The turnout was a bit disappointing, only 20 people showed (not including council members) if you count the one media outlet that was there to cover the meeting. About half gave public comment. The major groups in attendance were the The Recreational Fishing Alliance, Jersey Coast Anglers Association, Hi-Mar Striper Club, Manasquan Fishing Club, Bay Head Shores Fishing Club and the Newark Bait & Flycasting Club. If I missed anyone I am sorry…going by memory.

Some very good feedback and suggestions were made for changes to the addendum in regards to the reference point changes. All that gave comment were against Issue I, any increase in commercial quota and in favor of Issue II, the reference point change.

Basically the reference point change is a good thing. It will allow the council to take immediate action if for three years in a row there is recruitment failure. ‘Under this option, recruitment failure would be defined as a value that is below 75% of all values in a fixed time series appropriate to each juvenile abundance index.’

For NJ the council decided to drop the data for 1980-1985. The reason being they were really just learning where the fish were after spawning and what they thought was extremely poor recruitment was really their inability to find the juvenile fish and figuring out methods and means to do the young of the year survey in the Delaware.

With dropping these few years of the data set it is basically lowering the juvenile abundance index (JAI). In doing so what was once thought to be fair or good recruitment years for 2002 and 2006 now fall below the index value of 0.89 and qualify as recruitment failures. Which at the end of the day means that we have a lower threshold and the council will be quicker to act on protecting the stock if recruitment failure does occur.

Public written comment is being accpeted until October 1, 2010.

This is the link to Draft Addendum II to Amemendment VI

Info on submitting public comment is below, you can either e-mail, call, fax or mail public comment.

Email: nmeserve@asmfc.org
Phone:  202-289-6400
Fax:  202-289-6051      

Mail: Nichola Meserve
Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission
1444 ‘Eye’ Street, NW, 6th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20005

Meeting Today Results in longer Black Sea Bass Season

Recreational Fishing Alliance

Contact: Jim Hutchinson, Jr. / 888-564-6732
For Immediate Release

May 4, 2010

BLACK SEA BASS SEASON TO DOUBLE IN LENGTH ASMFC Votes to Increase Fishing Days – The Recreational Fishing Alliance Legal Defense Continues

In a vote supported by all member states of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Management Board today, states will now have the option to liberalize the 2010 black sea bass season in state waters by an additional 90 days. The proposed new season will run from May 22 through October 11, with an additional open period of November 1 through December 31. The proposal would keep the size and bag limit the same of 12-1/2 inches and 25 fish per angler.

“The Recreational Fishing Alliance representatives have worked tirelessly on the 2010 black sea bass season since last summer, when drastic cuts to fishing days were first proposed,” said Capt. Adam Nowalsky, chairman of the Recreational Fishing Alliance’s New Jersey chapter (The Recreational Fishing Alliance-NJ). Nowalsky attended the ASMFC meetings this week in North Carolina longside fellow The Recreational Fishing Alliance-NJ board member and United Boatmen representative Capt. Tony Bogan, and said perseverance has been the key to seeing the sea bass opportunities open up again for recreational anglers along the Mid-Atlantic coast. “In December, we were faced with a 60-day season for 2010, and now we are closing in on a near 200-day season,” Nowalsky added.

The increase in fishing days became possible after the recent release of 2009 black sea bass landings. Projected 2009 landings had been mandating a 44% reduction in landings for 2010, but the updated data showed that only a 21% reduction was needed, allowing for the liberalization. For the new regulation to go into effect, individual states will have to implement the new proposal, but given the unanimous support of the states for the motion, implementation is expected.

The Recreational Fishing Alliance representatives have attended and advocated at every ASMFC and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council meeting impacting the recreational black sea bass fishery since last August to ensure that the recreational sector is treated fairly by regulators and has the best opportunity possible to enjoy this healthy fishery. “When our state Marine Fisheries Council meets again back home at the Atlantic County Library in Galloway on May 13th at 4 p.m., this sea bass season increase should be on the agenda,” said Nowalsky. “This is good news for all our coastal states from Massachusetts down through North Carolina, everyone who enjoys this healthy and robust sea bass fishery,” he said.

NOAA Fisheries released a proposed rule last week that specified an opening date of May 22 for the fishery in federal waters with no firm end date for 2010; NOAA Fisheries did not oppose the ASMFC proposal today. When NOAA Fisheries abruptly closed the recreational sea bass fishery last October without any opportunity for public comment, the The Recreational Fishing Alliance immediately began working on a legal challenge to fight the closure. The The Recreational Fishing Alliance, United Boatmen and a coalition of industry allies (the “Plaintiffs”) filed suit on November 4, 2009 in New Jersey Federal Court arguing that the sea bass closure should be declared unlawful and set aside for being arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and otherwise not in accordance with law pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act.

The Plaintiffs also allege that NOAA Fisheries violated numerous provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Act for closing a recreational fishery in reliance upon the fatally flawed Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey (MRFSS) and for failing to adequately assess the impacts of the Emergency Rule on small business entities such as party and charter boats and bait and tackle shops.

“The emergency closure of the recreational sea bass fishery was unprecedented for a fishery that is not ‘overfished’ and where ‘overfishing is not occurring’,” said Jim Donofrio, The Recreational Fishing Alliance Executive Director. “This case is about more than just sea bass; it’s about taking a stand against a federal agency abusing its power and hurting individuals and small business owners. If NMFS gets away with using MRFSS data to shut down the sea bass fishery this time it will be tough to stop them from doing it in other fisheries.” Donofrio said that a legal win with this case would help set a precedent for anglers to ensure that NOAA couldn’t make similar closures in other regions in the future.

On January 22, NMFS filed the Administrative Record for the case, submitting all the documents the Court will consider in making its decision. “We carefully reviewed the Administrative Record to determine whether further documents existed that should have been, but were not, submitted by the government,” said Herb Moore, Jr., The Recreational Fishing Alliance co-counsel on the case. “Surprisingly, we discovered that NMFS failed to submit the minutes of the December 2008 meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, which is the meeting where the 2009 sea bass measures were debated and voted on only to be preempted roughly ten months later by the emergency closure,” Moore said.

According to the The Recreational Fishing Alliance‘s legal team, the government would not consent to adding these materials to the Administrative Record so they filed a motion to supplement the record on April 23 which they expect will be decided sometime after May 17. “Thirty days after we have a decision on this motion to supplement, we will go ahead and file a motion for summary judgment and expect NMFS to file a cross motion for summary judgment after that,” Moore said, adding “We expect this case will ultimately be decided on these cross motions for summary judgment.”

As of May 4, 2010, $26,470.27 has been deposited into the The Recreational Fishing Alliance Legal Defense Fund for ongoing efforts to challenge NOAA Fisheries’ decision to close the black sea bass fishery. “Tackle shops, party and charter boat captains, fishing clubs and captains organizations and hundreds of individual anglers have contributed to our campaign to ensure that NOAA Fisheries never does this again,” said The Recreational Fishing Alliance Managing Director, Jim Hutchinson, Jr. “This battle to reopen our sea bass fishery and the ongoing legal challenge to protect anglers against future arbitrary closures has been all grassroots so far, but I’m hoping that some of our friends from the national tackle industry who rely on a healthy sea bass fishery will contribute to the angler efforts to keep our folks fishing,” Hutchinson added.

Learn more about the The Recreational Fishing Alliance and the The Recreational Fishing Alliance Legal Defense Fund at www.joinrfa.org

Catch Share Public Comment Period Ends April 10, 2010. Tell NOAA how you feel before its too late! There are only about 150 comments on there!

Please Fill it out it is easy all you have to say is “I am against catch shares!”

http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/sfa/domes_fish/catchshare/comments/

March 31, 2010

New regulations for the recreational and commercial harvest of black sea bass, summer flounder, and weakfish became effective in New Jersey on March 25, 2010. New Jersey’s adoption of the regulations was necessary to remain in compliance with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission‘s (ASMFC) Interstate Fishery Management Plans (FMP) for these species.

The regulation changes include a reduction in the recreational black sea bass season, a minor change in the summer flounder recreational season and a recreational and commercial possession limit reduction for weakfish.

At its February 2010 meeting, the ASMFC’s Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Board approved a reduction in the coastwide black sea bass recreational season due to significant overages in the 2009 coastwide recreational black sea bass harvest quota. To assure recreational landings do not exceed the established 2010 coastwide recreational quota, the ASMFC established a coastwide black sea bass season of May 22 through September 12, which is now in effect in New Jersey. The recreational black sea bass possession limit and minimum size remain at 25 fish per day and 12.5 inches.

The same ASMFC Board approved the NJ Marine Fisheries Council recommendation to change the New Jersey summer flounder recreational season to May 29 through September 6, which includes both Memorial Day and Labor Day. The 2009 season was May 23 through September 4. The recreational possession limit and minimum size remain at 6 fish per day and 18 inches.

The ASMFC’s Weakfish Management Board (Board) implemented stock-wide management measures to reduce the recreational and commercial weakfish possession limit due to a determination that the Atlantic Coast weakfish stock is currently depleted and at the lowest population level since estimates have been recorded (1981-2008). The Board implemented stock-wide management measures to promote stock rebuilding, which result in a recreational possession limit of one (1) fish per angler per day. The former New Jersey recreational possession limit was six fish per angler per day.

The new commercial weakfish regulations reduce the daily possession limit to 100 pounds during the open commercial season and establish a minimum size of 13 inches for all gear types at all times. During the closed commercial weakfish season, the possession limit has also been reduced to100 pounds and may only be kept if it does not exceed 50 percent, by weight, of the total weight of all species landed and sold.

http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/news/2010/marreg_changes.htm

I went down to the boat Saturday morning to ride out the storm and rearrange the tackle lockers Saturday and hopefully install rod holders and maybe the outriggers on Sunday.  Tropical Storm Danny was a big disappointment.  There was no wind to speak of and not much more than your average downpour as far as rain.

Got the lockers straightened out and hopefully in a more user friendly arrangement.  Billy came back in with a limit of fluke from a rough inlet.  He lost a couple of big fish in the 6 to 8 pound range trying to net them.  I then had a hard decision to make, go fishing or work on the boat.

I did what any self respecting fisherman would do…I went fishing.  I made a quick stop in the river before heading to the inlet.  Got a couple hits in the river but quickly moved on.  The inlet produced all the shorts you wanted, had a few hits on a jig that felt like weakfish but never came tight, which made think more that they were weaks being finicky and just mouthing the bait.

Was back at the dock by 1 pm, got cleaned up and just hung out with friends and enjoyed the beautiful day.  Hopefully I will get to the installations this weekend since fluke will be closed and wreck fishing may be as well.  I will post info on the pending closure of scup and sea bass as soon as I find anything out.  I should have an idea Tuesday night.

The NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife has updated the NJ marine recreational angling regulations.  The most notable changes are the 2009 summer flounder season and the increase in minimum size for black sea bass from 12 to 12.5 inches.  There are anticipated changes in 2009 for black sea bass and sharks, we will just have to wait and see what the changes will be.  I believe the changes for sea bass will be minimum size as well as a reduction in bag limit to 10 of 15 fish from the current 25 fish limit.

2009 NJ Marine Recreational Regulations

Minimum size: 21″
Bag limit: 2 fish
Split season: 5/15 – 6/15, 7/3 – 8/17

NY has a lawsuit pending and New Jersey’s regulations are being threatened by a recent ruling by a Brooklyn, NY federal judge. The judge found for the state of NY and a coalition made up of the United Boatmen of NY, the NY Fishing Tackle Trade Association and the Fisherman’s Conservation Association to include Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) in the lawsuit. NY is looking to change the coast-wide allocation of summer flounder. It appears that Brooklyn’s Senior Federal District Judge, Charles P. Sifton, has made an unprecedented change to the status of the ASMFC, which, if left to stand, leaves the ASMFC at the mercy of the courts in the allocation of species under its management.

In the mid 90′s, for the first time, a coast-wide quota was set for all coastal states where each competed for a quota. After being in place for several years, this system was found to be unfair to some states and it was agreed by all parties that a change to the coast-wide system needed to happen. The current state-by-state system was determined over twenty years ago by extensive discussion by the coastal states to come up with a fair and equitable system. Ironically, it was NY that made the motion to switch from a coast-wide to state-by-state model.

If NY is successful in changing back to a single coast-wide quota system, then NY anglers will be able to increase their catch at the expense of NJ anglers. As a result New Jersey’s catch will be substantially decreased and this will have a significant negative economic impact on New Jersey’s economy during these troubled financial times.

Please send a letter to the Governor asking that NJ intervene along with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and the Secretary of the Federal Department of Commerce to challenge the case brought by the State of New York to change the coast-wide allocation of summer flounder.  I have included a sample letter below.

Letters should be sent to:

The Honorable Jon S. Corzine
Governor of New Jersey
State House, PO Box 001
Trenton, NJ 08625-0001

 Dear Governor Corzine,

The vitality of New Jersey’s recreational fishing industry, which generates 1.3 billion dollars to New Jersey’s economy, is being seriously threatened by a recent ruling by a Brooklyn, New York Federal Judge concerning the data and methodology used to establish quotas for summer flounder, locally know as fluke, for East coast states.

I request that New Jersey intervene along with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) and the Secretary of the Federal Department of commerce to challenge the case brought by the state of New York to change the coastwide allocation of summer flounder.  Further, I am concerned that Brooklyn’s Senior Federal District Judge Charles P. Sifton has made an unprecedented change to the status of the ASMFC, which, if left to stand, leaves the ASMFC at the mercy of the courts in the allocation of species under its management regime.  The judge found for the state of New York and a coalition made up of the United Boatmen of New York (UBNY), the New York Fishing Tackle Trade Association (NYFTTA), and the Fisherman’s Conservation Association of NY (FCA) to include the ASMFC in the lawsuit.

The summer flounder fishery, one of the most important to our state, is jointly managed by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the ASMFC.  The NMFS has management of responsibilities over fisheries within three to 200 miles and the ASMFC is responsible for the water from New Jersey’s shoreline to three miles out to sea.  For nearly twenty years now, each state has been allocated a catch limit based upon its historical catch.  Because of its large participation by anglers, New Jersey has historically had the largest allocation of any state.

If New York is successful in changing back to a single coastwide quota system, then New York anglers will be able to increase their catch at the expense of New Jersey anglers.  As a result, New Jersey’s catch will be substantially decreased.  This will have a significant negative economic impact on New Jersey’s economy during these troubled financial times.

I am deeply concerned that this legal decision may result in a court-mandated injunction that would disrupt the 2009 summer flounder season for New Jersey’s anglers.  Because of the large impact a federal ruling could have in this matter, I again request that New Jersey’s interest be represented by our Attorney General as a friend of the court.

Thank you,

Your Name

Your Address

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Some of the above information was obtained from the April JCAA newsletter.

We have a slightly increased quota for 2009 as many of you already know.  NJ’s 2009 summer flounder regulations have been announced and the new season will open on May 23 and close on September 4, with a six fish bag limit and a minimum size of 18″.

I am actually surprised by this.  I guess someone thought reducing the bag limit by two and going with the longest season will keep NJ within the quota.  I personally don’t know how that will happen when most of the data reports that unless the bag limit is reduced to between two and four fish it will not make a significant difference.  I sure hope they know what they are doing otherwise the state with the most relaxed summer flounder regulations may not be that way in 2010.  See you out there opening day!

Once considered the minority of the voting demographic slowly hunters, trappers, fishermen and outdoorsmen are becoming the majority in NJ.  Anthony Mauro and the NJ Outdoor Alliance has a big hand in this transformation.  This was evident back during the Senatorial election defeating Sen. Karcher and Assemblyman Panter.  On the NJOA’s web site you can get information on all the hot legislative topics affecting outdoorsmen and women, which politicians are with or against us, find out where the NJOA will be next and purchase merchandise or donate to the NJOA to help protect our rights as outdoorsmen and women.

To receive all the latest information and news on what this great organization is doing, what the politicians and environmentalist are trying to slip past us and where they will be sign up for the NJOA Action Alerts.

We know something is coming, whether it be the already mandated Federal Registry (Jan. 1, 2010), state registry or state saltwater license.  Delaware put one in place for 2008 and NY has one in the works.  There are some bills in legislature already that hopefully don’t pass the way they are structured.  I am for a state license.  Why would we want to send money to the Federal Government to be put in the general fund and never used for fishing?  I think Tom’s white paper is excellent and brings up a lot of very important points for the structuring of a saltwater license in NJ.  While most of the angling community is against a license, I don’t see a way around it.  If it is well thought out it very well could make things a lot better in the future.  One thing it could benefit is the traveling angler, if you fish Delaware Bay, NJ waters and Raritan Bay if NJ structures the license properly it would be reciprocal or honored in each neighboring state so you would not be required to purchase three licenses.  Despite the corruption and political bias in NJ I think a saltwater license can be structured to help the recreational angler if enough of us get behind the process to ensure it is tailored to our specifications and not the to the politicians liking.

Take a read and I think if you are on the fence or against a license you may rethink your position.

Federal Registry White Paper by: Tom Fote