The North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission has chosen its preferred management option for this year’s southern flounder allocation: an even split between commercial and recreational fisheries.
Members selected the option detailed in the Southern Flounder Fishery Management Plan Amendment 4 last week during the commission’s meeting in Beaufort. Commission documents state that the final vote on Amendment 4 is scheduled for August.
Amendment 4 only addresses moving the 50/50 sector allocation ahead by a year, as set out in Amendment 3. Amendment 3 was approved in 2022 to establish a 70% commercial and 30% recreational allocation for 2023 and 2024, 60/40 for 2025, and 50/50 starting in 2026.
Amendment 3 was put in place because the 2019 stock assessment indicated that the species was overfished and overfishing was taking place. “Overfishing” means the current rate of removal, both harvest and discards, is too high, and “overfished” is when the population is too small.
Amendment 4 is being developed at the same time as Amendment 5. Amendment 5 is intended to address the commission’s August 2024 motion to amend the southern flounder management plan “to allow for more recreational access while maintaining the rebuilding requirements of Amendment 3.”
The two amendments are “to provide long-term, comprehensive approaches to recreational and commercial Southern Flounder management,” according to information from the Division of Marine Fisheries website.
