DMF Adjusts Summer Flounder Quota

DMF Director Preston Pate Jr. has informed NOAA that North Carolina will be adding underage from 1999 to the fall 2000 flounder harvest. 

The adjusted quota allows for the harvest of the 735,899 pounds remaining in this year's quota plus the 109,376 pounds not harvested in 1999 for a total of 845,275 pounds. 

Under regulations established by NMFS in August, when commercial landings of summer flounder exceed a state's quota the overage is subtractedfrom the following year's quota. 

The regulations also allow for underage from the 2000 quota to be carried forward to 2001. Although the regulations do not explicitly allow for underage rollover, DMF has determined that the spirit of the ruling allows for North Carolina's unused quota portions from 1999 to be carried over to 2000.