certain areas of the coast," he explains. 



Many fishers also disagree with the 

 decision to increase the minimum legal size 

 because, "14 inches is right on the edge of what 

 is being caught." says Kevin Craig, a researcher 

 at CMAST. 



Billy Ray Sanderford, a fisherman from 

 Jacksonville, says regulations — including 

 increasing size limits — are putting many fishers 

 out of business, yet the flounder fishery is not 

 recovering. 



By participating in an FRG study with Fred 

 Scharf, a researcher at the University of North 

 Carolina at Wilmington, Sanderford is part of a 

 team he hopes will provide data that DMF needs 

 to better manage the fishery. 



FILLING IN THE GAPS 



Scharf and Craig are heading separate 

 FRG-funded tagging studies that will provide 

 regional data about the southern flounder 

 fishery, filling in some of those data gaps. The 

 FRG program is funded by the N.C. General 

 Assembly and administered by North Carolina 

 Sea Grant. 



Their research teams are composed of 

 university researchers, students, technicians and 

 commercial flounder fishers. Craig's team spent 

 last summer tagging flounder in the Neuse River 

 near Oriental and Havelock, while Scharf s 

 team tagged flounder in the New River between 

 Sneads Ferry and Jacksonville. 



Craig and Scharf are characterizing 



LEFT: Howard Bogey works to quickly release a 

 southern flounder from a gillnct. RIGHT: Will 

 Smith measures and records the length of each 

 southern flounder captured during the study. 



the southern flounder in these two rivers to 

 determine if there is reason for DMF to consider 

 regional or spatially-based management options 

 for the fishery. 



The tagging teams often were up before 

 sunrise last summer — on the water at first 

 light to check their gillnets that had "soaked" 

 overnight. The teams will be back again this 

 summer, checking their nets and tagging legal 

 sized flounder along the central coast. 



The bright orange tags work like zip ties, 

 Craig explains. "Each tag is threaded through the 

 muscle of the fish near the fin margin at the tail. 

 The tag is looped around, and then 'cinched' to 

 tighten it up." 



The numbered tags allow researchers to 

 determine where each fish was initially tagged 

 and where it travels after it is released. 



The tags list a reward amount of either $5 

 or $50 and a toll-free phone number, so the fish 

 can be returned to the researchers and the fisher 

 can collect the reward. The two reward amounts 

 allow the researchers to calculate the reporting 

 rate. Craig explains. 



"We assume all fishermen who catch 

 flounder with $50 tags report them, because 

 $50 is a lot of money. On an average trip, a 

 gillnetter might clear $ 1 50 - $200 after fuel, etc. 



Fishermen may not take the time to report $5 

 tags, however," he says. 



The Scharf team can vouch for the 

 eagerness of fishers to collect the $50 reward. 



"The very first $50 tag we put out was 

 caught in the New River that same evening by 

 a gig fisherman from Dunn," says Scharf. "We 

 hadn't even set up the toll-free number yet. This 

 fisherman was calling all around trying to find 

 us. The next day. Will had to drive up to Dunn to 

 pay the tag reward and recover the fish for aging 

 purposes." 



And after that, "we started releasing the 

 tagged fish in deeper water," adds Will Smith, a 

 graduate student working with Scharf. 



The tagging reports are among factors used 

 to estimate the exploitation rate of each river. 



The exploitation rate is the proportion of 

 fish removed from the population by fishing, says 

 Batsavage. DMF uses the exploitation rate in 

 stock assessment models to determine how may 

 fish can be removed without overfishing. 



"Managers look at the results of the stock 

 assessment to see whether or not regulations are 

 needed to reduce fishing mortality," explains 

 Batsavage. 



Under the current management plan, such 

 regulations are applied statewide, even if only 

 certain areas are overfished. 



Regional management could allow DMF 

 to tailor regulations to the specific needs of each 

 area — decreasing fishing pressure in areas 

 that are heavily exploited, while maintaining 



24 Cocistwatch I Spring 2006 I www.ncseagrant.org 



