Flounder could be the cash crop of the future for fish farmers.

It’s heartbreaking to listen to an old salt lament over diminishing numbers and poor catches of flounders lately.

There is growing concern among hook-and-line fishers, especially, over a decimation of flounder stocks by commercial giggers and divers who target flounder for bucks. Unfortunately, large brood-stock females bring the top dollars.

It seems obvious that tighter restrictions are needed for both commercial and recreational sectors. State records indicate an approximate 40 percent drop in pounds of flounder caught between 1993 and 2002. Total catch, recreational and commercial, for 1993 was close to one million pounds, compared to a little less than 600,000 pounds in 2002.

Three flounder species—gulf, southern and summer—grace Florida waters. Their delicate taste makes them a highly sought table fish and they command a price comparable to grouper. It’s no surprise that growing numbers of market fishermen have set sights on flatfish. What is a surprise to many is that restrictions are few. Commercial giggers must possess a SPL (Salt Water Products License) with a RS (Restricted Species) endorsement. There is a 12-inch minimum size limit, same as applies to recreational catches.

That’s where the similarities end. In Florida, recreational anglers may take a limit of 10 fish. Not so for commercials, who can gig, spear, cast net, beach or haul seine and hook and line as many flatties over 12 inches long as they can put in the box. Netters are allowed 50 pounds per person as incidental “bycatch” per Florida rules. Bycatch in this case refers to flounder taken while fishing with any gear other than that allowed while targeting a species other than flounder for which the use of such gear is allowed. Nine times out of ten this means shrimp trawls.

Many old-time recreational flounder fishermen have expressed disgust over the disparity in regulations, saying that flounder numbers have plunged in recent years, especially on Florida’s upper and central east coasts where more and more commercials are jumping on the flounder money train.

Venture to Matanzas, St. Augustine, Ponce or Fort George inlets. On good nights, you’ll see as many as 25 boats running the shorelines gigging every flounder larger than 12 inches in sight. Multiply that number by 365 nights and remove any trip limit or quota and it’s easy to see that Florida flatfish face trouble. Both species, southern flounder and gulf flounder, are nightly targets of giggers and daytime targets for commercial divers who hunt for them around nearshore and offshore wrecks where they stack up during spawning season.

“Law shouldn’t allow any flounder to be sold that has holes in it,” a Matanzas Inlet regular said. That’s a powerful statement coming from a 20-year Northeast Florida flounder vet, who until 2002, caught a flounder or two practically every day he tossed out a line.

Florida fishery managers claim that recreational fishermen account for the majority of this state’s flounder catches, a figure many hook-and-line recreational flounder vets dispute. Of course, it should be expected that non-commercials would take a lion’s share collectively since they outnumber the market takers by 100 to 1 or more in most fisheries. On a per-person basis, commercial fishermen are allowed to take a far, far greater number than the family-level anglers.

A report by Mike Murphy at Florida Marine Research Institute found, “that adequate information was not available to assess the condition of southern or gulf flounder stocks in Florida.” That’s alarming. The state has a flounder-accounting problem. It makes no sense that Florida allows unlimited commercial catches of flounder when the state has no idea how many fish are being landed nor what the actual status of the stocks is. Recreational landings are determined primarily by the feds’ random telephone survey, combining total trips times reported catch figures.