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by Rich Esposito
(from Jersey Coast Anglers Association May 2002 Newsletter)
I would like all club representatives to be advised that because we are holding the High Rollers Raffle at 8 pm, a concerted effort should be made by all to be in attendance by 7:20pm. It is my intention to start the meeting at 7:30 pm, conduct as much non official business as possible, given the fact that there may be some non members there waiting for the raffle to take place, suspend the proceedings until we finish with the raffle, and then reconvene the meeting once the raffle is finished and the non members have a chance to leave, and then finish with all other official business on the agenda. Your cooperation in this matter will be greatly appreciated in order to get the meeting over at a reasonable hour. I would also like to personally thank all those members who sold the raffle tickets and helped make this an overwhelming success.
Please be aware that the Board of Directors are presently in the process of reviewing our Liability Insurance Coverage and we are looking for any of our members who may be knowledgeable about this type of coverage to please step forth and help to advise us on this matter. We would like an attorney who is knowledgeable in liability matters who is willing to donate some time to shed as much light on this as possible, as we do not know what our responsibilities are in case of a problem with one of our annual events. The person ideally should have some experience working with corporations with C4 and C3 tax status. I realize that this may be a lot to ask for but I would rather see us get help from a member before we have to pay for this type of advice. If there is such a person or persons who feel they are qualified, please contact Paul Turi, as he is spearheading this endeavor. Paul’s phone number is in this newsletter, or you can leave a message at the office and we will get back to you.
As our Annual Fluke Tournament draws near, I would like to remind everyone to be sure to get down to Trump’s Marina once before June 14th to register for the free drawing for a car that Trump’s will be giving away the same night we will be giving away the boat. The only requirement is that you must be there and get a card and have it swiped twice, the 2nd being the night of the drawing. We are now in the process of lining up those people who will be working at the JCAA office from Wednesday night May 29th thru Friday, June 7th, the night before the tournament, helping to man the telephones. Vice President Mark Taylor will be coordinating the scheduling which will be from 6pm to 9pm in the evening and from 10am to 2pm on the weekend. You can leave a message at the office telling us when you can be available and Mark will get back to you confirming the time. We are also looking for volunteers to help at Trump’s Marina from 1pm till the end of the festivities at Trump’s Marina on June 14th. You can contact Tournament Chairman Rich Pasko or leave a message at the office. I’m sure you will all agree that an undertaking of this magnitude needs a great deal of support and, needless to say, we need your help.
While I’m on the subject of the Fluke Tournament, I’d like to remind all those who enter that we have an obligation to follow the rules of the individual weigh stations and not cause any problems, as it has come to my attention that this hasn’t always been the case. Let me say that these weigh stations volunteer their services, either at their bait and tackle store or at their marinas, and are not compensated for being part of this function. All I ask is that we all be cognizant of the fact that we are guests in their establishments and should act accordingly.
Report On Weakfish Hearing
On April 9, 20002, The ASMFC presented the initial draft of Amendment 4 to the Interstate Management Plan for Weakfish at the Library in Galloway Twp., NJ. The amendment only addressed the recreational side of the fishery, with absolutely no consideration in the written document to the rather considerable commercial side of the weakfish fishery. The document stated that the stocks continue to rebound, while the recreational sector is rapidly becoming a catch and release fishery. The recreational sector is fishing well below the targeted mortality of .5. There is an effort to severely reduce daily creel limits. JCAA presented the following rebuttal to the most disturbing aspects of the amendment.
JERSEY COAST ANGLERS ASSOCIATION
Working For Saltwater Resource & Marine Anglers
WEAKFISH PID COMMENTS
My name is Ed Cherry. I am here tonight representing the Jersey Coast Anglers Association. We’ve looked at the PID for Amendment 4 to the Interstate Management Plan for Weakfish and wish to put on the record our objections to the PID. First off, the weakfish stocks, according to your own charts, are rebuilding at a very healthy rate. Other than perhaps some adjustments here and there, we feel since the fishery is rebounding the proposals for amendment 4 are unnecessary.
I would make the following comments and observations concerning Amendment 4:
Reference Points. F target of .31 from .5 appears to be an arbitrary target. We are currently fishing at .4 and the stocks and the spawning biomass appear to be on a steady and dynamic rise. Also, there appears to be an arbitrary reference point of 1981-1985.
We have not been given any tables demonstrating variables of different time frames, different F targets ranging from .31 to .5.
This appears to be a repeat of the process that was employed in the summer flounder fishery where the recreational fishery is being penalized for arbitrary assumptions on a highly rebuilt fishery.
Bycatch: We are opposed to any bycatch provisions, which would promote discards and create a nondirected target fishery. Therefore, we support option 1 “Allow no bycatch for nondirected fisheries during closed seasons” and object to options 2 and 3.
Your data in the PID demonstrates the recreational landings in fish and the commercial landings in pounds. The data should be consistent so it can be compared on an equal basis.
In the past New Jersey was part of the southern zone and now appears to have been arbitrarily moved to the northern zone in some of the charts.
Creel Limits: Bag limit proposals have been lumped into the regulations based on a .31 mortality rate and a time period of 1981-1985, without again allowing us to see what different bag limit proposals might be with other F values and other time period references.
Age and size structure: There appears to be an attempt to create a trophy size fishery, which in itself would be hard to define from region to region as there would be a considerable difference in what would be regarded as a trophy fish even within a state. The plan from amendment 3 has only been working some 6 or 7 years and with obvious success. We still need another 6-10 years before we can reliably assess the presence of true trophy fish in the stock. And, quite frankly, do we really need to go down the road of a trophy fish? Perhaps yes if we were talking a game fish without commercial pressure. If the average size fish caught by the recreational sector is only slightly over a pound, where are all the big fish being harvested? If you check your data you will see that it is coming out of the gill net fishery. Why are you not addressing that problem?
7. Issue 6: Data Collection: “Should States be required to collect data to support Weakfish stock assessments?” No, this is not a depressed stock, nor does your own data indicate that it is headed that way. With all the budgetary cutbacks the money would be better spent on fisheries that are depressed.
In conclusion, let me just say that this plan, like the Summer Flounder plan, will do nothing but hurt the back bay fisherman and the sustenance fisherman who can only fish from shorelines, bridges and small rented boats. For the bay fisherman there are only two species to fish for, snapper blues and weakfish. This plan will eliminate weakfish from that catch because of the size increase. The ASMFC is always penalizing those individuals that did not cause any of the problems just because they are poor and do not show up to the meetings. You are micro-managing each species and not looking at the overall impact on the bay and the shore-bound recreational anglers and the subsistence fisherman. You are again not putting any new restrictions on the commercial fishermen and penalizing the whole recreational community that did not cause the collapse of the weakfish fishery. The JCAA will be submitting more written comment before April 27.
Thank you.
Sincerely;
Richard Esposito
President of JCAA