Winter Flounder

The Commission and the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) cooperatively manage winter flounder with complementary management plans that regulate state and federal waters based on fisheries and the biology of winter flounder. The Council includes winter flounder as part of the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan (Groundfish FMP). Federal management focuses on the commercial fishery because the bulk of harvest in federal waters is from that sector.

The Commission’s Amendment 1 (2005) and Addendum I (2009) are designed to protect spawning females migrating to inshore spawning grounds because they are easily located and caught when congregated for spawning. Amendment 1 established a minimum size limit, shortened seasons, and lowered trip/bag limits to reduce fishing pressure on spawning fish and rebuild the spawning stock biomass to target levels. Amendment 1 complemented Amendment 13 and Framework 42 to the Groundfish FMP.

Based on the results of the 2008 benchmark stock assessment, which estimated the SNE/MA stock at 9% of the target biomass, the Winter Flounder Management Board (Board) initiated Addendum I, the Secretary of Commerce prohibited retention of SNE/MA winter flounder through interim action in federal waters, and the Council included measures to incorporate the assessment results into Amendment 16 to the Groundfish FMP (Amendment 16). Rather than prohibit possession, which would result in increased discard mortality and loss of fishery-dependent data, the Commission opted to establish bycatch-only possession limits for the SNE/MA stock in state waters. Addendum I limits recreational fishermen to 2 fish and commercial fishermen can land a maximum of 50 pounds (or 38 fish) in the SNE/MA; these regulations remain in place today. Addendum I also required states to reduce GOM recreational fishing mortality by 11% and established a 250 pound commercial trip limit.

The Board approved Addendum II (2012) to modify the commercial and recreational management requirements for the GOM stock. Specifically, the commercial trip limit was increased to 500 pounds per trip and the recreational season was expanded to encompass the entire year. In May 2013, the Board passed Addendum III for the GOM and SNE/MA fisheries in order to annually set commercial and recreational specifications. These specifications may be set for up to 3 years and may be revised if new information is released within the 3-year period.

In 2026, the Board reviewed 2026-2030 specifications for both the GOM and SNE/MA stocks that were approved in Framework Adjustment 72 by the NEFMC at their December 2025 meeting. For the GOM stock, the 2026-2030 sub-ACL was set at 1.4 million pounds, a slight increase from the 2025 sub-ACL of 1.3 million pounds. In addition, the state waters sub-component decreased by approximately 7% from 0.33 million pounds in 2025 to 0.21 million pounds for 2026-2030. For the SNE/MA stock, the sub-ACL was set to increase from 0.83 million pounds to 0.91 million pounds between 2026-2030, an overall decrease from the 2025 sub-ACL of 0.97 million pounds. The state waters sub-component also was set to increase from 0.55 million pounds to 0.61 million pounds between 2026-2030, an overall increase from the sub-ACL of 0.41 million pounds in 2025.

The NEFMC set specifications for the next five years because there is the possibility that management track assessments will not be able to be conducted as frequently as in years past due to a lack of resources. However, changes can always be made to these specifications if there is updated information. Please note ASMFC’s Addendum III only allows the Board to set state management measures for up to 3 years, so even if the NEFMC does not revisit these specifications in three years, the Board will still need to review management measures in three years. The Board did not alter winter flounder management measures for 2026-2028 in response to these specifications.

Based on the 2025 GOM management track assessment, the GOM stock biomass status is unknown and overfishing is not occurring. The 2024 30+ cm exploitation rate was estimated to be 0.044 which is 19% of the overfishing exploitation threshold proxy (0.23). Overall, indices of GOM winter flounder abundance have not demonstrated any positive response to the large declines in commercial and recreational removals since the 1980s. However, there have been recent increases in the overall biomass estimates (2021-2024), which, if they continue, could be the beginning of a positive response to the recent record low exploitation rates.

Based on the 2025 SNE/MA management track assessment, the SNE/MA stock is not overfished and overfishing is not occurring. However, SNE/MA stock biomass (SSB) has shown an overall declining trend, with the estimate in 2024 (2,787 mt) the second lowest value in the time series. The SNE/MA winter flounder stock is most likely not capable of achieving the high levels of recruitment prior to 2000; therefore, the assessment uses a truncated recruitment time series of only 2002-2024, which was deemed a better reflection of future stock productivity for biological reference point estimation. As a result, despite a stock status of not being overfished, the perception of the stock SSB and recruitment trends has not changed. Trends in survey indices and model estimates all continue to indicate the stock is in poor condition.

The winter flounder commercial fishery was once a highly productive industry with annual harvests up to 40.3 million pounds. Since the early 1980s, landings have steadily declined. Winter flounder is managed as three stocks; Georges Bank (GBK), Gulf of Maine (GOM), and Southern New England/Mid-Atlantic (SNE/MA). Total commercial landings for all three stocks combined dipped to 3.5 million pounds in 2010.

Landings have risen since 2010 due to increased quotas in 2011 and 2012 in the GOM stock, and the lifting of the SNE/MA moratorium in 2013 by NOAA Fisheries. The states, however, have maintained a restrictive commercial trip limit of 50 pounds and a recreational bag limit of two fish in state waters of SNE/MA. Total commercial landings for all stocks combined reached a low of 1.89 million pounds in 2024, an 130% increase from 2023 landings of 0.82 million pounds. Recreational landings peaked in 1982 at 16.4 million pounds and have since maintained a declining trend. In the 2024 fishing year, recreational harvest in GOM and SNE was 50,706 pounds and 4,409 pounds, respectively.