Trout Management vs Flounder Management
The first North Carolina southern flounder Fisheries Management Plan (FMP) was adopted in 2005 and 20 years later we are looking at a harvest moratorium for recreational anglers.
Speckled trout (Spotted seatrout) management began 4 years after flounder management when interim measures were adopted in 2009. As we are now looking at more reduced bag limits and another closed harvest season, we thought it would be good idea to look at the management timelines and compare notes.
Recreational Speckled Trout Management History
2009 – 14” minimum size limit, 10-fish bag limit
2010 – 14” minimum size limit, 6-fish bag limit, only two over 24”
2011 – 14” minimum size limit, 4-fish bag limit
2024 – DMF recommends 14”-20” slot limit with one over 26”, a Jan-Feb harvest closure, and eliminate captain/crew bag limits in for-hire recreational
Recreational Southern Flounder Management History
2005 – 14” minimum size limit, 8-fish bag limit
2011 – 15” minimum size limit, 6-fish bag limit
2019 – 15” minimum size limit, 4-fish bag and harvest closure Sept. 4 – Dec. 31
2020 – 15” minimum size limit, 4-fish bag limit and Aug. 16 – Sept. 30 harvest season
2021 – 15” minimum size limit, 4-fish bag limit and Sept. 1 – 14 harvest season
2022 – 15” minimum size limit, 1-fish bag limit and Sept. 1 – 30 open harvest
2023 – 15” minimum size limit, 1-fish bag limit and Sept. 15- 29 open harvest
2024 – No harvest
It does not take a rocket scientist to see a lot of similar patterns when looking at these timelines side by side.
Look at the bag limits decreasing.
Look at how many years it took to start seeing closed harvest seasons.
Do you see a trend with flounder and speckled trout management?
Now let’s look at two graphs showing recreational harvest and recreational releases for trout and flounder. Notice how harvest remains fairly constant while the releases try to climb off the chart.
Management is a one-way cycle when you only manage harvest.
Reduced bag limits and closed seasons increase discards; increased discards add to removals; increased removals negate the overall harvest reduction; and when the next stock update is completed no reduction in removals is achieved and we take another harvest reduction!
Is HARVEST the problem with our fish stocks?
Why do we keep letting them spoon feed us reduced bag limits, increased size limits, and closed seasons when we know it does not work to reduce removals?
Take a good look at these timelines and graphs again. Compare years on the graphs to years on the timelines.
While there is ample reason to question these stock assessments, if you believe DMF’s data (we don’t), harvest is not the issue. If you do not want to see speckled trout management, go down the same track that flounder management is on, we have to manage all removals, harvest and discards.
Thomas Newman Thomasnewman@ncfish.org
Fisheries Liaison
