Summer flounder are back, a National Marine Fisheries Service report shows, and the recovery is considered a fisheries management success story.
The 2011 Stock Status Report released this week declares summer flounder “viable” after, well, floundering since at the early 1990s and being listed as “recovering” since 2009.
The latest assessment shows the summer flounder stock is no longer overfished and that overfishing is not occurring.
Southern flounder landings were actually down by 29 percent in 2010, partly because of a 45 percent reduction in gill net flounder landings. New gill net restrictions resulting from a lawsuit over gill net interactions with sea turtles could have contributed to the decline.
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