PROVIDENCE - The Department of Environmental Management has announced that the commercial fishery for summer flounder will close Thursday, May 18 until June 1, when it will reopen with a 100-pound possession limit.

The action is designed to keep Rhode Island within its assigned quota while making fish available to commercial fishermen and consumers throughout the entire year. The closure is part of an ongoing effort to manage the annual allocation of summer flounder that the state receives from the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

The closure results from higher than anticipated weekly landings that were due to the seasonal inshore migration of summer flounder, and to the increased abundance of the fish, attributable to stock rebuilding efforts along the East Coast.