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By Frank Richetti
(from Jersey Coast Anglers Association July 2000 Newsletter)
The New Jersey Marine Fisheries
Council will be meeting on Thursday, July 13 at 4:00 p.m. in the Gallaway Township Public
Library. An important issue before them is a proposal from Councilman Gary Dickerson to
“not allow the harvest of menhaden within state waters for the purpose of reduction.” If the council approves this proposal it will
prevent the large Virginia based purse seine boats from harvesting menhaden within 3 miles
of New Jersey beaches. The current regulation require these boats to fish at least 1.2
nautical miles from the beach, but put no other restrictions on them. There are no
restrictions on how much they can harvest. Within the past 10 years they have harvested as
much a 119 million pounds annually of bunker from our state waters. Recently they harvest
much less, but their harvest level is left up to their own discretion with no caps on
quantity.
We have a consistent message. First we want to protect the health of the
resource and, secondly, we want to prevent over fishing in localized zones. We want to
protect the forage base for recovering stocks of striped bass, weakfish and bluefish. Even
if the Menhaden population is healthy coast wide, local overfishing will make it harder
for game fish to find suitable forage and they will soon move on. By not having control on
harvest levels of this important forage fish within our state waters we are at the mercy
of business decisions being made in Virginia.
The council will be divided on this
issue. There will be strong opposition from
the reduction industry and other commercial fishing interests. We need your support in
influence the council to vote in favor of Mr. Dickerson’s proposal. There was a good
turnout of recreational supporters at the last council meeting. We need their presence again. Send a delegate to
speak on behalf of your club in support of this action.
The regulations for purse seining of
menhaden for bait within Raritan/Sandy Hook Bay changed this year from 0.3 nautical miles
from the beach to 0.6 nautical miles. That will restrict the bait boats from a good
portion of the bays and will protect all the narrow sections. Of course a rule is only as good as its
enforcement. Whenever you see activity that
you believe is against the regulations, contact the Division of Fish and Wildlife, Bureau
of Law Enforcement. There are 3 regional offices and although you will not always get
immediate action, you won’t get any action if you don’t make the contact.
Northern Region – (908) 735-8240
(Bergan, Essex, Hudson, Passaic, Union, Warren)
Central Region - (609) 259-2120 (Middlesex, Monmouth,
Ocean, Mercer, Burlington)
Southern Region – (856) 629-0555
(Atlantic, Camden, Cape May, Salem, Cumberland)
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