Paula Tucker buys fish caught off the Rhode Island coast and sells to customers throughout the country.
Tucker is a sales representative at the seafood supplier and processor Sea Fresh USA Inc. in North Kingstown. She focuses on just a couple of species, including summer flounder, also known as “fluke.”
In 2016, more of the flaky whitefish was landed in Narragansett’s Point Judith than at any other port in the country. Fluke has made Tucker good money for more than two decades.
But her job is getting harder in the wake of two temporary
shutdowns of the local fluke fishery this year.
“It’s really frustrating,” she said. “This impacts me, my clients and the market.”
Tucker – along with fishermen, restaurants and consumers – has been grappling with tightening restrictions on the fishery for years. Surveys and assessments to determine the health of the stock show overarching declines.
The trend triggers cutbacks in annual quotas, which dictate how much can be caught and sold.
Quotas are supposed to help replenish diminishing fisheries. But fewer fish typically translates into less money for fishermen, meaning more-expensive fluke.
The dynamic causes a snowball effect, growing costs for fishmongers, restaurant owners and – if the market will bear – consumers.
In some cases, buyers are looking elsewhere.
“We’ve lost customers over this,” Tucker said.
If the supply estimates the quotas are tied to are accurate, then the declines may be ecological. And simply catching less fluke may seem from the outside like a reasonable price to pay to ensure the long-term health of the fish.
But fishermen insist the current science modeling doesn’t match what they see at sea: lots and lots of fluke.
[caption id="attachment_188277" align="aligncenter" width="640"]
HELPING HAND: Chris Roebuck, a Point Judith commercial fisherman who catches squid and scallops, is helping regulators conduct scientific studies to determine the efficiency of current methods used to count fluke populations. / PBN PHOTO/JOHN LEE[/caption]
“There [are] mismatches from what we see on the water and the catch advice,” said Chris Roebuck, a Point Judith commercial fisherman, who catches squid and scallops. Roebuck doesn’t catch fluke, but is helping regulators conduct scientific studies to determine the efficiency of current methods used to count its population.
The mismatch is well-known to state and federal regulators, who are struggling to understand why the data continues to show population declines, especially at a time when quotas are falling – and fishermen are supposedly catching less fluke.
“There’s no smoking gun out there” pointing to one likely explanation, said Jason E. McNamee, who heads the R.I. Division of Marine Fisheries, part of the R.I. Department of Environmental Management.
The issue is likely to come to a head in 2018. Regulators are poised to make a full assessment of the fluke population, which typically live between the Canadian province of Nova Scotia and the southern tip of North Carolina. The assessment, which happens once every few years, determines how the natural resource will be shared across multiple state lines.
It’s a process that can become politicized and fraught with controversy, given its potential impact on the future of fluke fishing in Rhode Island and beyond.
“There’s a line in the sand that we don’t want to plummet below,” McNamee said of the fluke population. “We’re right on the edge.”
‘VERY FRUSTRATING’
Fluke is vastly important to both recreational and commercial fishing in Rhode Island, a community that’s integrated with life along Narragansett Bay and Point Judith.
Point Judith, the center for fish-related activity in the state, bustles with fishermen recognized for being flexible, a crucial trait in an ever-changing regulatory environment, according to a 2002 report by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, which profiled Rhode Island ports.
Adaptability is a necessity of survival in fishing, as the science and management of the industry often change the rules of the game.
The dynamic often puts fishermen at odds with regulators, especially when it comes to the question of what should and should not be fished.
“That’s one of the conflicts that exists between the science side and the business side. The business side has a much shorter window than we do,” McNamee said.
And while fluke is not the only species to frustrate fishermen on the docks of Point Judith, it’s among the most valuable, making low quotas especially difficult to stomach.
[caption id="attachment_188275" align="aligncenter" width="640"]
CENTER OF ACTIVITY: Handrigan Seafood dock workers throw ice on a tote of scup. The sales of scup, butterfish, lobster, whiting, fluke and squid have helped build the port of Galilee on Point Judith in Narragansett. In 2016, Point Judith fluke landings exceeded 1.3 million pounds, representing 15 percent of all commercial fluke landings nationwide. / PBN PHOTO/JOHN LEE[/caption]
Quotas mean all excess fluke, caught inadvertently or otherwise, must be thrown overboard. The industry calls it “discards.”
Regulators estimated commercial and recreational discards for 2017 would roughly total 1.9 million pounds.
“It’s very frustrating for fishermen to throw out the stuff that’s $4 to $5 a pound for the stuff that’s 75 cents a pound,” Roebuck said.
In 2016, fluke landings – how much was brought ashore – exceeded 1.3 million pounds at Point Judith, representing 15 percent of all commercial fluke landings nationwide. Point Judith received the most fluke landings of any seaport.
The estimated value totaled $5.5 million, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The numbers look impressive, but 1.3 million pounds represents less than half of the 2.8 million pounds landed five years earlier.
The reduction is a direct result of shrinking quotas, and while less fluke typically triggers cost increases per pound – which slightly offsets loss revenue for fishermen – the gap in fluke landings from 2011 to 2016 nonetheless translated into about $1 million less in economic value.
“Any increase or decrease in fluke goes right to my bottom line,” said Christopher Brown, a commercial fisherman and president of the Rhode Island Commercial Fishermen’s Association. “My expenses are fixed, but my opportunity to catch fluke is not.”
Landings for 2017 are not yet available, but there’s little evidence to suggest any improvement. The quota for both commercial and recreational fluke for the entire U.S. fluke fishery, which includes 11 states, fell roughly 30 percent from 2016 to 2017.
The low quota resulted in a temporary summer shutdown of the local fishery, meaning fishermen could not land any fish in Rhode Island but still could do so in other states that had not met their quotas. The fishery reopened for a couple months in the fall, but the annual quota was reached by mid-November, resulting in a full shutdown.
The local fishery is slated to reopen in January.
“It was really hard this year,” said Aaron Gewirtz, a Point Judith fisherman.
Gewirtz, who owns the Nancy Beth, fishes fluke when he can. He estimates the closures take a 30 percent cut out of his daily revenue.
“It’s tough knowing you’re already 30 percent down before you even draw a line,” he said.
Gewirtz says he’s not interested in overfishing any species, but he sees an abundance of fluke while trying to catch other species.
His frustration is shared by many Point Judith fishermen.
“It’s frustrating that the science and management are out of sync with nature,” Brown said.
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CALM WATERS: The Point Judith-based fishing vessel Karen Elizabeth is owned by commercial fisherman Chris Roebuck, who catches squid and scallops and conducts scientific studies of fish populations. / PBN PHOTO/JOHN LEE[/caption]
‘WE’RE MISSING THEM’
McNamee, however, says there’s more data available for fluke than most other species, and about 90 percent of all research suggests there’s a decline in fluke. He feels like scientists are doing a respectable job to mitigate the risk facing fluke.
“What we’re trying to do is keep the stock in a good spot,” he said.
But fishermen see holes in the research. One reason, they say, is a belief the gear used to collect data is flawed.
Collecting the data – or counting the stock – is important because it’s the baseline assumption used to inform the stock assessment, which in turn helps determine the annual quota.
“If the assessment isn’t accurate, the whole picture isn’t going to be accurate,” Roebuck said.
The NOAA surveys the fluke population using its ship Henry B. Bigelow. It’s not the only survey used to assess stock, as states along the Eastern Seaboard and other groups run smaller surveys.
But the Bigelow survey is by far the most important because it carries the most weight in the assessment process.
“That’s the bible,” said Roebuck, when asked how the Bigelow survey compared to the others.
NOAA, a scientific division of the U.S. Department of Commerce, uses a net called a “rockhopper” to conduct its survey. As its name suggests, the rockhopper is designed to move seamlessly from sandy to rocky bottoms without getting caught and is useful when targeting varied species.
But the rockhopper requires a sizeable gap between net and ocean bottom to allow it to not get caught up in rocks.
Fluke, a flatfish, has a natural tendency to stay on the ocean bottom, leaving fishermen – including Roebuck – to question whether the survey is missing a host of fish that are eluding the net.
“[Fish] that stay tight to the bottom and see something coming at it will go down and stay in the mud and sand,” Roebuck said. “The net ends up passing over those fish.”
To test the theory, Roebuck and his four-person crew in August took out his 78-foot, stern trawler, Karen Elizabeth, accompanied by five staff members from the Northeast Fisheries Science Center Northeast Cooperative Research Program, a division of NOAA.
The 10-day trip involved towing a rockhopper side-by-side with a chain sweep, a net designed to more efficiently catch flatfish, as it runs snugly along the ocean bottom.
Results are still being analyzed, but initial numbers from the scientific expedition show the rockhopper caught 59 fish for every 100 caught by the chain sweep. That’s a sizeable difference, which is magnified considering the 2017 commercial quota for the fluke fishery totaled 5.7 million pounds.
“We’re missing them,” said Andrew Lipsky, acting branch chief at the NOAA cooperative research branch in Rhode Island. “That type of observation error can help us nail down the detectability of fluke by comparing the rockhopper sweep with the net that’s more efficient.”
[caption id="attachment_188276" align="aligncenter" width="640"]
Falling fluke: Regulators tracking fluke see a continued decline in stock, which has subsequently tightened how much fishermen can catch. The price per pound typically rises as fluke supply falls, creating less volatility in the total value. But with 2016 landings at all-time lows this century, the fishing community is concerned about the future of the fishery and the market surrounding it. / Sources: Office of Science and Technology, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce.[/caption]
Roebuck has led similar studies, looking at yellowtail flounder in 2015 and witch flounder last year. Both studies spelled out similar variances, and the witch flounder work led to a 91 percent increase in annual catch limits, a measure of quotas plus discards.
Roebuck is hopeful something similar could happen when fluke is assessed next year.
“We just want accurate science,” Roebuck said. “There are things happening with the fish that you can’t understand without being out of the water a couple hundred days a year. You’re never going to understand that sitting at a desk at Woods Hole looking at data.”
The study could help inform the fluke assessment, but McNamee still doesn’t see it as a smoking gun because there are other measures to consider, including an overarching concern about the ecological health of the fish.
“The short of it is that there appear to be some climate effects that are impacting the ability for this stock to rebuild,” McNamee said.
Indeed, fishermen and scientists alike are concerned the rising temperature of the oceans – caused by climate change – could be impacting the science.
Fluke, for instance, might be staying closer to the shore later in the year because the water stays warmer longer. The trend could mean the timing of annual surveys needs to be adjusted.
“I’m optimistic about the future of fluke,” Lipsky said. “I’m also realistic that we have some challenges we can’t solve fast enough. I’ve lived in the private sector. You have bills to pay, and if you can’t access fish that you used to, and you don’t have the ability to shift, that’s a tough place to be. I feel that pain.
“This is a challenge for all of us to figure out together,” he added.
COMPETING INTERESTS?
The economic pain felt by fishermen, however, goes beyond the science of fluke and into the management of the fishery.
[caption id="attachment_188278" align="alignright" width="161"]
VALUABLE CATCH: Summer flounder, or fluke, a flatfish that stays on the ocean bottom, typically live between the Canadian province of Nova Scotia and the southern tip of North Carolina. Fluke is among the most valuable species to commercial fishermen. / PBN PHOTO/JOHN LEE[/caption]
The MAFMC regulates fluke along the Eastern Seaboard, and is responsible for setting annual quotas. The total annual quota is divvied up between states. Rhode Island, for instance, gets 15.7 percent. How the total quota is divvied up is another area of contention.
“There are people on that council who don’t necessarily want new friends and colleagues to compete with,” McNamee said.
Indeed, Rhode Island – and other New England states – has no voting member on the council. The lack of voting power instills heavy skepticism among Rhode Island fishermen that the commission acts in the best interest of all the states it oversees.
“The people holding all the cards are reluctant to acknowledge, or be part of, the solution,” Brown said.
The frustration grows when states, including New Jersey, North Carolina and Virginia, are allocated greater shares of each year’s quota: 16.7 percent, 27.4 percent and 21.3 percent, respectively. (Each state has a voting member on the commission).
The allocation is counterintuitive, Rhode Island fishermen argue. First, more fluke was landed in Point Judith than anywhere else in 2016. Second, surveys suggest 20 percent of 2016 commercial fluke was caught immediately off the coast of Rhode Island. Another 24 percent was caught immediately to the southwest (south of Long Island, N.Y., and east of New Jersey).
The areas are accessible to all but worthless to Rhode Island fishermen – without licenses in other states – if closures prevent them from landing fluke at Point Judith.
Fishermen in other states have expressed similar frustrations. The issue came to a head last summer after a regional regulator – the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission – found New Jersey anglers out of compliance with minimum length requirements set for recreational fishermen.
The state appealed the noncompliance to the federal government, and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross – in an unprecedented move – sided with New Jersey and its fishermen. It was the first time since the formation of the ASMFC that the secretary of commerce failed to uphold the commission’s decision.
“They went rogue,” Brown said of New Jersey. “And I think the scarcity of fish made them go rogue.”
Roebuck suspects the controversy could continue, especially as the density of fluke moves northward as waters continue to warm.
The effect already has southern fishermen steaming 40 hours north to fish fluke off the Rhode Island coast, only to return 40 hours south to land the catch in North Carolina. The trips are expensive for the southern fishermen, and Rhode Island doesn’t get to share any of the economic benefits of the fish caught.
And the 40-plus hours of steaming diesel-fueled ships does little to mitigate carbon emissions – a prime suspect in why fluke are moving northward to begin with.
Fluke management also impacts ancillary markets that depend on the fish.
Jeff Callaghan, owner of Fluke Newport, had to raise fish prices on his menu about a year ago to make up for the increases realized in the wholesale market.
Customers of the fine-dining, seafood restaurant seem generally OK with the cost increases because they trust he’s getting the finest-quality product.
But because he buys his fluke directly from a fisherman, daily catch limits hamper his ability to buy larger volumes. Callaghan said he’s only able to buy about half of what he could sell in fluke.
“Sometimes we will change our menu every night,” said Callaghan, who owns the restaurant with his wife, Geremie. “It’d be difficult for places that don’t change their menu.”
Back at the processing plant, on Nov. 17, fluke was closed in Rhode Island, but Tucker still had to fill back orders.
Luckily, New Jersey hadn’t yet reached its quota, so she bought the fish there, trucked it to North Kingstown and airfreighted it out West.
Tucker couldn’t be sure, but based on where fishermen like to catch fluke, it’s highly possible the fish she trucked in from three states away was caught not far off the Rhode Island coast.
“It’s all really disappointing,” she said.
Eli Sherman is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Sherman@PBN.com, or follow him on Twitter @Eli_Sherman.
