Recreational Summer Flounder and Black Sea Bass Regulations – Update !!! MRAC January 13, 2015

2 Summer Flounder – Addendum XXVI 2014 Summary: NY harvested 515,830 fish (preliminary estimate) Coast-wide harvest in 2014 was 2,423,195 fish 2015 RHL: 2,438,863 fish (2014 harvest is 99.4% of this) Addendum passes: Regional Management Addendum fails to pass: State-by-state Conservation Equivalency (NY’s allocation = 429,240 fish)

3 Summer Flounder – Addendum XXVI Regional Management: Status Quo RI joins CT thru NJ NJ is split in half and southern NJ joins DE thru VA* NJ portion of DE Bay joins DE thru VA* DE Bay (both NJ and DE) becomes its own “Region”* * Last 3 Options all include sub-options that create a region that includes RI thru NJ

4 Summer Flounder – Addendum XXVI The ASMFC Board must vote to pass the Addendum. The ASMFC Board would then vote and choose a Regional Option. 9 states, USFWS, NMFS = 11 votes (of which NY is one) Meeting Date: February 5, 2015

5 Summer Flounder – Addendum XXVI Following slides are EXAMPLES of regulations that are possible under each Option, given preliminary data. Once a Regional Option has been chosen, different sets of regulations for that Option can be created. At 99.4% of the 2015 RHL, there isn’t much “wiggle room” to get creative w/o taking fish from another region. In 2014, Board voted for options that achieved 95% of the RHL

6 Summer Flounder – Addendum XXVI VS = (-) if donating fish and (+) if receiving fish

7 Summer Flounder – Addendum XXVI VS = (-) if donating fish and (+) if receiving fish

8 Summer Flounder – Addendum XXVI VS = (-) if donating fish and (+) if receiving fish

9 Summer Flounder – Addendum XXVI VS = (-) if donating fish and (+) if receiving fish

10 Summer Flounder – Addendum XXVI VS = (-) if donating fish and (+) if receiving fish

11 Summer Flounder – Addendum XXVI VS = (-) if donating fish and (+) if receiving fish

12 Summer Flounder – Addendum XXVI VS = (-) if donating fish and (+) if receiving fish

13 Summer Flounder – Addendum XXVI VS = (-) if donating fish and (+) if receiving fish

14 Black Sea Bass 2014 Summary: NY projected harvest 516,962 fish (preliminary estimate) Coast-wide harvest in 2014 ~ 1,960,807 fish 2014 RHL: 1,189,474 (Coast is at 165% of the RHL) 2015 RHL: 1,326,124 fish Northern states (MA thru NJ) must take a 32.8% reduction

15 Black Sea Bass Changes in Possession Limit (8)? 5 fish ~6% 4 fish ~13% 3 fish ~22% 2 fish ~36% Changes in Season (July 15 – Dec. 31)? Days in Wave 4(July & Aug) ~1% per day Days in Wave 5 (Sept and Oct) ~0.75% per day

16 Black Sea Bass Changes in Minimum Size Limit (13.0”)? 13.5” ~15% 14.0” ~30% Increasing minimum size increases discards and may have greater impacts due to the life history of BSB. NJ will probably maintain its minimum size of 12.5” Use of minimum size to achieve the reduction is still being discussed by the technical committee and will ultimately be a Board decision.

17 Black Sea Bass Fishing in Wave 3 (May & June)? Adding days in Wave 3 costs ~0.9% per day

18 Scup? Current regulations: 30 fish at 10” May 1 – December fish “bonus season” on for-hire vessels Sept. 1 – Oct. 31 NY harvested 1,135,220 scup Atlantic Coast (99% from MA-NY) harvested 4,104,226 scup This is 67.7% of the 2015 RHL by weight 2015 Federal Measures include year around season, 9” minimum size and a 50 fish possession limit