NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources
Marine Fisheries - 06 Bluefish SSR 2016
Marine Fisheries
Web Content Display
Bluefish — 2016Stock Status – Viable – A new benchmark stock assessment, completed in 2015, indicates that bluefish are not experiencing overfishing and are not overfished. Fishing mortality has steadily declined since 1991. Though the assessment indicated bluefish are neither experiencing overfishing nor considered overfished, the assessment indicates lower biomass estimates and reference points relative to the previous assessment. These lower estimates have resulted in decreased annual catch limits. For the 2016 fishing season, the Commission and Council approved an acceptable biological catch of 19.45 million pounds, an approximate 10% decrease from 2015 levels. 2015 Commercial Landings and Value – 804,336 lbs./$ 456,753 (quota managed) Average Recreational Landings 2006-2015 – 1,055,432 lbs., 2015 – 868,867 lbs. Average Number of Award Citations (15 lbs.) 2006-2015 – 4, 2015 – 1 (kept) Status of Fishery Management Plan (FMP) – In North Carolina, bluefish are included in the Interjurisdictional FMP, which defers to Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission/Mid–Atlantic Fisheries Management Council FMP compliance requirements. The FMP allows an annually adjusted, state-by-state commercial quota system and recreational harvest limits to reduce fishing mortality. Bluefish is managed under Amendment 1 to the Fishery Management Plan for the Bluefish Fishery and Addendum I. The Commission and Council approved Amendment 1 to the FMP in 1998. Amendment 1 allocates 83% of the resource to recreational fisheries and 17% to commercial fisheries. North Carolina is allocated 32.06% of the coast wide quota for bluefish. Research and Data Needs – Fishery-independent data, commercial bycatch and recreational release mortality estimates, exploration of alternative assessment models since the highly migratory nature of bluefish populations and the recruitment dynamics of the species create a unique modeling situation. 2015 Regulations –Recreational: 15 fish/day. Only five fish of the 15 fish limit can be greater than 24 inches total length. Commercial: annual quota (1,680,371 lbs. in 2015) Harvest Season – Open year round (commercial season closes if quota is met) |
