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by Tom Fote
(from Jersey Coast Anglers Association November 2003 Newsletter)
The last four months have been extremely busy for me and for JCAA. I can’t believe how much time I have spent out of state. For example, I spent 5 days at ICAST in Las Vegas with the tackle manufacturers in July. August 5 & 6 I was in Baltimore for a joint meeting of ASMFC and MidAtlantic Fisheries Management Council. I was in Washington, DC on August 18 & 19 for a meeting of the Recreational Fishing and Boating Foundation. I was at the ASMFC meeting from August 24 – 25. I attended the National Estuary Program conference September 16 – 20 in Seattle. I was at the ASA meeting from September 30 – October 4 in Florida. And, finally, I was at the joint meeting of the ASMFC and MAFMC in North Carolina on October 8 – 9. Just in case anyone wondered what JCAA is doing, just add up the days. We’ve been busy. This doesn’t even count all the evening meetings I attended (over 40 since July) nor does it count all the other meetings and conferences attended by other JCAA representatives. JCAA only has credibility and clout if we are visible. But there are still meetings we missed. We need more people to cover the number of meetings scheduled in any month. Please let us know if you are willing and available. I hope your club representatives are keeping you informed about all the activities in which JCAA participates. There are fewer press releases from JCAA during these very busy time periods. I am looking for someone with good writing skills to help me with press releases and general memos. Just let me know if you are interested.
Last month, Ed Cherry wrote an article for the JCAA Newspaper on Amendment 13. Please read the article below by Al Ristori for further information on this important topic.
Though buried far back in the New England Fishery Management Council's proposed Amendment 13 to the Northeast Multispecies Fisheries Management Plan, a "no-fishing zone" provision should be deleted immediately as it may be the first shot in the effort to establish Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in our region.
Among the areas projected in the amendment for such designation are the Mud Hole, and a strip from about Asbury Park to Sandy Hook from three to 20 miles offshore. The Recreational Fishing Alliance has learned that the New England Council has received 864 e-mails against the proposal, but the RFA would like to see many more by the deadline at 5 p.m. tomorrow. E-mails should go to comments@nefmc.org with the notation, "Comments on Groundfish Amendment 13." There's no need for a long explanation, just a note to the effect that you're opposed to any Level-1 Habitat Closures for recreational fishing.
Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) wrote to Council Executive Director Paul Howard to express his opposition to the proposal which would close all fishing instead of simply placing restrictions or mandating modifications to those gears (primarily trawl nets) known to be harmful to habitat and the fishery.
We are quickly approaching the time when recreational measures will be established for scup, seabass, and summer flounder. We did have an increase in the summer flounder quota but, as John Geiser discusses in the article below, this is all contingent on the catch figures for 2003. It looks like New York will be in difficulty and I am not sure how much we will be able to relax the regulations. The meeting to make these decisions will be at the joint meeting of ASMFC and the MAFMC December 2 – 4. The meeting will be held at the Sheraton Suites in Wilmington, Delaware. I am not sure which date this particular discussion will be held. Send me an email if you are interested in attending and I will send you an update as more information is available. I expect we will have more information by the next JCAA Newspaper.
John Geiser Asbury Park Press 10/17/03
The fact that the fluke fishery is being managed on a flawed system of data collection was revealed again this week.
Preliminary figures gathered by the Marine Recreational Fishery Statistics Survey indicate that the fluke quota will be overrun this season in New Jersey and New York, necessitating cutbacks in 2004.
Management officials are making decisions affecting the social and economic well-being of hundreds of thousands of people based on what the MRFSS surveyors are saying was landed, not what actually was landed.
Is there anyone in New Jersey who had fabulous fluke fishing in May and June? The Marine Recreational Fishery Statistics Survey said we did.
In fact, the surveyors claimed that fishing was so good that 75 percent of the New Jersey quota was exhausted by the end of June. New York experienced the same level of fishing even with a 17-inch minimum size.
This week brings the disclosure that Wave 4 data (July and August) indicate that New York had already exceeded its quota, and New Jersey was on the brink.
According to the preliminary data from MRFSS for Wave 4, New Jersey was 50,000 fish away from exceeding the quota as was done in 2000 and 2001.
Although fluke fishing was admittedly off in September and poor in October, 1,136 fish a day for the remaining 44 days of the season is not a lot of fluke for the entire state. So, unless MRFSS makes some adjustments or management officials do some "scrubbing," as they call it, New Jersey is going over its quota.
Feel fortunate if your boat is not docked in New York, though. MRFSS has disclosed that New York overfished its quota by 100 percent by the end of August.
Fluke stocks are up and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's fluke, sea bass and porgy board recently accepted the fluke monitoring committee's recommendation that the total allowable fluke landings be jumped from 23.3 million pounds this year to 28.2 million pounds in 2004.
Five million pounds does not go far, however, when divided among all of the states.
It is safe to say that in December when management officials sit down to decide on the 2004 fluke regulations they will build a margin of safety into the rules. There is no chance of dropping back to 16 inches from the 16 1/2-inch minimum this year in New Jersey after an overrun.
In fact, if MRFSS claims that New Jersey overfished too much, instead of things getting better, they could get worse -- a shorter season, smaller possession limit or, more likely, an increase in size to 17 inches.
Meanwhile, New York will have to jump to 18 or 19 inches with something like a two-fish possession limit. Either that or settle for a 21-minute season. The New Jersey Bayshore boats that often fished the Staten Island Grounds, Rockaway, the Tin Can Grounds, etc., this year will be staying on the New Jersey side next year.
Over sixty organizations have signed the letter included below. JCAA is being asked to sign on and we will discuss this at our October 28th meeting. The National Coalition for Marine Conservation and Marine Fish Conservation Network are two of the organizations participating. I think we should join them. There are serious consequences possible if the Stevens rider becomes law. If you would like a complete list of organizations, send me an email (tfote@jcaa.org ). I will also have the list at our meeting.
Protect Ancient Deep Sea Corals and Promote Fair Competition for Fishermen
Oppose the Stevens Rider in the CJS Appropriations Bill
September 26, 2003
The Honorable Bill Frist, Majority Leader The Honorable Tom Daschle, Minority Leader
United States Senate United States Senate
S-230, The Capitol S-221, The Capitol
Washington, D.C. 20510 Washington, D.C. 20510Dear Senators Frist and Daschle:
On behalf of the undersigned fishing and conservation organizations and the millions of supporters we represent, we urge you to strike Title IX (Alaska Fisheries) from the fiscal year 2004 appropriations bill for the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies (S. 1585). This title includes a package of anti-conservation, anti-competitive, and anti-good government riders that seeks to:
- Eliminate funding for important ocean protections in the North Pacific Ocean, including efforts to protect essential fish habitat from the adverse effects of fishing gears, safeguard ancient deep sea corals and sponges from destruction, and undertake ongoing scientific research needed to comprehensively assess vital ocean habitats;
- Establish quotas for fish/crab processing companies -- controversial measures that will dictate where Bering Sea crab fishermen would have to sell all but a tiny part of their catch and establish detailed allocations for Gulf of Alaska rockfish;
- Shut out citizens, local communities, and state officials from participating in key fishery management decisions; and
- Legislatively mandate fishery allocations, the current job of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and regional councils, and establish fishery programs without adequate monitoring and bycatch reduction requirements.
Section 902 of Title IX seeks to prohibit the use of funds for the identification and protection of essential fish habitat (EFH) by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. When Congress last reauthorized the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act in 1996, it added sensible requirements for federal fishery managers to identify EFH, minimize adverse effects of fishing on EFH, and undertake consultation for federal activities that might adversely affect EFH. Statutory deadlines passed with little or no protections provided to EFH. In recent years, scientists have discovered and started mapping deep sea corals and sponges, some of which are centuries old, in the Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea, and around the Aleutian Islands. However, without protection these precious areas are being destroyed and their benefits to sustainable fisheries and ocean life are being lost. NMFS estimates that between 1997 and 1999, more than one million pounds of corals and sponges were removed from the seafloor annually off Alaska during commercial fishing operations. For the past several years, many fishery management councils, including the North Pacific Council, have led a public process, although not perfect in its implementation, to assess the impacts of fishing on habitat and develop strategies for improving protection of undersea areas. The EFH environmental impact assessment for the North Pacific Region will be subject to a lengthy public comment period next year and will be finalized in June, 2005. If these public processes are stopped in their tracks, protections for deep sea coral gardens and other habitats could be jeopardized and important scientific research could be blocked.
Section 901 seeks to mandate a controversial quota system for seafood processors in the Bering Sea crab fishery that would require fishermen to sell all but a tiny part of their catch to existing processor companies. This would be the first-ever processor quota system for a U.S. fishery. The analysis of the system’s impact has been completed by the North Pacific Council but never released to the general public. The majority of vessel owners in the Bering Sea crab fishery oppose the program and more than a dozen Alaskan communities and civic groups have passed resolutions opposing it. Recently, the Department of Justice indicated that the processor quota plan would lead to anti-trust violations and anti-competitive behavior. On September 16, 2003 the Alaska Daily News wrote that these provisions “ram through a scheme that short-circuits market competition” and that the “rider is no way for the Congress to make such a complicated, far-reaching and hotly disputed decision.”
Title IX also includes two other sections that legislate detailed allocation measures for Gulf of Alaska rockfish, including the possibility of a rockfish quota for fish processor companies, and Aleutian Islands pollock. The package seeks to establish programs without comprehensive monitoring plans or conservation protections.
Use of an appropriations rider to override a law that benefits both the environment and fishermen is short-sighted. It would thwart the legislative process, set damaging precedents that could be extended to other regions, fail to take account of new scientific analyses, and limit the public’s right to participate in fishery management decisions. There is a public process in place for the management of all U.S. fisheries which includes scientific study and public input. We urge you to strike this package of anti-environmental riders in the Commerce, Justice, State, and the Judiciary FY 2004 appropriations bill and oppose anti-environmental riders in other must-pass funding bills.
JCAA has always been concerned about the stocks of menhaden and the important role they play in the food chain for many species. There has been an outcry from all the harvesters of striped bass from Chesapeake Bay concerning the health of the striped bass stocks. These harvesters feel the huge harvest of menhaden from the bay is the cause of the declining striped bass stock. We have worked with the National Coalition for Marine Conservation before and we should seriously consider joining this campaign. The article below describes the NCMC campaign. The second article from Coastal Conservation Association outlines their support for the campaign. We will be discussing this at the next JCAA General Meeting.
NCMC LAUNCHES NEW CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT MENHADEN, SAVE STRIPED BASS
For Immediate Release Contact:
Tim Hobbs, Fisheries Project Director
June 18, 2003 Phone 703-777-1102,
email: jthobbs@mindspring.com
Leesburg, VA – The National Coalition for Marine Conservation (NCMC) this week launched a campaign to protect the striped bass and forestall a looming ecological disaster. Anglers all along the Atlantic coast sacrificed for more than a decade to restore the once depleted striper, also known as rockfish, but the resurgent population is not finding enough to eat. Their main food source is Atlantic menhaden, but an industrial-scale menhaden fishery centered in the Chesapeake Bay – the striper’s primary spawning ground – is outcompeting them for food. NCMC is reaching out to anglers from Maine to North Carolina with a petition to prohibit industrial-scale fishing for Atlantic menhaden in the Chesapeake. The organization will submit the petition, along with a detailed conservation plan, to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) in December.
The high level of exploitation of menhaden threatens striped bass all along on the east coast. Up to 90% of Atlantic striped bass spawn in the Chesapeake and its tributaries. The diet of large adult striped bass is 70-80% menhaden, according to biologists’ estimates, and most of this consumption is of young fish.
Large-scale netting in Chesapeake Bay removes hundreds of millions of pounds of menhaden for “reduction” into chicken and hog feed and other products. According to recent reports, 70% of Atlantic menhaden (in numbers of fish) are caught in the Bay and adjacent waters. The Chesapeake produces nearly half of each new generation of menhaden. But the population of juveniles – fish in their first two years – is in decline, reaching an historic low in 2001.
The catch of “skinny” stripers is all too common, an unmistakable sign that prey are in short supply. Stress-related diseases are killing 1 in 10 bass in the Bay, according to one study. Alternative prey are scarce, and none as widely distributed as menhaden or of equivalent nutritional value, NCMC points out.
More trouble is on the way. Large striped bass, so important to the future stability of the breeding stock, will be increasing in number as the strong year classes of the 1990s mature. Populations of the other two major menhaden predators, bluefish and weakfish, are also nearing recovery to healthy levels. In addition, several birds, such as osprey and loons, also rely heavily on menhaden, and studies show they may not be finding enough to eat either.
National Coalition for Marine Conservation (NCMC)
“The combination of soaring numbers of menhaden predators with the declining number of juvenile menhaden is an unsustainable situation,” says NCMC Fisheries Project Director Tim Hobbs. “The result could be an ecological disaster in the Chesapeake, ruining our progress on recovering striped bass.” Menhaden are also filter feeders that clean the water as they swim, so protecting them could help clean up overnutrified coastal waters.
The NCMC is asking striped bass anglers from Maine to North Carolina to sign its petition. The group is also reaching out to other sportfishing organizations dedicated to conserving striped bass.
“Our goal is to submit the strongest possible proposal to the ASMFC this fall, backed by solid science and the support of thousands of fishermen who catch rockfish for food and recreation,” says NCMC president Ken Hinman.
Anglers can go to NCMC’s web site – www.savethefish.org – for full campaign details, to sign an online petition, or get a printable version of the petition to pass around. Or call (703) 777-0037 to receive a special brochure created for this campaign.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Coastal Conservation Association Virginia 757 481 1226 9/24/03
NCMC Menhaden Petition
Coastal Conservation Association Virginia (CCA VA) applauds the National Coalition For Marine Conservation’s (NCMC) petition requesting the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) prohibit all purse seine fishing for Atlantic menhaden within the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.
For over 10 years, CCA VA has been increasingly alarmed over declining menhaden populations in the Chesapeake Bay. Menhaden stocks are at or near record low levels at the same time striped bass stocks are high and bluefish and gray trout stocks are growing; the lack of this primary forage species for these and other fish is a critical problem.
Striped bass is the most economically important fish on the East Coast, contributing over $180 million to Virginia’s economy alone. Bluefish and gray trout add almost $100 million more and the stocks are growing. A continued shortage of menhaden in the bay threatens the future of this economic activity.
CCA VA plans to clarify whose responsibility it is to manage menhaden in Virginia by working to have a bill introduced in the legislature to move control of this valuable resource to the scientific management of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. CCA VA is also working with other East Coast CCA states to have ASMFC address menhaden problems in its coastal menhaden management plan.
The current menhaden management plan does not provide any allowance for menhaden’s historical role as the Chesapeake Bay’s primary forage base or importance as filter feeders. The plan only manages for maximum sustainable yield to the menhaden reduction fishery. The current plan also does not consider localized shortages such as the current Chesapeake Bay depletion. Since the industry is based in Reedville, inside the bay, 70% of their total coast wide harvest comes from the bay or nearby waters seriously diminishing the bays current forage base and exacerbating the water-quality crisis.
CCA VA Chairman John Bello says, “Continued scarcity of menhaden in the bay threatens the continued recovery of fish stocks that so many have made sacrifices to restore. Even though CCA VA is working on solutions from different angles, the NCMC petition if successful will provide immediate relief to the shortage. CCA VA supports any effort that helps.”
CCA VA fishery management Committee Chairman Chris Moore adds, “ What happens to one fish affects what happens to others. Managing menhaden for just commercial harvest while ignoring its affect on other economically important species is a recipe for disaster. Hopefully, we are not too late and efforts by groups such as NCMC will help."
Coastal Conservation Association Virginia exists to Conserve, Protect, and Restore the marine resources of the Chesapeake Bay and our coastal waters for ALL Virginians.
The article below is another example of long term illegal commercial harvesting of striped bass. I received some emails supporting the men arrested for this action and attempting to justify their behavior. JCAA realizes this article describes only the tip of the iceberg. Anyone who has been involved with striped bass management for any amount of time knows this is common practice. We have examples of this illegal catch even here in New Jersey where no commercial catch is even allowed. We have read stories about similar problems in Virginia, Maryland and other states. The only reason we don’t see more of these articles is due to the tremendous cutbacks in law enforcement in all of the states. That is another reason why JCAA continues to work to make striped bass a game fish coast-wide.
BY KAREN LEE ZINER Journal Staff Writer Sunday, September 21, 2003
The unusual apology, part of a criminal plea agreement between three local commercial fishing companies and the federal government, ran yesterday in the Sports section of The Providence Journal.
Under the heading, "We Apologize," Tallman & Mack Inc. and Point Trap Inc., both out of Little Compton, and Lotzzo's Inc., of Swansea, Mass., admitted in a paid advertisement that they illegally trafficked and falsely labeled striped bass. The companies paid for the ad.
"Fish stocks are a threatened resource which must be carefully monitored and regulated if the fishing industry is to survive. Violation of rules and regulations designed to ensure accurate catch assessments undermines the reasoned management of the resource and cannot be tolerated," the ad said.
"The companies understand this, and they urge the industry in general to work within the requirements of the law to ensure sustainable fisheries in the years to come."
The three companies pled guilty in U.S. District Court Friday to a federal criminal information charging them with a single count of conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act, according to the U.S. Attorney's office of Rhode Island.
The Lacey Act criminalizes interstate and foreign transport of fish taken and sold in violation of state law.
As part of their sentencing, the companies relinquished all money received for the illegal fish by donating $56,907 to the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fish and wildlife conservation. The companies have also agreed to pay a $75,000 fine.
And, in advertisements they have paid for in The Journal and in the October issue of Commercial Fisheries News, they acknowledge that they illegally sold more than 30,000 pounds of striped bass that were either falsely labeled, or improperly tagged and not reported.
Tallman & Mack and Point Trap, both trap-net fishing companies, and Lotzzo's, a fish dealer, admitted selling and transporting tens of thousands of pounds of striped bass, also known as rockfish, without properly tagging each fish with a Rhode Island tag, in compliance with state laws.
The companies also admitted providing false invoices for much of the fish, and falsely reporting or failing to report the fish landings, as required by Rhode Island and federal laws.
The retail value of the sales was about $120,000. The defendants sold the illegal fish to companies in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Canada and elsewhere.
Special agents from the National Marine Fisheries Service conducted the probe, with assistance from the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management. The case was prosecuted by the Rhode Island U.S. Attorney's office, and the Wildlife and Marine Resources Section of the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division.