Highly Migratory Species Report

by John T. Koegler

Your school BFT season this year for the normally caught locally school fish between 27” to 47 “is in doubt. RFA is working hard within the political arena to change NMFS  proposal. The timeframe for NMFS decision is upon us and we will soon know what the fate of our 2006 school fishery will be.

As reported in previous editions of this newspaper, NMFS data used to close the fishery has been seriously questioned. There is no doubt that NMFS internal length to weight conversion ratio has greatly increased recreational reported BFT landings far in excess of actual landings. If their flawed system were corrected there would be a school fishery this year.

NMFS has proposed to permit you to keep 3 larger BFT from 47” to 73” if you can find any that large. The Cape May and Ocean City, MD fleets took a big hit last season when their great BFT and Yellowfin fishery during July, August and September was a mere shadow of previous glorious tuna years. North Jersey for the first time in many years had fair school bluefin tuna fishing.

MRFSS Meeting

I attended a MRFSS meeting that covered how MRFSS estimates anglers' landings of key recreational species. The meeting was positive and indicated some willingness on their part to modify how they estimate recreational landings.

I was part of working groups that discussed 2005 weakfish landings and 2005 for-hire survey reports. Some of the absurd difference between NY and NJ 2005 landing in this key species was explained by NY higher limits. Their limit was 6 fish at 16” with NJ at 8 fish at 13” - a big difference which was supported by the data presented.

But MRFSS sticking with their report of 197 total pounds of NY landed weakfish in 2005 remains beyond common sense. NJ on one side of the Raritan Bay lands almost a million pounds and NY for their entire state and season lands 197 lbs?! This defies common sense. MRFSS did document that 90% of the weakfish they measured were less than 16”. But it is known that NY boats fished alongside NJ boats in Raritan Bay and caught just as many weakfish as NJ anglers. NY anglers could accept 297,000 pounds for 2005 but 197 pounds is statistical nonsense.

For-Hire Survey

The 2005 for-hire survey was created to more accurately determine how many recreational anglers were fishing on charter and headboats. The survey took those reporting and compared that boat to their data base. If a charterboat was not in a state’s data base the state’s number was adjusted to account for the additional boats.

MRFSS claimed that NJ and NY charterboats were grossly under reporting their trips. So MRFSS applied a correction factor to more accurately determine the total number of angler fishing trips. The correction numbers  they used were 3.53 and 3.59. That is a correction factor of 353% and 359% applied to the number of anglers who went fishing on for-hire boats in these two states. MRFSS claims their surveyor either called or visited respective marinas and documented how many days of the 7 days reporting cycle those being surveyed were actually in their boat slips.

Later I was informed that many NY and north Jersey charter/head boats were protesting MRFSS current surveying procedures. When the Captains did not get any assurance that MRFSS would correct what the Captains believed were totally invalid survey procedures, they chose to boycott the reports and dockside interviewers.  Several Captains reported MRFSS surveyors counted fish at their dock’s cleaning table while ignoring those who left their boat with few or zero fish. This was not just one captain but many who reported examples of critically flawed data collection procedures.

Given that incorrectly reported boat data could be ignored by MRFSS as outside the study’s parameters we could still get a statistically valid survey. Instead MRFSS chose to take one angler trip and then adjust that one angler trip by a factor of 3.53. The result was that they applied the 3.53 multiplier to all 2005 NJ reported angler trips . This is absolute nonsense. Such agency actions only further widen the creditability gap  between the fishing public and MRFSS bureaucrats.

Dolphin /Wahoo plan

ASMFC is making a brave effort to correct this plan which was gutted by NMFS last year. After several years of dolphin/wahoo plan rejections by NMFS, they finally approved the plan in late 2004. It became effective on September 30, 2005. But NMFS, while approving the plan, eliminated two key commercial regulations: limited entry and trip limits. All fishery management plans that have worked had these two key provisions to control commercial landings. In effect, NMFS approved a recreational-only  fishery management plan. These actions were deliberate with a clear objective of not requiring commercial fishermen to observe this new management plan. As is the case with bluefish , NMFS is hugely biased toward the commercial sector. This makes that sector more profitable by severely restricting the recreational sector’s fish landings.

More Tough Regulations

NMFS has sent notice to all charter and head boats with NE multi-species fishery permits (Winter species) that there is now a proposed control date of March 30, 2006 in that fishery. This means that new boats and people desiring to get into the for-hire business will have to buy a permit from a boat that is willing to sell their permit. The Gulf of Mexico council has been leading the charge to close the for-hire business to new entries. Such rules have been standard in any commercial fishery management plan that worked well. The problem with applying this to for-hire businesses is that there is a major turnover in this business every year. A study of the NJ for-hire business in 1997 determined that 50% of the for-hire boats changes hands every 10 years. How this will affect the public is unknown. However, based on past experience, less competition in any business always means higher prices and less service.