Jeff Deem, Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council member, has a good opinion piece in this week's edition of The Fisherman.

If you fished for flounder in Virginia last season, chances are you tossed back a bunch of fish for every one that met the demanding 18.5-inch minimum-size limit, especially if your launch site was Chincoteague, Watchapreague, Oyster or Cape Charles.

You could be saying goodbye to even more of the flounder you catch this season. Virginia has been ordered to reduce its 2008 recreational catch quota by nearly one-quarter from what it was last year. That likely will mean a combination of a longer minimum-size limit, lower catch limit and more days when the season is closed.

Anglers are getting the opportunity to vote on five options, which is a bit like saying they get to choose their poison.

Most anglers recognize the importance of backing off of a stressed species to allow a rebuilding of the stock, which is what brought back striped bass. But Jeff Deem speaks for many flounder fishermen when he says, "If the summer flounder stock was actually in trouble, the sacrifices would be justifiable. It is not in trouble." Deem is a member of the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council.

You don't have to look far to find anglers who believe that the flounder population is in good shape and that the quota reduction is the result of fuzzy, unbending science on the part of environmentalists who would like to close the season. The scientists who defend the quota appear to be speaking in a foreign language when it comes to making their case to anglers.

Jim Hutchinson Jr., a writer for The Fisherman Magazine, put it this way: "These multiple and every-changing numbers, compounded by scientific language and confusing acronyms, tends to create even further confusion."

One thing is clear, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission is stuck with the task of setting regulations that will result in a 21.6-percent reduction in the summer flounder catch this year.

That mandate comes from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, a regional oversight group that begs to differ with people who think tightening the screws on flounder fishing isn't merited.

The flounder population has seen steady growth the past 15 years, and it is difficult not to credit at least some of that to regulations put in place to deal with over fishing. The question: do we need to keep making them increasingly more restrictive or have reasonable goals been obtained?

Here are the VMRC options:

1. An 18.5-inch minimum size limit; a three-per day catch limit and a closed season through April 15 and again July 21-Aug. 15.

2. An 18.5-inch size limit; three-per day catch limit and a closed season July 21-Aug. 23.

3. A 19-inch size limit; three-per day catch limit and closed season through March 29.

4. A 19-inch size limit; four-per day catch limit and closed season July 21-28

5. A 19-inch size limit; five-per day, closed July 21-30.

Anglers can record their choice on http://vasaltwaterjournal.com/. A final decision is scheduled by VMRC on Feb. 26.

Last year's regulation of choice was an 18.5-inch size limit, five-fish per day catch limit and closed season Jan. 1-March 31 and July 23-28. The size limit was 16.5 inches in 2006, and you don't have to be too old to remember when it was 12 inches.

No matter what option is chosen for Virginia, it is going to be a challenging season for boat rental businesses and bait shops along Virginia's Eastern Shore and other areas where the flounder is king.

Those businesses have started fighting back. Some examples:

A New Jersey-based organization called Save the Summer Flounder Fishery Fund has attracted a bunch of angry anglers and business owners determined to fight for less restrictive regulations. "We should have done this five years ago," said one of the founders, Capt. Chris Hueth. The group's Web site is http://www.ssfff.net/index.html.

On Tuesday, flounder fishermen held a Town Hall type meeting in Wachapreague, a seaside village on Virginia's Eastern Shore that once advertised itself as "The Flounder Capital of the World." The meeting, designed to inform, organize and activate fishermen and business owners, was sponsored by the Recreational Fishing Alliance.

Two bills have been introduced in Congress to amend the restrictive flounder management course established a number of years ago by the Magnuson-Stevenson's Fisheries Management Act and carried out by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. Some think that the flounder season eventually will be closed unless there is action by Congress.