An unscientific ruling on flounder conservation

Fluke, aka summer flounder.

The Trump administration doesn’t have much respect for science, so it wasn’t all that surprising that it has rejected the science-based ruling of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. The ruling was that New Jersey has been violating a conservation plan for summer flounder (aka fluke). 

The effect  of the administration’s (via the Commerce Department) order is to letGarden State fishermen harvest a lot more summer flounder. This is the first time that an administration has rejected fishing-control guidance by the commission. It seems probable that fishing of other stressed species will also be allowed to expand.

The commission is an interstate organization set up by Congress to help conserve fisheries. It has found that the fluke population is 42 percent below the sustainable level. In a variant of the “tragedy of the commons,’’ and  an emphasis on maximizing short-term profit, the administration’s gutting of science-based fishing limits in the New Jersey case threatens  to eviscerate fishing stocks in the not very long-term. The fluke population off New Jersey  has fallen 25 percent since 2010.

The administration’s decision is a political one, to please the recreational and commercial fishing industry.