https://content.govdelivery.com/acco...letins/2bd59b7
Southern Flounder Update
Over the last year, many of you have probably heard about the decline in our southern flounder population, so we wanted to provide our tagging program newsletter subscribers with the latest information as we make plans to rebuild the fishery. Recently, scientists from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida gathered all the available data on southern flounder to perform a regional stock assessment, which looks at population trends and the overall health of the fishery. While flounder don’t typically move all that much within a given season, there is some movement of fish between states over time and mixing of larvae when adults move offshore during winter to spawn. As a result, the flounder between NC and the east coast of Florida are interconnected and considered to be part of the same “biological stock.” The results from this stock assessment, while not totally unexpected, were nevertheless alarming. Southern flounder have been overfished for many years and the population has declined sharply over the last decade.
Flounder.png
South Carolina’s main inshore monitoring programs, the trammel net and electrofishing surveys tell a similar story. These programs sample our estuaries year after year and are our best method for following trends in inshore fish populations. Both surveys are catching fewer flounder and the fish they are catching are smaller on average than in previous years. The bottom line from the assessment and SCDNR’s data is clear: rebuilding the southern flounder population to a healthy, sustainable fishery is going to require a significant decrease in the number of fish harvested. Because our commercial flounder fishery in South Carolina is very small, the solution will need to come from our anglers, who account for over 99% of the state’s catch.
Over the last year, we’ve been speaking with many of you throughout the state to get input as we make potential plans for a rebuilding effort. Another 2,000 of you answered the call and responded to our online survey. Here are the main takeaways:
•Anglers recognize the decline in flounder, stating that they are catching fewer and smaller fish than they have in the past
•An overwhelming majority would like to see the fishery recover quickly
•Anglers support a combination of management options that would get us to that goal
Based on our data and the input of our constituents, SCDNR is recommending that action is taken to reduce harvest and achieve a full recovery of the flounder population within a 10-year period. There are many different combinations of management options that could get us to that goal, but a piecemeal solution is not going to be effective. For example, reducing the bag limit from 10 fish to 5 fish may seem like a way to cut the harvest in half, but in reality, that change would have a much smaller effect. It would only impact those less frequent trips where people were already harvesting more than 5 fish a person (likely someone fishing via gig or a very skilled hook and line angler). To have a real positive impact, a bigger reduction in catch will be needed. We have suggested a combination of options that would maximize angler’s access to the fishery while still reducing catch enough to achieve that goal of a full recovery:
•Reduce the bag limit from 10 fish/person/day to 2 fish/person/day
•Reduce the boat limit from 20 fish/person/day to 6 fish/person/day
•Institute a fishing season from July 1 to October 31
Many of you are probably aware that North Carolina has already made significant changes to reduce their harvest. Those actions are going to have a positive impact on the population, but this is a regional decline that will need a regional solution. As someone who, according to my wife, has spent maybe too much time chasing South Carolina flounder, I’m excited about the prospect of a quality fishery with bigger and more abundant fish and I hope we’re able to get there in the coming years.
While SCDNR monitors our local fish populations and provides recommendations for effective management, we do not make changes to bag limits, size limits, etc. Any change to existing law would ultimately occur within the South Carolina General Assembly. We welcome feedback on this and any other issues related to saltwater fishing. You can contact me; Matt Perkinson, Saltwater Fishing Outreach Coordinator at
PerkinsonM@dnr.sc.gov with questions or concerns.
Be on the lookout for our February newsletter, where we’ll cover what we’ve learned about flounder movements from our volunteer angler tagging efforts.
Bookmarks