President's Report

(from Jersey Coast Anglers Association November 2005 Newsletter)

Stand up and be counted!

Whatever species whets your interest, be it fluke, flounder, croaker, weakfish, sea bass, blackfish or striped bass, the regulations that are being proposed (based on the woefully inadequate MRFSS surveys and other questionable methods and statistics and ignoring the abundant available empirical data and anecdotal evidence) threaten to impact anglers and the entire recreational fishing community significantly. 

It is the duty of all individual anglers and other stakeholders to pay attention to what the various management councils and commissions are thinking and proposing.  And, it is important to attend hearings and meetings to express your concerns and to state your position on the issues directly to the appropriate agencies and through your club representatives to JCAA.

Weakfish Hearings

I was pleasantly surprised by the quantity, and diversity of anglers who attended the ASMFC weakfish hearing on October 13^th in Toms River. It is my understanding that this was a reflection of the audience at the hearing in South Jersey on the previous evening and that the sentiment was also similar.

At the Toms River session there were fifty to sixty attendees.  There was a healthy mix of commercial fishermen, charter and party boat captains, bait and tackle shop owners, fishing-club representation and individual anglers as well as the JCAA, the RFA and the UNITED BOATMEN.

Nearly everyone expressed their opinion of Addendum 1 of Amendment 4 of the Weakfish Management Plan.  

There was complete agreement that there should be no changes in the weakfish regulations and that they should remain at eight fish at thirteen inches for 2006 or that the only acceptable option was status quo.

There were the usual criticisms that the MRFSS is deficient at best and that the changes in weakfish population and migration are not well understood.  There was a consistent, oft repeated theme that the most reliable empirical data, the charter and party boat trip logs, are ignored by the scientists.  There was plenty of anecdotal testimony about the phenomenal 2005 weak fishing in Barnegat Bay and Raritan Bay. 

It was suggested that the ASMFC find a way to utilize the empirical and anecdotal information. And, it was recommended that the 2005 fishing success be considered to temper the negative 2003 and 2004 information that precipitated   

Addendum 1 of Amendment 4.

To a man, the charter and party captains said they were in favor of this.  Almost everyone agreed that phone surveys were completely useless and that the monies spent on the MRFSS surveys might be better spent analyzing trip log data.

In conclusion, this union of diverse interested parties, the passionate and confident presentation of empirical and anecdotal evidence by the people who know best, and some sensible suggestions on how to get it right will, hopefully, avoid a draconian reduction in the weakfish bag limit, length or season regulations that would have an enormous negative impact on the entire fishing community.

At our October general membership meeting we will be voting for sportsperson of the year.  If your club would like to make a nomination, you can do so from the floor at that time.  At this time we have received three nominations.  The Village Harbour Fishing Club has placed in nomination Bill Figley from the Division of Fish and Wildlife, Absecon Saltwater Sportsmen nominated Larry Carlson and the Newark Bait and Flycasters and Berkley Striper Club has placed in nomination Bruce Freeman, also with the Division of Fish and Wildlife.  Below are the bios of both nominees as submitted by the respective clubs.

BILL FIGLEY

Fisheries-Related Biography

12 October, 2005

Bill graduated from Lafayette College with a B.A. Degree in Biology in 1971 and from Syracuse University with an M.S. Degree in Wildlife Biology in 1974.  He has worked as a Fisheries Biologist for the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife since 1976.  He has been the coordinator of the Division’s Reef Program since its inception in 1984.  During the past 22 years, he supervised the construction of over 3,600 ocean reefs from 14 million tons of reef material, making New Jersey’s Reef Program the largest in the nation.  He has directed numerous biological and socio-economic studies of reefs in temperate marine waters.  Between 1979 and 1991, he conducted New Jersey’s recreational big game fishing survey, collecting statistics on the sport catch of marlin, tuna and sharks.  He documented the locations of New Jersey’s prime recreational fishing grounds, which is helping the DEP protect these areas from environmental degradation.  He has also published numerous informational pamphlets on party and charter boats, boat liveries, fishing access, saltwater fish and fishing to promote the State’s recreational marine fishing opportunities.  He is an avid angler, hunter, diver, clammer, crabber and anything else that concerns saltwater.

Bruce Freeman

Bruce Freeman has spent almost forty years working to protect the marine resource along the Atlantic Coast.  In 1965 he worked for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Bureau of Sport Fisheries.  He moved to the National Marine Fisheries Service when the Bureau’s Commercial Fisheries and Sportfisheries were merged.  In 1980 he was assigned on a NMFS fellowship to the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife and soon became a permanent New Jersey employee.  He worked for New Jersey with the exception of two years as Director of North Carolina’s Division of Marine Fisheries.

Bruce helps other people understand the economic value of recreational fishing. Bruce thinks outside the box and secured oil spill money to build an interpretive center at Island Beach State Park.

Bruce designed the original bonus tag program for Striped Bass so New Jersey anglers could take advantage of the available quota.

Bruce helped convince George Howard (Director of Fish and Wildlife, 1989) to support legislation to make striped bass a gamefish.  He set a new standard for considering economic impact for gamefish status.

Bruce puts in numerous hours both as an employee and a volunteer beyond what is required by his job.  He attends many functions and meetings beyond his work responsibilities.  He sets the bar high for other state employees.

Bruce is a state employee but has always been a supporter of JCAA as an organization and of JCAA’s mission.

Larry Carlson

Absecon Saltwater Sportsmen would like to nominate our member Larry Carlson, a retired police officer, as the JCAA “sportsman of the Year”. Larry’s most successful innovation in his “Kids Hooked on Fishing. Not on Drugs” essay contest. Annually, over 5000 students are invited to participate, writing about how our bays, rivers and estuaries affect our daily lives. Thirty students are selected from the essays submitted and are invited on a fully funded educational field aboard a charter boat. This trip offers a historical lecture describing the life of waterman in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. Students observe and identify marine life, participate in seine net operations and explore the back bays. This program is the only one in the state that we know of that combines a local fishing club with schools.

This is all volunteer work, in addition Larry lectures at schools about the history and the environment of the Atlantic County Waterways. He also spends many hours umpiring little league games.

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