Highly Migratory Species Report

The new 2007 quota for the western Atlantic was cut from 2,700 to 2,140 for the 2007 fishing year. The US share is 1,190 MT. This is a 20% cut from 2006. The base quota based on 2006 percentages allocations in Metric Tons are; General 560.6, Harpoon 46.4, Purse Seine 221.3, incidental 96.3, and angling 234.4.

Many people ignored the bluefish action approved last August by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council. They determined that bluefish were overfished. They set the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for bluefish in 2007 at 32.022 million pounds. The estimated average discard from 2001-2005 is 4.271million pounds.

The 2007 TAL are 27.762 million pounds. The Research Set Aside (RSA) is 363,677 pounds. The NJ commercial quota was set at 1,270,480 million pounds. Only the state of NY went over their 2006 commercial quota.

The MRFSS estimated that recreational 2006 landings were 18,823,384 million pounds. The 2007 recreational harvest limit will be 18,823,384 million pounds. The current 15 bluefish per person possession limit will not be changed. There will be no season and no size limit being specified for 2007.

As you can see from the bluefish plan and other species plans that you have attended this year, all fish management plans are slowly crushing the life out of the recreational fishing sector without providing the great rebuilt fisheries we were promised when the plans were first imposed. What should we do now?

NMFS Protected Resources is conducting a status review of Atlantic White Marlin under the Endangered Species Act. As a result of a legal settlement agreement, NMFS agreed to initiate a status review following the 2006 stock assessment by ICCAT. The 2006 white marlin assessment can be found at www.iccat.int.

NMFS PR is soliciting information relevant to the status of and threats to the species. Information on Atlantic white Marlin must be submitted to:

Has winter knocked at your door? The Barnegat Bay is totally covered with ice. The longer it stays ice covered, the better it is for the bay and the fisheries the bay supports. There are too many non-native species in this bay. The cold weather kills most non-native species if the bay waters stay cold for a period of time. Here’s hoping the bay stays ice covered for another 10 days.

How would you like to be living in upstate New York near the great lakes? Some towns had over 140 inches of snow in 12 days, a new record. If you did not climb up on your roof and shovel your roof collapsed! This is not a good way to end any winter season.

It’s February and time to get your boat ready for a new season. Provided of course that the system permits anglers to keep any fish!