Transparent Summer Flounder Quotas Act
This bill addresses rules governing summer flounder fisheries.
As applicable to summer flounder, the rule submitted by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) titled "Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Fisheries; 2017-2018 Summer Flounder Specifications and Announcement of 2017 Summer Flounder and Black Sea Bass Commercial Accountability Measures" is nullified. The rule published in the Federal Register on December 22, 2016, establishes summer flounder quotas for the 2017-2018 recreational and commercial fishing seasons.
The prior regulations governing summer flounder shall apply until the NMFS completes a new summer flounder stock assessment and establishes a new rule based on the stock assessment. (The prior regulations titled "Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Fisheries; 2016-2018 Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Specifications" were published in the Federal Register on December 28, 2015, and effective as of January 1, 2016.)