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Very Very Important Notice for Club Reps(from Jersey Coast Anglers Association October 2005 Newsletter) Be Sure to attend the September 27th JCAA General Meeting. Among a number of very important management issues to be reviewed and discussed is the JCAA position on the Weakfish Management Plan which must be voted upon. Addendum I of Amendment 4 of the weakfish management plan was developed in response to concern over declines in both weakfish abundance and commercial and recreational catches, and proposes reductions in recreational bag limits, commercial and recreational seasons, and bycatch allowances. Addendum I of Amendment 4 of the weakfish management plan proposes restrictions on the recreational fishery of a most devastating nature. Both recreational and commercial landings have plummeted during the past three years. The stock biomass appears to be at extremely low levels, levels approaching the depleted stock observed in the1989-1990 time series. Although there appears recently to have been a slight rise in fishing mortality, this does not appear to have had any influence on the current low stock levels. Rather some undefined natural mortality appears to be the culprit. Despite not being responsible for this decline, the recreational community is being asked to take enormous cuts in stock allocation. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Weakfish Technical Committee has recommended such severe measures as a 1 fish per day bag limit, a uniform coastal minimum size and severely truncated seasons. Additionally, severe data requirements have been placed on the states in order to keep the states in compliance, without any real provision for the additional funding that would be required to provide such data sets. This plan must be discussed so a unified JCAA position paper can be presented at the hearings! Go to http://www.jcaa.org/ to review this plan: Click Draft Addendum I to the Weakfish Plan for an Adobe PDF version of the plan. Croaker Draft Amendment 1 to the Atlantic Croaker is an initial plan setting the biological data sets for Croaker management. This plan should also be reviewed and commented on. However, it does not appear at this time that it will generate a lot of controversy. New Jersey Hearing Dates The Croaker hearing will precede the Weakfish hearing each night of the New Jersey Hearings: Wednesday, October 12, 2005; 7:30 – 9:30 PM Rutgers Cooperative Research and Extension 355 Court House-South Dennis Road Route 657 Cape May Court House, New Jersey Contact: Bruce Freeman at (609) 633-2408 Thursday, October 13, 2005; 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM Ocean County Administration Building Room 119 101 Hooper Avenue Toms River, New Jersey Contact: Bruce Freeman at (609) 633-2408 Below is an article by Tom Fote concerning the weakfish dilemma as reprinted from last month’s newsletter. Please read it if you have not done so yet at this time. Weakfish will be another interesting situation for 2006. New Jersey and Delaware have expressed their concerns to ASMFC about the lack of weakfish in the Delaware Bay. The models on weakfish have suggested the stocks of weakfish are growing. However, anglers are not seeing this increase in the Delaware Bay and along the coast. Finally last year, ASMFC took notice of this problem because the recreational catch dropped dramatically. When the technical committee met to review the data they suggested the problem was not caused by an increase in the recreational or commercial fishery. The technical committee believes the natural mortality has risen and this has caused the decrease in stocks. At this time, we are not sure of the reason for this change. An increase in the croaker population may be one cause. But at this time, we are simply speculating. You may remember a similar situation with bluefish. The difference is that the weakfish plan has already limited the bycatch, put tougher recreational size and bag limits in place, eliminated certain commercial fisheries and pushed all the right buttons to rebuild the stock. In 1994 there was a huge commercial fishery on weakfish 6 – 7 inches long and there was a huge bycatch in the shrimp fishery and there were few regulations on recreational anglers. In 2003 by an amendment to the plan, we further reduced the recreational catch, especially in New Jersey. The ASMFC did allow in this amendment for an increase in the commercial fishery bycatch. We did this to make sure the recreational catch stayed at a small percentage of the commercial catch. ASMFC is proposing a change in the plan that could restrict the recreational catch to one weakfish. This would destroy the recreational weakfish industry. No one will charter a boat for weakfish, go fishing on a party boat for weakfish, buy bait or gas if the result is that they can only keep one weakfish. There are no guarantees that limiting the fishery so severely will have any impact on the stocks. ASMFC, like NMFS, is making decisions with little interest in the negative impact on the recreational industry. In the meantime, there is no quota on the commercial side and the current proposal would only cut back on days at sea. The commercial boats could simply fish harder during the allowed days and not limit their overall catch at all. The consequence of a one fish bag limit is, in effect, a moratorium for the recreational community. If the stocks are that decimated and the commercial community is responsible for over 2/3 of the catch, we need to rethink the proposals. I don’t favor a moratorium but if there is to be one, it should be for both recreational and commercial anglers. I think we should look at the earlier work with bluefish and not rush to draconian bag limits on the recreational community. There will be public hearings to discuss any proposals. You need to attend and make your concerns known. JCAA will have meetings before the public hearings to develop a position on changes to the weakfish management plan.
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