoring","tag-research","tag-science","tag-summer-flounder"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSound Fisheries Management is No Fluke - EDFish<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2013\/04\/02\/sound-fisheries-management-is-no-fluke\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sound Fisheries Management is No Fluke - 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