article on the winter flouder population crash

[basswipe]

46yrs of laborious study would certainly lend credence to that study.

A very informative read.

[RIROCKHOUND]

The Shrimp thing came about a few years back with Sandra Whitehouse's Thesis.. Krangon, aka Thumb-Splitters or Sand Shrimp
Commorants are definetly a problem
Brayton Pt. hurts, BUT flouder spawn in other areas of the bay too, so the population should have just dented, not collapsed...
My guess is that it's a combination of things, maybe a few cold winters will help the young of the year get bigger and surrvive....

[Clammer]

Boston /Hull has somewhat rebounded // while here in the Bay ya could fish all day & not get Four ...
Does Boston area have the same amount of seals we do ????????????????????????

I know when I dig ==from October thru may /everytime a camorant [sp] comes up with food its always a eels or a winter flounder & I know seals actually can dig /soooo they ARE feeding on the same food

[bloocrab]

We used to have a very good amount of flounder in our local waters...Sakonnet/Taunton river....in our case, pollution put an end to that. Remember, flounder are a bottom fish....the environment definately hurts bottom dwellers in the upper rivers with settling pollution....unfortunately even strong tidal currents don't clean our bottoms enough....take a snorkel ride to the bottom, but bring a strong light cuz you ain't gonna see a choggy never mind a flounder in the Taunton river. Our rivers need an enormous flushing.

[RIROCKHOUND]

I'd argue that the bottom in most places is healthier than it was 30years ago; less metal manufacturing waste etc.. getting to the bay/river waters..
I truly think the cause is a combo of overfishing, commorants and warmer waters; be it global warming, local cycles or power plants, increased predation from Sand Shrimp and crabs stems from the warmer waters;

[bloocrab]

I'd argue that the bottom in most places is healthier than it was 30years ago...

Yet there were definately more bottom dwellers and fish in general in the bays and rivers 30 years ago, just ask the clam-man, he'd can attest to that..It was the years and years of pollution throughout time that slowly pushed em out...unfortunately, there really isn't anything pulling them back in. As far as the

global warming, local cycles or power plants

...that definately increased the decline in population. It's an ugly mess and even though water testing shows improvement, the sea-life just hasn't rebounded. I'm sure you have more statistics and would know better than I, I'm just talking about what I see first hand and hear from my locals. Is it getting better in one way and worse in another??...Only time will tell...

[RIROCKHOUND]

I dont really know either; not hard evidence, just my theory pulled from what I've read; I'm a geologist, not a biologist;

re: global warming; I do Believe that change is taking place; how much is us and how much is natural variation is still up in the air in my mind