New England-FMC Supports Flounder Aquaculture

The New England Fisheries Management Council recently unofficially backed a plan in New York for farm-raising and releasing flounder into the wild.  The proposal is the brainchild of Capt. Norman Edwards Jr., a commercial fisherman and East Hampton, NY, town trustee.

According to recent press reports, Edwards’ plan got its biggest boost when it got overwhelming official approval from  NY’s Marine Resources Advisory Council. Regardless of these gains, however, Edwards has gotten the cold shoulder from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEC).

Despite that hurtle, Edwards plan seems to be catching steam and could act as a model for similar programs to supplement wild ground-fish stocks throughout New England.

Winter flounder - sold in markets as flounder or lemon sole - went into serious decline in North East waters in the 1980s, taking with it a major commercial and recreational fishery. Despite stringent fishing regulations, it's estimated that it could take more than a decade for winter flounder to regain its once-robust place in New England coastal waters.

Winter flounder first came into the national aquaculture spotlight in 2007 when researchers at the University of new Hampshire’s Atlantic Marine Aquaculture Center found that winter flounder is a good candidate for stock enhancement, in which juvenile fish hatched from wild brood stock are raised in captivity and released into the wild.

"We're studying winter flounder because we think they are an excellent local candidate for stock enhancement," said UNH researcher Elizabeth Fairchild, in a press announcement in 2007. "We know how to raise them, and we've learned how to release them in a way that maximizes their survival."

Raising the juvenile flounder is, in many ways, the easy part, according to UNH researchers. 

The process begins in what Fairchild calls the "honeymoon tank" in UNH's Coastal Marine Laboratory in New Castle, NH. Commercial fishermen provide the wild brood stock; Fairchild and colleagues expertly gauge their readiness for releasing sperm and eggs then give the males and females their privacy: "We let the fish spawn on their own," she said, noting that stock enhancement is most effective when the raised fish are as similar as possible to the wild fish they'll ultimately breed with.

The work gets tricky - and makes for fascinating research -- when the juveniles reach the size of a potato chip and are ready to join their wild brethren in the shallow coastal waters where winter flounder naturally spawn. "Hatchery-bred fish are different than wild fish," says Fairchild. They haven't been exposed to predators, for instance; nor have they had to forage for food. "For stock enhancement to work, the raised fish must be as fit as the wild fish." Much of her research turns on the challenge of making the cultured fish more wild.

Studies continue on how to best make sure farm-raised flounder can make it in the wild. For instance, Fairchild and other researchers have tested the effectiveness of acclimatization cages, marine halfway houses that give hatchery-raised fish a protected introduction to the wild blue sea, according to UNH reports.

Edwards’ plan in NY and any others in New England will depend heavily on UNH’s continued research.  New England Aquafarmer will continue to cover and keep you posted as news develops.