DOVER – DNREC Secretary Shawn M. Garvin today signed an Emergency Order making changes in Delaware’s tautog fishing regulations that go into effect July 1. The changes were adopted through an emergency regulation due to insufficient time to adopt the regulations through the standard regulatory process without significantly impacting Delaware’s tautog fisheries.
The regulations increase the tautog minimum size limit to 16 inches, adjust the open seasons to July 1 through Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 through May 15, and reduce the possession limit to four tautog per day during the new open seasons. The adjusted seasons allow Delaware’s commercial and recreational fishermen earlier access to tautog fishing than the previous July 17 reopening of the fishery and provide 48 additional tautog-fishing days annually.
The Emergency Secretary’s Order can be found at http://www.dnrec.delaware.gov/Info/Pages/SecOrders_Regulations.aspx.
The new regulations established by the emergency order bring Delaware into compliance with Amendment 1 to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Interstate Fishery Management Plan for tautog.
For more information about tautog season, call DNREC’s Fisheries Section at 302-739-9914 or visit www.dnrec.delaware.gov/fw/Fisheries.
Contact: Joanna Wilson, DNREC Public Affairs, 302-739-9902
Vol. 48, No. 173