SSFFF is involved in funding the next step in the quest for more accurate science. In pursuing this effort, we have teamed up with Fisheries Science veteran Dr. Patrick Sullivan, who is collaborating with Rutgers University and Cornell University on another more intensive research project.* When completed, this new and comprehensive initiative will shed more light on the stock size and how to best create a refined assessment model that accurately portrays the state of the Summer Flounder fishery. We hope to present this information at the next Peer Review, which is expected sometime in 2017 or 2018.

There are several different SSFFF-sponsored projects currently underway which will strive to include detailed sex-structured information into the next NMFS Stock Assessment. SSFFF recently funded a parallel project with Dr. Daphne Munroe and Jason Morson of Rutgers University that is designed to collect information on sex composition and discards of recreational fishermen on the East Coast. This additional study will be incorporated into a sex-specific stock assessment being developed by Dr. Sullivan. • Both projects are critical components of the creation of the new stock assessment model in time for the next NOAA Peer Review.

Our scientists, Daphne Munroe, Jason Morson, and Patrick Sullivan, would be happy to discuss this project with you in more detail to provide you with a better scope of the undertaking. We understand that this is a lot to comprehend, but it needs to be done to assure long-term health for the summer flounder fishery and to build a science-based quota for both the commercial and recreational fisheries.