Blumenthal urges
He says provision ensures catch quotas are assigned to states fairly
fisheries officials to not eliminate flounder fishing provision he says ensures fairness in state catch quota assignments.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is urging members of the two organizations that oversee commercial summer flounder fishing to not eliminate a provision in an upcoming plan revision that he maintains would provide fairness in how catch quotas are assigned to individual states.
Blumenthal wrote Monday to Christopher Moore and Richard Beal, the respective executive directors for the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the two groups that regulate summer flounder fishing along the East Coast.
He wrote in advance of the two organizations possibly taking action this week on a draft of a management plan that he said could weaken opportunities to fix longstanding problems with the current plan. The Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council was slated to take up the issue late Tuesday afternoon. Its spokesperson could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.
For more than 25 years, Stonington fishermen have argued that the plan discriminates against them and favors boats from states, such as North Carolina and Virginia, that have representation on the two groups. Those states receive higher quotas even though the fish are mostly caught in federal waters.
They also criticize the accuracy of the research used to determine the quotas, saying the stocks have rebounded and the fishermen can’t avoid catching summer flounder, also known as fluke. The limited quotas force fishermen to throw back large quantities of fish that may already be dead at times of the year when little or no fish can be landed.
Blumenthal wrote that one of the options under consideration calls for reallocation of commercial fluke quotas. If it was made part of the upcoming comprehensive amendment to the plan, future allocations would be based on up-to-date data that reflects where the fish are now found. Fishermen have said rising ocean temperatures and other factors have shifted the location of the fish.
Blumenthal said he understands that the two groups will vote this week to eliminate all of the allocation alternatives in the proposed amendment.
“This would effectively eliminate the chance that the alternates can become part of the management plan, even before the draft amendment is presented to the public for comment,” he wrote.
Blumenthal wrote that the current quota, which he called unfairly low, was determined by out-of-date research while quotas for other states remain unjustifiably high. He said the alternatives under consideration would rectify the situation, allowing Connecticut fishermen to catch a fair quota while ensuring a sustainable fishery.
He said the proposed alternatives would be consistent with the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the federal law that oversees commercial fishing. The act requires fishery management plans to adhere to standards such as “using the best scientific information available” to decide catch limits, that plans not discriminate between residents of different states and that quotas be fair and equitable.
He urged Moore and Beal to let the alternatives remain in the proposed draft amendment for possible inclusion in the plan. He said removing them would not only be “dangerous and detrimental” to Connecticut fishermen but would set a bad precedent for future misguided decisions concerning other fisheries that are important to Connecticut and other states.
Blumenthal wrote that the current quota, which he called unfairly low, was determined by out-of-date research while quotas for other states remain unjustifiably high.