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by Tom Siciliano
(from Jersey Coast Anglers Association February 2003 Newsletter)
As the new president of the JCAA I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself. I do belong to a few fishing clubs “you can never have too many opportunities to go fishing”. I am a past president of the Salt Water Anglers of Bergen County and am currently the club’s JCAA representative. Those of you who have attended the Sportsman of the Year Dinner Dance may remember me as the Chairman of that event a few years ago. I recently retired so have I the time to dedicate to furthering the cause of the saltwater anglers of New Jersey. I plan on participating in the reauthorization of the Magnuson Act in Washington and attending meetings in Trenton on many environmental and fisheries issues as they arise.
One of the major issues will be the fisheries related bills that are circulating in Washington. The Freedom to Fish Act is under attack by well meaning environmental groups and we need to make them understand the importance of this legislation to the future of both the recreational and commercial fishing communities.
When you first hear about Marine Protected Areas they sound like a good thing and some environmental groups are certainly pushing them. The National Audubon has asked the question: “Isn’t 99% of the ocean enough for fishermen to fish in?” They only want 1% to be placed off limits. If that 1% is where you do your fishing they have excluded you from 100% of your fishing opportunity. This potential downside is what has happened in California where a large area of the finest fishing waters in Southern California has been placed off limits with no scientific justification and no time nor criteria when it could be reopened. This could happen here and we must all be very vigilant and if and when the time comes, very vocal or we could have the same thing happen to us.
New to the executive board this year as the 2nd Vice President is John Koegler who has been the Chairman of the Highly Migratory Species Committee for many years. The rest of the board remains the same as last year.
I have set some goals that I would like to accomplish in my term of office. Among them are to increase our club membership base. If you belong to a club and your club is not currently a member of the JCAA I would be happy to come to one of your meetings and tell you a little about the JCAA. I can also discuss what is being done to improve water quality throughout the State of New Jersey and how the JCAA is assisting in that important issue. We have been working with many environmental groups to promote improved water quality and Governor McGreevey recently declared that the Metedeconk River would be put on the list for consideration of Category 1 protection. This will insure that the highest standards are met for any activity that could potentially degrade the quality of water in the entire Metedeconk watershed.
I would also like to strengthen our committee structure and get more new people involved. We have many things, which we are working on and the schedule of committees is in the back of this newsletter. Please let the committee chairman listed or me know if you are interested in getting involved in any of the committees.
The year has gotten off to a fast start with the Outdoor Sportsman Show at the Raritan Center. I would like to thank everyone who helped man the booth during the four days of the show. Mark Taylor organized our participation and we did very well with this years High Roller Raffle and the sale of hats and t-shirts. We met with many fishermen and conducted a poll about the potential Salt Water Fishing license. We had over 500 signatures on Thursday and Friday and then on Saturday the headlines in the Asbury Park Press stated that the Saltwater License had been deep sixed. Our position for many years has been solidly against a license but we wanted to gauge the current feelings of the saltwater fishing community. We only had two signatures that were for the license.
We also attended the SaltWater Sportsman Fishing Seminar, which was held in Atlantic City on January 11th. We talked to many anglers about various issues and sold raffle tickets there as well.
The next event where we will have a booth will be at the upcoming Atlantic City Boat Show on February 5 - 9. Mark Taylor is again coordinating the manning schedule so if you would like to donate some time to help us out please give Mark a call. This is an easy way to start to get involved with JCAA activities and get to meet people.
Plans are well underway for the 9th Annual JCAA Fluke Tournament which will be held on June 14th with the awards presentations the following Friday at Trump’s Marina. Total prizes this year will top $100,000 and you have a chance to win any of the 10 port prizes in the port you sail from. You have your choice of 12 ports all the way from Jersey City to Fortescue. Details about the tournament can be found elsewhere in this issue.
If you would like to get more involved in any JCAA committee or function please contact me. I am really looking forward to my tenure as JCAA President and my goal is to help a great organization grow to be even better.