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

Attribute	Score
Average age at maturity	1
Average maximum age	1
Fecundity	1
Average maximum size	1
Average size at maturity	1
Reproductive strategy	1
Trophic level	2

Susceptibility Attributes

Attribute	Score
Availability	1
Encounterability	1
Selectivity	1
Post-capture mortality	3

Consequence Analysis

Vulnerable Subcomponent(s)	Score
All	80