THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 5, 1995 TAG: 9503050155
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB HUTCHINSON OUTDOORS EDITOR
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
Virginia's recreational flounder fishermen may yet escape the confines of a structured season with opening and closing dates.
We'll know when the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council meets in Philadelphia on March 14-15. The council regulates all East Coast flounder fishing.
A special committee of council members has recommended eliminating the season but lowering the daily bag limit from eight fish to six. Under the plan, the minimum legal size would remain 14 inches.
Jack Travelstead, head of fishery management for the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, said he thinks the full Mid-Atlantic group will approve both maintaining the minimum size and the elimination of opening and closing dates.
He also said there is a chance the bag limit will remain at eight fish.
``We (the Virginia commission) are prepared to argue very strongly for maintaining the eight-fish bag limit,'' Travelstead said, ``provided there are no indications that the overall flounder population didn't go down significantly between 1993 and 1994. That's something we probably won't know until the Philadelphia meeting.''
Flounder fishing along the coast has been regulated sharply for several years. Studies have indicated that fishermen have been catching the popular, tasty fish faster than the fish were being reproduced.
Both commercial and recreational fishermen have been operating under a target quota for several years. And in almost all states, the commercial quota has been met or surpassed.
But the recreational catch, which has not divided up by state, as the commercial catch has been, has always been under the targeted level. In 1994, for example, the 8.3 million pounds caught by recreational anglers was 22 percent less than the coastwide target.
``Asking why the recreational catch must be reduced again, when the recreationals are coming in under target, is a very good question,'' Travelstead said.
Original discussions by the panel were aimed at not allowing recreational fishing for flounder until May 1, a plan that drew sharp criticism on the Eastern Shore, where flounder fishing usually begins in late March or early April.
Meanwhile, Travelstead and William A. Pruitt, head of the Marine Resources Commission, will answer questions about the 1995 flounder season Monday at a session orchestrated by the Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce.
Open to anyone but requiring reservations, that meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at the chamber office on U.S. Route 13, south of Melfa.
If many additional reservations are made, it will be moved to nearby Nandua High School, just south of Onley, according to David Parker, chamber director. by CNB