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Description
The summer flounder, or "fluke", a flatfish noted for its fighting ability and flavor, is found in coastal waters from the southern Gulf of Maine to Florida. Important recreational and commercial fisheries for this species occur from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
Like other species of flatfish, the fluke has both eyes on one side of its head and rests on the ocean floor on its side. The fluke is called a left-handed flatfish because its eyes are on the upper surface of the head when the fish is facing left. The species has a very large mouth that extends below and beyond it eyes.
Summer flounder are called the chameleons of the sea because of their ability to change color to match the bottom on which they are found. Generally they are white below and darker above, but they can turn various shades of gray, blue, green-orange, and almost black. The upper part of the fluke's body is marked with scattered spots that are darker than the general body color.
The angling record for summer flounder in Massachusetts is 21 pounds 8 ounces. Although the largest fluke may weigh up to 26 pounds, the average adult weighs 2 to 5 pounds and measures 17 to 25 inches long. A 15 to 16-inch fish, which is only 2 to 3 years old, weighs about 1 to 1 1/4 pounds. A 20-inch fish is about 3 to 3 ½ pounds, a 30-inch fish would be 10 pounds, and a 37-inch fish would be approximately 20 pounds. Females may live up to 20 years and weigh more than 20 pounds, while males rarely exceed 7 years of age and 3 to 5 pounds in weight.
Both males and females become sexually mature at the age of 3. The fecundity (number of eggs produced in a single spawning season) of females increases with size and weight. A 14-inch female produces about 460,000 and a 27-inch female about 4,200,000, eggs in a season.
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Habits
Summer flounder inhabit inshore areas of Massachusetts during the warmer periods of the year. Fluke prefer eelgrass beds and wharf pilings because of the protection they offer. When threatened, they quickly bury all but their beady eyes in the sand or escape at surprisingly high speeds. In the summer, small and medium-sized adults are found on the sandy and muddy bottoms of bays, harbors, and along the open coastline. Most of the larger fish tend to stay in somewhat deeper water (50 to 60 feet). With the approach of fall, summer flounder migrate to more offshore waters in depths from 150 to more than 500 feet.
Reproduction takes place in the fall, as soon as the fish begin to migrate to wintering grounds, Peak spawning activity occurs from early September through early November in water temperatures of 53 to 66 degrees F and at depths of 60 to 160 feet. The center of spawning activity occurs off the coasts of New York and New Jersey, with less concentrated activity occurring in southern New England waters.
The eggs float in the water column, hatching 72 to 75 hours after being laid. After hatching, the larvae are carried into bays and estuaries where they will spend the early portion of their lives. Autumn water-circulation patterns in southern New England tend to distribute surviving larval fish southward along the coast, resulting in the virtual absence of young summer flounder in Massachusetts waters.
The summer flounder, which depends upon sight to capture its food, feeds most actively during daylight hours. Juveniles feed upon small shrimp and other crustaceans, while adults eat a variety of fish, including small winter flounder, menhaden, sand lance, red hake, silversides, bluefish, weakfish, and mummichogs, as well as invertebrates such as blue crabs, squid, sand shrimp, opossum shrimp, and mollusks. Adult are very active predators, often chasing schools of small fish to the surface and leaping out of the water in pursuit of them. This behavior clearly distinguishes the summer flounder from the other more sluggish species of inshore flatfish
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Management
Historically, the summer flounder has been among the most important commercial and recreational flatfishes on the East Coast. The commercial catch in Massachusetts has been modest compared to catches along the mid-Atlantic states, but the population summering in Massachusetts coastal waters faces an intensive offshore otter trawl fishery in the winter and spring. Commercial catches in the southern part of the fluke's range were stable from the 1950s to the early 1970s, while those in the northern portion of its range persistently declined over the same time period. In 1974 it was estimated that total commercial and recreational harvests exceeded a level that should be sustained for any extended period of time. Despite this caution, total harvest has exceeded the 1974 level in the 1980s.
Recreational fishing has always been a major component of the total fluke harvest, often exceeding commercial catches in the Mid-Atlantic States. The recreational catch ranged from 26 to 60% of the total harvest from 1979 to 1984 on a coast-wide basis. Certain regions have historically supported tremendous recreational fishing. One such region, the Great South Bay of Long Island, reported as many as 2,000,000 fluke landed yearly during the late 1950s and early 1960s. The total coastal recreational catch from 1979 to 1984 ranged from 5,000,000,000 to 18,900,000,000 fish.
Although populations' levels in the 1980s have been somewhat higher than they were in the 1960s and 1970s, persistently high harvest levels may once more reduce this species' abundance. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission developed a Summer Flounder Management Plan that was adopted by coastal states from Massachusetts to North Carolina in 1982. This plan established a minimum legal size limit of 14 inches to protect this important coastal fishery resource
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