11-30-2006, 06:10 PM
Faced with a proposal by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to limit the federal quota for summer flounder to 12.98 million pounds for 2007, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission postponed a vote on the summer flounder quota at its November meeting. ASA wrote to the Commission in support of the season approved by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council earlier in 2006, which included a quota of 19.9 million pounds. That quota was rejected by NMFS based on their analysis that the summer flounder stock would not meet its rebuilding target by 2010. ASA has questioned this decision in light of the healthy nature of the stock, which has more than doubled since 1992, and the lack of peer review of the NMFS data.