Fishery Council Wants Your Input On Future Management

[JasonD]

Greetings. I work for the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC) and hope you can help get the word out on something that is going to have a major impact on management of the species the Council manages: summer flounder (fluke), scup (porgy), black sea bass, bluefish, Atlantic mackerel, squid, butterfish, spiny dogfish, tilefish, surfclam, and ocean quahog. I posted this to the main fishing forum but thought it could be good to post here too.

Now that most of these stocks are rebuilt (see graph below) the Council has just launched a unique initiative to determine a new long-term strategy for its fisheries. Since most folks don't have time to come to meetings, the Council is offering a number of ways for you to provide input, including the opportunity to fill out a general survey and species-specific surveys. This is an excellent way to let the Council know what's working and what's not working in fisheries that are important to you. It only takes a few minutes - You can link to the surveys, find other ways to get involved, and learn more about the project here: http://www.mafmc.org/vision/. If you have any questions I'll be checking the board regularly or you can contact Mary Clark, the project lead, at 302-526-5261 or mclark@mafmc.org.

Thanks,
Jason Didden

PS I'm going to be posting about this on several sites but please also send this message/link around to your colleagues, friends, associates, etc. because the Council will begin developing and implementing its new long term strategy after it gathers input, comments, and thoughts from its constituents.

[Cape Fisherman]

Thanks for the info Jason.

Maybe you could explain to myself and others why the commercial size limit for fluke is 14", but the recreational limit is 17.5"?

[JasonD]

My colleague Jessica Coakley is the plan coordinator for fluke (summer flounder). She may be reached at 1-302-526-5252 or jcoakley@mafmc.org. There's often a lot behind any given regulation and she's the best to talk to when it comes to management of fluke.

Related to the survey, you can definitely note concerns like this on the summer flounder survey and the general survey is an opportunity to tell the Council about how we can keep you better informed about how the Council makes decisions and how can the Council improve its communication about regulations.

Again, the surveys are located here: http://www.mafmc.org/vision/

Thanks,
Jason

[JasonD]

Just wanted to pass along thanks to everyone who has been visiting the survey site (http://www.mafmc.org/vision/). We have been getting linked-to from SportFishermen a good bit and we appreciate your time and thoughts. The survey is going to be available for a couple of months but I will be sure to post when results are available.

Best regards,
Jason