Flounder Flounders

Roger Tollefsen, president of the New York Seafood Council, used the recent supply of winter (blackback and yellowtail) flounder this week to describe how fish marketing had a few new wrinkles.

The species is highly regulated by seasonal closings. Before Christmas, on Dec. 1, when demand for seafood traditionally begins to grow, the State Department of Environmental Conservation opened the winter flounder fishery. That had been expected, at least by fishermen.

But then unusually good weather and the fact that the fluke fishery was closed until Jan. 1 prompted more than the usual number of fishermen to go after flounder.

The fishing turned out to be good and the supply not only met demand but exceeded it. Consumers had no knowledge of the impending flounder boom. Retailers, not used to an abundance of winter flounder, already had committed their buying and advertising budgets to other species.The result was that flounder prices stayed higher than they should have - $8 a pound for fillet in some cases - and for a week longer than they might have.

By the time lower prices could be passed along to consumers, the holidays were over and the demand had fallen.