Louisiana's annual ban on catching and keeping flounder begins Tuesday, a frustrating time for anglers as fall fishing for the species heats up, but a step the state's biologists say is necessary to restore depleted numbers.
The annual ban from Oct. 15 through Nov. 30 began in 2022, after an assessment showed southern flounder in serious decline. For many years a fixture on local restaurant menus, the spotted flatfish has become more scarce recently, and the assessment noted commercial and recreational catches were their lowest on record for 2017 and 2018.
The ban applies to both commercial and recreational anglers and is timed to occur when flounder begin to spawn in the fall. Shrimpers who net them as bycatch must also throw them back.
Anecdotal evidence from anglers suggest the annual ban is helping improve numbers, but the state's biologists are not due to present a new assessment of the species until February.
"There have been more catches since the season’s been closing. It’s a lot better," said Shanna Day, of the Rigolets Bait & Seafood marina in the Slidell area. Before the closure, "we weren’t seeing them at all," she said.
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries said in a statement that the closure "is necessary to attempt to recover the stock of southern flounder, which is overfished based on results from the 2020 southern flounder stock assessment."
"The annual closed season in the fall allows mature female flounder to escape inshore waters and move offshore to spawn," it said.
The reasons for the decline have been multiple, including overfishing and Louisiana's disappearing marsh, which provides habitat for a variety of species. A series of high-river years that led to multiple openings of the Bonnet Carre Spillway, funneling freshwater into southeast Louisiana estuaries, have also been named as a potential culprit. Relatively low rivers since 2022 have boosted salinity in those areas.
But evidence is emerging that southern flounder are also particularly vulnerable to climate change and the warmer waters it brings.
Battering flounder for the fryer at Fury's Restaurant in Metairie. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
Flounder do not develop into males or females before they hatch, and stressors such as warmer waters after they do can cause more to become male, one study by North Carolina State scientists showed. Another study by a former LSU graduate research assistant documented a decline in southern flounder numbers across its range, from the Gulf Coast to the Atlantic.
Louisiana's recreational anglers do not specifically target flounder in many cases, but end up catching them while fishing for redfish and speckled trout. Some do pursue them, though, especially those who "gig" them with a spear-like pole along beaches.
When the season is open, a catch limit of 10 per person, per day is in effect. There is no minimum size limit for flounder in Louisiana.
While Louisiana's closure has not sparked major backlash, bans in other states have provoked controversy. North Carolina announced a ban on recreational flounder fishing for the entire year in 2024, citing the need to replenish stocks, leading anglers there to push for the decision to be overturned, the Wilmington Star-News reported.