(from Jersey Coast Anglers Association September 2005 Newsletter)

Recreational fishing woes will continue for the foreseeable future. ASMFC made some decisions and deferred on some that will very adversely affect the New Jersey recreational fisherman in 2006. The most serious or onerous issues appear to be weakfish, summer Flounder (fluke) and potentially striped bass.

Weakfish

Draft of Addendum 1 of Amendment 4 to the Weakfish plan was approved to go out for the hearing process and to be incorporated if possible into the plan at the November annual meeting. In short, weakfish stocks have suddenly become so depleted that the Technical Committee has recommended draconian measures. The weakfish biomass has suddenly fallen from relatively high and growing levels in 2001 (data used to create Amendment 4) to levels well below the established threshold (2004-5 stock assessment). Since 1998 the combined recreational and commercial landings have fallen consistently.

There has been a slight rise in the fishing mortality in recent years, but this does not appear in any way to be responsible for the severe decline in the stocks. Rather, some unspecified natural mortality issue appears to be the culprit. Diet components of 2-3 year old fish have changed drastically from known diet patterns over the past several years, and there appears to be a lessening of size relative to age, length and weight. The addendum also recognizes problems assessing the weakfish population, namely significant gaps in biological data such as age and length provided by the states.  It proposes new and stricter required levels of biological sampling intensity be levied against states and considers the implications of possible state non-compliance issues due to diminished data resulting from reduced landings.

Measures presented range from status quo to complete moratorium. The technical committee recommends a 50% reduction in fishing mortality. The 50% reduction option in the draft allows for a 1 fish per day bag limit (no this is not a typo) with 3 severe specific seasons as options. Coast-wide recreational size and bag limits are considered to be an important factor in this addendum. Commercial Management measures are pretty much equally severe. (but remember this fishery is 70% commercial and 30% recreational). There was discussion of the commercial weakfish fishery becoming a by- catch fishery only.

Your (recreational fishermen) action will be required to help forge, if at all possible, the most beneficial regulations for New Jersey out of a very damaging set of data and options when public hearings are held in New Jersey.

Copies the Draft Addendum will be available by early September and can be obtained via the Commission’s website at www.asmfc.org under Breaking News or by contacting the Commission at (202)289-6400. Public comment should be forwarded to Braddock Spear, Weakfish Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at 1444 ‘Eye’ Street, NW, Sixth Floor, Washington, DC 20005; (202)289-6051 (fax) or comments@asmfc.org (Subject line: Weakfish). For more information, please contact Braddock Spear at (202)289-6400 or bspear@asmfc.org.

Fluke (Summer Flounder)

“The Commission’s Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Management Boardapproved Addendum XVII to the Summer Flounder Fishery Management Plan. The Addendum provides the states the option to voluntarily form multi-state regions for the management of their recreational summer flounder fisheries. This action was taken to address concerns raised by fishermen and managers on the adequacy of using recreational data to set state-specific regulations, as well as problems that have arisenwhen neighboring states apply differing regulations on shared water bodies.

The Addendum will enable a group of adjacent states to pool their recreational data to determine a single possession limit, size limit, and season. The management measures within the region would be the same for each state in the region and conservation equivalency would not be permitted. The Addendum also allows for states to average multiple years of data to determine the impacts of proposed recreational management programs, including minimum fish size, possession limit, and season. For example, averaging of data will help states to more accurately estimate expected catch when liberalizing their regulations in response to a harvest underage. Averaging of data to determine the recreational harvest targets would not be allowed.”

The board deferred to action until the November meeting to implement coast-wide quota reductions. The Mid Atlantic Fisheries Management Council has opted for a coast-wide recreational quota of 26 million pounds for a 3year period. 2006 was supposed to have a quota of 33 million pounds up from the 2005 quota of 30 million pounds. NMFS has indicated a preference at this time of 23 million pounds. It appears best case scenario would be 4 million pound reduction to worst case 7 million pound reduction from the 2005 quota. So the implications on the recreational sector are rather clear. More fluke than we have ever seen, but recreational fishermen face cutbacks in quota and seasons and increased size limits. At what point do the fisheries management people lose all credibility with the public? I suspect we are there right now!

ASMFC Board Approves Addendum II to the Atlantic Menhaden FMP

Addendum Caps Chesapeake Bay Reduction Fishery at 5-Year Average & Initiates Research Program to Assess the Status of Menhaden in the Bay

This issue generated the greatest interest and response from the public of anyfisheries-related issue (some 26,000 written comments, emails and letters). The preponderance of the correspondence favored a cap to outright moratorium. However, moratorium was not an option in the Addendum. There were well over 100 members of the public in attendance at this meeting.

An attempt by Omega Protein (the reduction industry principal) to impose a self-directed cap on its’ operation in Chesapeake Bay failed to be approved by the board. Omega wanted the voluntary cap set at 131,000 metric tons for 5 years, and went along with overages being deducted from the following year, and generally was in line with what was contained in addendum 2. However, the 131,000 metric tons cap was a number no one could live with. The average catch for the past 5 years was more like 108,000 metric tons, and Omega had never hit the 131,000 number at any time in the past 5 years, so in reality Omega wanted a cap at a substantial increase over the 5 year average and were increasing the catch rather substantially rather than containing it.

“The Commission’s Atlantic Menhaden Management Board approved Addendum II to Amendment 1 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Menhaden. The Addendum establishes a five-year annual cap on reduction fishery landings in Chesapeake Bay based on the mean landings over the last five years. The cap would be implemented beginning in 2006. Over-harvest in any given year would be deducted from the next year’s quota. Any amount of under-harvest would not be transferred to the next year.

This action was taken in response to concern regarding the possibility of localized depletion of menhaden in the Bay. The 2003 peer-reviewed stock assessment indicates that menhaden are not over fished and over fishing is not occurring on a coastwise basis; however, its bay-wide status is unknown. Due to this uncertainty, the Management Board has implemented a precautionary cap to limit the expansion of menhaden reduction landings from Chesapeake Bay. At the same time, the Addendum initiates a research program to determine the status of menhaden in the Bay and assess whether localized depletion is occurring. It identifies the following research priorities: (1)determine menhaden abundance in the Chesapeake Bay; (2) determine estimates of menhaden removal by predators; (3) evaluate the rate of exchange of menhaden between the Bay and coastal systems; and (4) conduct larval studies to determine recruitment to the Bay. In support of these activities, the Commission and the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office have begun to move forward on a cooperative research program for Atlantic menhaden.

The Commission conducted 12 public hearings and provided more than 60 days for public comment on the Addendum. Copies of Addendum II will be available in September and can be obtained via the Commission’s website at www.asmfc.org under Breaking News or by contacting the Commission at (202) 289-6400. For more information, please contact Nancy Wallace, Atlantic Menhaden Fishery Management

Plan Coordinator, at (202)289-6400 or nwallace@asmfc.org.”

Striped Bass

Addendum 1 to Amendment 6 for\Striped Bass Management was approved. This basically looks at the by-catch and discard mortality issue and its effect on the overall striped bass population. This will enable a more comprehensive approach to understanding this problem.

Not much else happened in a definitive way. The 2005 stock assessment was not ready, but probably would be available after the first week of September. It appears the extremely robust North Carolina winter (January and February) striped bass fishery (BIG FISH) skewed the numbers in 2004, and will also be included in the 2005 stock assessment. This survey result will determine if more stringent measures will be required in the recreational Atlantic Striped Bass fishery for 2006. At this moment the perception is that the stock assessment will probably be OK, but no one knows for certain. A great deal of uncertainty was expressed concerning the opening of the EEZ to commercial and recreational fishing. Anne Lange of NMFS said the draft EIS document for opening the EEZ is presently being prepared for the hearing process, but will not be finished until the stock assessment has been finalized. The determination of the stock will determine if the service proceeds to the public hearing phase. If the draft EIS proceeds, we face BIG TROUBLE down the road with the striped bass fishery!

There was a lot of concern and discussion about substantially increasing fines for striped bass violations, but was tabled for a later date due to the need of coordinating efforts with law enforcement and other agencies.

ASMFC Approves Draft Amendment 1 to the Atlantic Croaker Plan for Public Comment

Alexandria, VA – The Commission’s South Atlantic State/Federal Fisheries Management Board approved Amendment 1 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Croaker for public review and comment. This Amendment incorporates information from the 2004 peer-reviewed stock assessment as well as the required provisions of the Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act. The 2004 stock assessment found the stock for the Mid-Atlantic region (North Carolina through New Jersey) not over fished and over fishing not occurring. The stock status for the South Atlantic region (South Carolina through the east coast of Florida) is unknown due to a lack of data. The stock assessment shows that both fishing mortality and spawning stock biomass for the Mid-Atlantic region has exhibited a pronounced cyclical trend over the time series. Over the last few years, abundance has been at an historic high for the species in the Mid-Atlantic region.”

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