Last night the R.I. Marine Fisheries Council met and voted on the proposed
changes to the 2007 commercial and recreational regulations.

Of the recreational proposals, the council agreed to the following changes,
which are now submitted to RIDEM:

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Summer Flounder (fluke)
19 inches
7 fish per day
May 18 to September 16

Note that the recreational fluke season is currently closed.

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Weakfish
16 inches
3 fish per day
no closed season

(mandated by ASMFC)

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Tautog
For 2007 it will remain status quo:
16 inches
May 1 to May 31 - 3 fish per day
June 1 to June 30 - closed
July 1 to October 21 - 3 fish
Oct 22 to December 31 - 10 fish

For 2008 the regs would change:
16 inches
April 14 to May 31 - 3 fish
June 1 to June 30 - closed
July 1 to Oct 19 - 3 fish
Oct 20 to Dec 31 - 8 fish

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For other species, the 2006 regs will remain the same in 2007.

19 inch fluke..
Thats gotta hurt the party boat industry..

Without taking a view on whose specs are right does it not make sense that the regs for NY, CT and RI be uniform. To me it is insane that if I fish in Fishers Island sound and get 10 togs I am ok if I dock in NY but 7 are illegal if I am ending my trip in RI.
Am I missing something?

It would make sense

I read something this morning the mortality of tossback fluke is 25%, and the chances of catching greater that 19" is 1 per 100. Said otherwise, with the new size limit, 24 short fish will die.

How does RI go from 17" to 19" in a single season???

OK. 1:100 for 19" fish is BS
Change your tactics and spots if thats your size range!

19" is a lot. if they reallllly wanted to solve the problem, they would have a slot for fluke. ok great, so if people just catch the large reproducing ones for now, we will be outa fluke in 5 more years. i think a slot is the best way to go right now for fluke and make it 18-20" or somethin like that. to be honest, i dont know what the best slot would be for a situation like this but by just raising the legal limit, ure only fixing half the problem....

I read something this morning the mortality of tossback fluke is 25%, and the chances of catching greater that 19" is 1 per 100. Said otherwise, with the new size limit, 24 short fish will die.

How does RI go from 17" to 19" in a single season???

Mortality for recreationally released fluke is estimated at 10%. We went from 17 to 19 inches for two reasons 1) we overfished out quota last year and 2) our quota (like eveyone elses) was sharply reduced from last years.

Fluke are NOT "in trouble" there are more of them around than anytime since they started keeping records. The problem is the time frame to rebuild the stock and the definition of what constitues a rebuilt stock.