Flounder MSC-RBF

MSC-RBF Status

90: Pass- Low Risk

The flounder fishery scored > 80 in the MSC-RBF analysis, passing assessment with low risk of stock damage. The Productivity Susceptibility Analysis indicated greenback flounder is a highly productive species, with a short generation time, small size, and high fecundity. This species has low susceptibility to capture and damage by the fishery. Greenback flounder are caught almost exclusively on spear, with minimal gillnetting, which limits fishing effort to the shallow component of the species’ depth range (distributed < 100 m) and allows fishers to select mature fish. The Consequence Analysis showed a steady decline in CPUE from the mid-1990s to 2010, attributable to over-exploitation. This is likely to have affected the age/size/sex structure and reproductive capacity of the species. However, since the ban on overnight gillnetting (2010), catch has been minimal, so the analysis indicated stock structure and recruitment dynamics of greenback flounder are unlikely to be impacted substantially by current fishery activities.

Productivity Attributes

AttributeScore
Average age at maturity1
Average maximum age1
Fecundity1
Average maximum size1
Average size at maturity1
Reproductive strategy1
Trophic level2

Susceptibility Attributes

AttributeScore
Availability1
Encounterability1
Selectivity1
Post-capture mortality3

Consequence Analysis

Vulnerable Subcomponent(s)Score
All80

More information on the Marine Stewardship Council Risk-Based Framework (MSC-RBF) Methodology is available on our MSC-RBF Assessment page: