Tom O'Connell, Director of Maryland Fisheries Service, has released the following memorandum:
As we wrap up our 2011 recreational Summer Flounder fishery, we know our stakeholders are interested in the progress of our fishery towards our Maryland target: 101,000 fish. The 2011 season was from April 22, through November 30, included an 18 inch minimum size, and 3 fish creel limit. Point estimates for Wave 4 were released much later than expected, and were only available to us recently. This week, Wave 5 estimates were expected and were released on time. This update includes estimates for harvest through October 31, 2011 (Wave 5).
The estimated Summer Flounder harvest for Maryland April through October is 29,038 fish. Each point estimate is accompanied with a Proportional Standard Error (PSE) as a measure of precision and represents the uncertainty in the point estimate. The PSE for through Wave 5 for Maryland Summer Flounder is 51.3. This translates into an estimated harvest that could be anywhere between 21,590 and 36,486 fish. The Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistic Survey (MRFSS) is undergoing a multi-year redesign that will change many procedures involved in estimating recreational harvest along the coast, and has been renamed the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP). This is the first year that some new procedures will be used. The changes to the procedure used to calculate the estimates have been approved by peer review. It was expected that estimates from Wave 3 would be the first estimates produced using the new procedure. However, NMFS is in the process of producing estimates for 2004-2011 using the new method. Revised final estimates using this new procedure are now expected sometime in 2012. This means annual and Wave estimates are expected to change for 2004-2011.
Additionally, the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council has changed the recommendation for the coastwide Summer Flounder recreational harvest limit in 2012. These changes were based on a new stock assessment that was not available when the harvest limits for 2012 were initially set this past summer. While the coastwide recreational harvest limit for
2012 is less than it was for 2011, Maryland’s harvest target in 2012 will be more than the projected landings for 2011. Therefore, we do not expect that additional harvest reduction measures will be needed for our 2012 Summer Flounder recreational fishery to stay at or below our 2012 harvest target. Fisheries Service staff will be putting together additional information to discuss with our sport fishing stakeholders by mid-February to obtain advice on management preferences.
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