For Release: September 15, 1999

Contact: Gail Mastrati, 222-4700 ext. 2402

Stephanie Powell, 222-4700 ext. 4418

PROVIDENCE - The Department of Environmental Management will reduce the daily possession limit of summer flounder, or fluke, that commercial fishermen can harvest, from 300 pounds to 100 pounds per day, from September 16 through October 31. This change is being made to ensure the availability of fish and to prevent the state from exceeding its 261,387-pound seasonal quota for flounder caught by commercial fishermen.

Rhode Island's 1,740,000-pound commercial flounder quota is sub-divided into seasonal periods, each with its own catch allocation. Within the first three days of the current period, which runs from September 1 to October 31, 20 percent of the seasonal quota was harvested. This is due, in part, to the closure of fisheries in the neighboring states of Massachusetts and Connecticut.

New limits will also be enacted when the commercial scup fishery re-opens on November 1. Fishermen will be permitted to possess at any one time 4,000 pounds of scup, a decrease from the previous 8,000-pound possession limit, during November and December. This reduction is being made because the number of fish harvested coastwide in 1998 exceeded catch quotas. Every year, the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission assign catch quotas for scup harvested in Rhode Island and other East Coast states. Quota management is designed to restore the scup stock to sustainable levels, and to provide a sustainable scup harvest for the future.

Both regulatory changes were made in concurrence with fishermen and seafood dealers who wish to see the fisheries remain open with maximum economic return.