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by Tom Siciliano
(from Jersey Coast Anglers Association July 2004 Newsletter)
By the time you read this, the 10th annual JCAA fluke tournament and the awards ceremony at Trump’s Marina Hotel & Casino will be history. The results are covered elsewhere in this newsletter. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who worked so hard to make this tournament a success. Without the Herculean efforts of co-chairmen Rich Pasko and Phil Celmer we could not have done it. Rich put together the prize packages and door prizes. Tom Fote was there with his vast list of personnel contacts.
Our sponsors deserve a special thank you. Without their sponsorship we would not have the great prizes. The sponsors have supported us so please support them when you go looking for your next purchase.
I hope you have been out fishing on those big bass that have been along the coast for the last few weeks. I can remember a few years ago when a few recreational fishing groups were complaining that there were no big stripers and that more restrictions were necessary. I think they will be silent for a while. A question does come to mind. Why are we seeing the abundance of big fish all of a sudden? The answer is simple, BIG BAITS = BIG FISH. More precisely, there has been an abundance of large adult menhaden in our waters. Another question. Why are there so many bunkers? The answer again is simple. The menhaden reduction boats have been pushed three miles off the beach. Menhaden are the prime food source for big blues and stripers. You can thank me now. The JCAA led that fight to move those reduction boats out further and reduce the pressure on the bunkers. The results were much greater than I expected. This is a prime example of ecosystem management. You cannot look at each species independently. They are all inter-related. What happens or does not happen to one has an impact on others. Al Ristori said it well in a recent issue of the NJ Fisherman how the dogfish have taken over many areas. They need to be declared an under developed resource and the commercial fisherman need to be allowed to take them. They do make great fish n’ chips.
Well, we are having great fishing for striped bass. In addition to moving the reduction boats out of state waters, there are other reasons for the come-back of stripers in New Jersey waters. Striped bass were made a game fish in New Jersey in 1991 thanks to the work of the JCAA. The lack of commercial pressure has certainly helped. The banning of netting in the Hudson River has also helped. High conservation measures like the producer area closures in the Delaware and Hudson rivers have helped. The conservation efforts of anglers such as you and the regulations are working and yet the ASMFC is again causing problems for New Jersey anglers. Just when we were getting used to the current striped bass regulations the ASMFC decided that New Jersey needed to reduce our catch by 32%. In order to accomplish this the New Jersey state biologists made twelve recommendations to the ASMFC. They were all accepted as meeting the reduction required. These were condensed down to five options, which then went out to public hearings and there were three hearings in New Jersey.
The clubs in JCAA sat down at two lengthy meetings and laid out the pros and cons of each option. The best choice was to reluctantly give up the 24-28” fish which we all liked and which the JCAA was responsible for getting. Those smaller fish were great to take home to eat. After examining the options we decided that the lesser of the evils was to go to two fish at 28” or larger. The bonus fish would then also be 28” or larger. Since not many people would opt to keep a third 28” fish this would have little impact on the bonus program. And since it would not require any change to what the state is currently doing to operate the bonus program, there would not be any additional costs. This option also seemed to be the simplest to explain to the average fisherman. We asked you all to attend the public hearings and voice your opinion even if you did not agree with our conclusion. Not many of you did. There were less than 20 people at the meetings in Brick and Lyndhurst. We cannot influence regulations if so few people show up. Over 60 people attended the third meeting in Avalon. That was certainly a better showing but still not great. Ed Cherry, the JCAA Striped Bass Committee Chairman, and I spoke in favor of the two fish at 28” option with the bonus fish at 28”. However, only a few other people happened to agree with that option.
The option that was preferred by the Charter boat captains and the RFA members present was option 4. That would have one fish at 24-28”, which is a good thing. The next fish, however, would need to be greater than 34”. This fish is much larger than a 28” fish weighing an average of 16.5 pounds versus 10.5 pounds for a 28” fish. Obviously, larger fish equals greater egg producing capacity. The difficulty with this option lies in the bonus fish. In order for you to keep a fish in the 28-34” bracket you will need to have a bonus tag. The bonus tag quota is 321,750 pounds. With the current regulation we have never used much more than one third of the quota. The bonus fish in option two would be no different that the current regulation and the quota would not be in jeopardy.
What about option 4? In 2002 there were over 3 million pounds of stripers caught that were over 28”. How many of those were also over 34” is a matter of speculation. Lets assume that it was 50%. That means 1.5 million pounds of the fish caught were between 28-34”. If fish were caught at an equal rate throughout the year, which they are not, the quota would be used up in less than three months. If we assume that only 25% of the fish were over 34”, then the entire bonus quota will be gone in less than six weeks. At that point the State will shut down the bonus program and you will be left with the need to catch a 34” in addition to the 24-28” fish. If you catch your bonus fish early you will be fine but it is unlikely you will receive another tag before the quota has been filled. It is currently taking 6 weeks to receive your tag.
Well, that is the way I see it. We will see if I am correct very soon. On June 14 the NJ Assembly Natural Resources committee held their hearing in Trenton. I make these points but the assembly had already introduced their bill for the 24-28” and greater than 34” fish with the bonus fish greater than 28”, and I, Ed Cherry, Bruce Smith and Tom Fote were unable to convince them to amend the bill to be simpler, less costly, less confusing and without the risk of exceeding
quota.Oh, one more point. If the quota is exceeded New Jersey will have to pay back the amount of the overage, so next year the bonus program would be reduced or even eliminated. I sincerely hope that I am wrong, but if not be prepared for further restrictions. You will be able to thank the RFA.
I recently spoke at a meeting of the Hudson River Fisherman’s Association. This club has close to 500 members. They must be doing something right. They do have a great website. Check it out at www.hrfanj.org. The reason I mention this is that I put together a Powerpoint presentation for them. It would be a shame to use it only once. If your club would like me to speak at an upcoming meeting give me a call and I will try to accommodate you.
JCAA & NJ FEDERATION OF SPORTSMEN’S CLUBS STRIPED BASS POSITION PAPER
There are three items that JCAA and NJSFSC would like to address in the current striped bass proposals.
1. The Bonus Tag Program:
JCAA and NJSFSC Position; There should be no fee associated with the Bonus Tag Program and Governor McGreevey and the NJ Legislature should appropriate $195,000 to the Division of Fish and Wildlife for the Bureau of Marine Fisheries.
In 1991 the bonus program was considerably simpler and less costly. The NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife decided to use the trophy tag program to gather additional valuable information. All the information required was to count the number of fish so we know when to close the program. All the other information is a luxury but an expensive one. In 1998 ASMFC ruling would not give us credit for unused fish. In response, we told anglers to use their trophy tag as their first 28-inch fish rather than their second. The Division made it easy to secure replacement tags and began allowing charter, party boats and tackle stores to issue them. This made for a fuller utilization of the program but it also added expenses. If the Division can’t find the money to save the program, they can cut the extra goodies and still save the basic program. We would hate to see this happen but would accept that change as an alternative to added fees.
The Division thinks the solution is to charge for the tags. They say we should be paying to run the program. What they fail to say is that we are already paying to run the program through our tax dollars and many other fees. New Jersey spends only about 3.1 million dollars on the Marine Division of Fish and Wildlife to manage commercial and recreational fishing and every other expense covered by this Division. New Jersey only puts 1.1 million dollars into this program. Much of the other 2 million dollars comes from Wallop Breaux money, which is funded by the excise tax on recreational fishermen. The remainder comes from federal grants (our tax dollars). There is a long list of fees imposed on fishermen, none of which have gone towards managing the marine resource. As an example, the sales tax generated by recreational anglers is between 41 and 61 million dollars. If just 2% of that was put into the Division of Fish and Wildlife, we could not only manage striped bass but we could also manage the total marine resource including commercial fishing. The Division needs an additional 2 million dollars to run their programs well. The long-term solution is to secure more funding from the legislature. In the short term, we need about 195,000 dollars to be included in the striped bass bill that will be considered by the current legislature.
We do not believe any fee should be associated with the bonus tag program. A saltwater license by any other name is still a saltwater license. All we have to look at is the HMS permit. In the beginning, all you only needed was a $22 permit to fish for Bluefin tuna. Now the NMFS has added so many species to the list requiring a permit that you are forced to buy one if you want to fish for any highly migratory species. This tuna permit is now a federal backdoor saltwater fishing license and none of the money benefits the fishermen. It merely represents a head count, nothing more.
2. Bag and Size Limit Options:
JCAA and NJSFSC Position: We support Option 2. This will give us 2 fish at 28 inches and leave the trophy tag program alone for 2004
It is already midseason for striped bass. Any changes made to bring us into compliance for 2004 should be as simple as possible. The time frame to get us into compliance is so short, true public involvement is limited. We will have mass confusion in the middle of fishing season if we don’t choose a simple option.
If we want to look at other options for 2005, we should have ongoing hearings that allow the public time to review the proposed options in detail and discuss each more thoroughly. This way legislation can be introduced early enough to change regulations before the season begins. Understand, until we are allowed to use savings from producing areas of our state, or until the coastwide and bay wide reference points are changed, NJ anglers will receive the most benefit from option2. With this Option there would be no additional expenses or higher demand placed on the bonus tag program.
3. Producer Status:
JCAA and NJSFSC Position: New Jersey needs to submit an appeal to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission Interstate Management Policy Committee challenging the loss of producer status for the Hudson and Delaware Bay under Amendment 6th of the Striped Bass Management Plan.
Amendment 6 prevents New Jersey from using special management regulations in our producing area by deleting producing area status from most of the management document. Since we are not allowed to manage our producing area in a specific manner that is different from coastal management, we are currently unable to use the savings derived from conservative measures in the producing areas to the benefit of all New Jersey anglers. ASMFC must revise Amendment 6 to acknowledge the special circumstances present in the producing areas and allow states that have those areas to develop special management plans. Basically what we want is the same exemption and benefits for our producing areas already allowed to other states within the current plan. We want New Jersey to lodge a formal appeal to the existing plan and demand this inequity be corrected immediately.
Thomas Siciliano
President of Jersey Coast Anglers Assn.
Larry Lehmann
President of NJ State Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs