There's alot more going on with these fisheries, flounder and whiting than just over fishing from recs and commercial. Climate changes have influenced , increases in populations of cormorants (fish eating birds) and seals and other mammals. The striped bass come back of the late nineties too , fluke and bluefish too ! During the months of June and July flounder are still here in numbers but in deep water and are caught while targeting ling and seabass. AND in Jan and Feb are caught in fyke nets inside rivers and bays in good numbers too. I've read that certain pollutants from fertillizers and pest control and other sources has had an impact on the percentage of male and female flounder too. Making spawning less effective. THere's no money for these studies and very little has been done to put into use any info gained from studies that have been done. On the bight side, In the last 2 years thru our winters and into spring I've seen encouraging signs of increases in flounder numbers in my area as caught by hook and line fishermen during the winter and spring. Ling rebounded last winter with some great catches thru a mild winter. There have been more cod caught in NJ waters the last few winters than in many years. There's still good numbers of whiting up north of Cape Cod too . Regulations for fisheries in the last 20 years have changed everthing but unless more is known on "what to do" besides just hit the recreational fisherman with more restrictions, I believe some of this will remain unchanged. Just my .02
