Chesapeake Bay News

Maryland’s Summer Flounder season is underway, and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is urging anglers to get involved with the State’s summer flounder survey.

“The anglers who volunteer their catch data as part of this survey play an important role in summer flounder management in Maryland, as well as along the Atlantic Coast,” said Fisheries Director Tom O’Connell. “As we prepare to begin another exciting summer flounder season, it is important that anglers continue to provide us all of the same valuable data they have in the past which helps guide future decisions to ensure a sustainable summer flounder population.”

By recording information on fishing trips that target summer flounder, anglers become active participants in summer flounder management. The survey data are later used to guide DNR’s establishment of creel, minimum size and season limits for flounder.

For 2009, anglers are encouraged to measure to the nearest quarter inch, continue to report trips where flounder are targeted but not caught, and promote the survey to fellow anglers, especially in less-fished areas. Anglers are reminded to fill out the survey in full, providing data about the date, location, and number of anglers in the party, method used and the total number of flounder kept, as well as the total number released.

The average length of flounder caught in 2008 was 13.4 inches, which has remained relatively consistent for the past seven years. In 2008, a total of 11,056 fish were reported caught on 883 trips. The majority of angler activity occurred along the Atlantic coast, with less than 6 percent taking place in the Chesapeake Bay. Approximately 10 percent of trips targeting flounder resulted in no flounder being caught.

To learn more or to participate in the survey visit:

http://www.dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/survey/sfsurveyintro.html

Information and survey packets are also available by mail, through contacting Allison Luettel at 410-260-8343 or aluettel@dnr.state.md.us.

On Monday, March 9, 2009. the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Department of Fisheries announced new regulations for the 2009 summer flounder fishery.

The new 2009 recreational summer flounder regulations will be:

Creel and Size Limit (Split Management):

- Atlantic Ocean and Coastal Bays (3 fish @ 18 inch minimum size)
- Chesapeake Bay (1 fish @ 16.5 inch minimum size)

The 2009 recreational summer flounder season will run from April 15 until September 13.

The new limits will be submitted as emergency regulations and DNR plans to close the recreational summer flounder fishery via public notice this week. The fishery will reopen when the emergency regulations become effective.

DNR is required to reduce the 2009 recreational summer flounder catch in Maryland by 32%. This reduction is necessary to mitigate exceeding harvest targets last year.

DNR believes that these regulations will achieve the required reduction in the fishery, attain the recreational harvest target of 61,000 fish and minimize the impact both on recreational anglers and businesses that rely on the summer flounder fishery.

Various options for the 2009 recreational season were approved by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and presented to the Coastal Fisheries Advisory Committee, the Sportfish Advisory Commission and the general public at an informational meeting held in Ocean City, Maryland last month. Approximately 100 people attended the meeting.

More information is available online at www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries.

For more information, please contact Steve Doctor at 410 – 213 -1531 or Mike Luisi at 410 -260 – 8341.