Fisheries Management & Legislative Report

I must sound like a broken record because I seem to say the same thing month after month. I am still waiting to hear about the outside peer review. I am hoping to get some answers at the ASMFC meeting in May. I will also be visiting the Hill to talk with Congressmen and Senators about summer flounder and many other subjects. I have enclosed an agenda for the ASMFC meeting and I plan to attend all four days of meetings.

When you look at the important dates included in this newspaper, you can see that ASMFC is meeting May 7 – 10, NMFS has a meeting on recreational statistics on May 15 and NOAA has a meeting on May 23. Many of these meetings bring the same participants into the Washington, DC area. I am only traveling from New Jersey but some people have much longer trips. When you have a full day of meetings you add a travel day before and after. Only NMFS reimburses the general public attendees for travel expenses. NMFS, NOAA and ASMFC should try to coordinate meetings into a reasonable chunk of days and stop asking us to return to Washington, DC every week for a day or two. In addition to the travel expense, it eats up all of our time. Since some of the volunteers lose a work day for every meeting and travel day, this becomes prohibitive.

It looks as though the world is finally paying attention to global warming. We have discovered that the human population is having a major effect on the world’s climate. Even if we stop or severely curtail the activities that are causing global warming tomorrow, the global warming would continue for many years. The world 20 – 30 years from now will be different. The question is how different. It is not only important that we all contribute to stopping the increase in global warming but that we work together to plan for the inevitable consequences for what we have already done. In looking at commercial and recreational fishing, we can anticipate shifts in marine populations in terms of what fish exist and where we can find them. The dramatic changes in our wetlands will affect everything from reproduction to population. Our parents and their parents always thought they would leave the world better for their children. We are in the predicament of trying to mitigate the negative inheritance of our children and their children.

In traveling the country and speaking with different age groups, I find diverse understanding and opinions. The generation older than me believes that this country can fix anything. After all, we won World War II, cured many diseases and put a man on the moon. My generation (50 – 60 plus) has a cynicism that grew out of the 60’s and 70’s. We’re not sure we trust anyone to fix anything. The so-called “Me” generation is busy making a living and raising a family. I’m putting my money on the young ones, both the young idealists who are involved in environmental causes and the school age future.

What I believe we need to do is give our young people the tools they need, set a good example and support them as they look for the solutions to these problems. There are more programs, both in schools and communities that foster the interest and provide the knowledge that our children will need. We need to find these programs and provide them with the monetary and personal support they need.

JCAA’s youth education program “Hooked on Fishing, Not on Drugs” is helping in this effort. Although the program is designed around fishing, the real message is about stewardship of the environment. There is a bill floating around the NJ Legislature for several years that would staff this program at the state level. In the meantime, JCAA continues to support Hooked on Fishing at every opportunity. If you know of a program in your community that fosters environmental awareness for young people, let us know. We would like to acknowledge these programs and let our members know about them.

Soon Earthday will be upon us again. Let’s hope this year Earthday is more than photo opportunities and public announcements. Those of us who were around for the original Earthday need to recommit ourselves to something more than a picnic with entertainment. Our politicians need to provide real leadership everyday, not just make a speech on Earthday.

I will be attending meetings at NJ DEP after the publication of this newspaper. One meeting will be on land use and the other on the value of NJ’s natural resources. In the past politicians have responded to our issues because we could prove there was economic value in recreational fishing. Hopefully, this new publication by DEP will make the same point. Proving the economic value of New Jersey’s natural resources, particularly open space and clean water, will move our politicians to making long needed decisions about funding and priorities. I don’t blame the politicians for their obsession with economic consequences. That is what the public seems to demand.

In comparing New Jersey to other states, it is clear that our DEP is focused on making good decisions rather than ones that are only politically expedient. They deserve our support and congratulations whenever they resist the temptation to make political points and do the right thing. When they find economic reasons to support those decisions, it is even better. That gives us a way to help sell these programs to our legislators. I also have to say that in our State Legislature and our Congressional delegation, our representatives are leaders in making environmental policy and supporting all of our efforts. They are head and shoulders above those working in many other states. In New Jersey you are required to be green no matter what your party affiliation.

(07/15) TRENTON - Anglers interested in participating in New Jersey's popular Striped Bass Bonus program can now get permits faster and easier through a new service available on the Department of Environmental Protection's Web site, DEP Commissioner Lisa P. Jackson announced today.

"We've simplified our bonus-permitting process this season so striped bass enthusiasts can spend more time on the water enjoying what no other state on the East Coast offers: an opportunity to catch and keep a third striper," Commissioner Jackson said.

For a $2 processing fee, an angler can complete an online application and immediately print a bonus permit at home or from any computer with Internet access.

Under current striped-bass recreational size limits set by the New Jersey Legislature, anglers can harvest daily two fish at 28 inches or greater. With a bonus permit, anglers can keep daily a third striper at 28 inches or greater.

After using the online permit, an angler can simply return to the DEP's Web site to report the harvest of the bonus fish and then become eligible to receive another bonus permit.

In addition to helping anglers get their bonus permits right away, the electronic system provides real-time monitoring of the bonus program quota, enabling the DEP's Fish and Wildlife biologists to devote more time toward collecting and analyzing harvest data for striped bass and other species.

During this season, party and charter-boat bonus permits will continue to be distributed by mail until the Web service can process multiple permits. Individual anglers can also choose to get bonus permits by mail.

In the Atlantic Ocean, up to three miles from shore, striped bass can be caught year round; farther than three miles from shore, the waters are closed to striped-bass fishing. In all other marine waters, the striper season runs from March 1 to Dec. 31. In the Delaware River and its tributaries - from the Route 1 bridge in Trenton to the Salem River - the season is open from March 1-31 and from June 1 to Dec. 31.

Also, this year the Division of Fish and Wildlife will introduce an online Striped Bass Bonus Program Volunteer Angler Survey.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is moving ahead with its plans to improve recreational fishery survey methods, and anglers applaud the effort — if it is done right.

Almost everyone, including NMFS and those who participated in a peer review, agreed that the Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey was broken. The plan envisions a national registry of saltwater anglers — not a saltwater license — that some believe will yield a lot of meaningful data. The idea is to count anglers and interview some of them. Skeptics believe that the results will not differ a great deal from those compiled by MRFSS. There may be more dockside surveys and more phone calls to anglers, but the data will be the same unless the plan goes a lot further.

Bruce Smith, president of the Jersey Coast Anglers Association, reported that the organization has written the NMFS fishery statistic division commenting on the service's 44-page draft report on evaluation and improvement of survey methods. "There are major issues that need to be addressed immediately," Smith said. Most importantly, the JCAA feels that MRFSS must be more efficient and inclusive of all anglers. "NMFS should consider incomplete trip sampling by roving interviewers," he pointed out. "For example, during the fall shore fishery for striped bass, it would greatly improve your sampling by walking the ocean beach as opposed to waiting at a walkway for anglers to leave the beach."

Smith added that there is a need to interview anglers at night during the summer in the mid-Atlantic region as many anglers come off the beach by 5 a.m. as well as determining possible differences between trips beginning and ending within a 24-hour period. Further, he stressed that the surveyors should better identify sampling sites, and be flexible. In the past, sites were picked at the beginning of the year. Anglers know that participation changes as the fishery changes during the season.

The JCAA also feels that the survey should attempt to understand non-response from anglers who will not cooperate because of frustration over more and ever-changing regulations or simply fear of being in violation of one or more of the numerous regulations.

Smith also explained the need for MRFSS to involve angler organizations in the process through conference calls or meetings with these groups before, during and at the end of the season.

The difficulties presently existing with the large pelagic survey are spelled out by Smith: Missing many landing locations in the master list; private boats docking at private docks not being sampled; only sampling between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m.; and continuing problems with curved versus straight-line measurement of large pelagic fish.

One of the most perplexing of problems for recreational fishermen, especially for those who are concerned about a saltwater fishing license as the cure-all for data collection, is the use of for-hire information. Party and charter boatmen are required to fill out trip reports each time they fish, but those reports are stored in a warehouse, and not used. The best statistical data available goes unused and ignored. The data from this source in the inshore fishery is actually so valuable, that some persons feel it cannot be improved upon by random sampling from private boaters.

The claim that the boatmen will falsify reports to somehow further their interests is a stretch since few persons can envision how NMFS might react to landings reports: too high, cut back; too low, not using the quota, give it to the commercial sector.

An example might be seen in the canyon fishing data of years back when New Jersey researcher Bill Figley interviewed, sampled and recorded landings in the state for several years. The data was the best on the East Coast, bar none. It had no bias, there was no axe to grind, and it came from fishermen. NMFS would have no part of it, and rejected it in favor of presumptions and guesses by its own staff.

It turned out that the yellowfin tuna landings were too high. The data did not fit the service's belief or plan. They wanted to make the recreational fishery look insignificant.

The JCAA, and others, are concerned about NMFS's use of obviously bad MRFSS data, i.e., the fluke landings during a hurricane some years ago; and there is a lack of trust that must be addressed with a more open, responsible system.

NMFS needs a hatchery.

Please join us on May 23rd to discuss some of the nation’s most urgent environmental challenges, network with colleagues and NOAA executive leadership, get the inside information on NOAA’s current strategic direction, and help shape NOAA’s strategic priorities.

At this event, NOAA will be interested in understanding your organization’s views on NOAA’s response and contribution towards:

• Societal demands for climate information services
• Research and technological challenges to improving extreme weather forecasting and prediction
• Decision support services for hazard resilient communities, commerce, and transportation
• Ecosystem-based management in an era of increasing pressure on ocean and coastal resources

NOAA uses your input to identify and understand external trends and determine how to best respond through NOAA’s premier environmental science, technology, and information services. Don’t miss this opportunity to influence NOAA’s decision-makers on the top environmental issues of our day!

At this point in the planning stage we are soliciting ideas from our constituents and state partners for items to include on this year's agenda.

Possible agenda items include

• An overview of 2006 Marine Recreational Information Program
• Review of 2006 catch and effort estimates
• Presentation of Recreational Fisheries website revisions
• Updates on Review and Re-design of the Marine Recreational Information Program
• Question and Answer sessions on 2006 Program and plans for the future

Please let me know if you have any suggestions regarding what data should be presented in the overview, which species should be used for the case study, the best approach for reviewing data, or any other items you would like to see on the agenda.

Please email your suggestions/comments to me no later than April 20th as we would like to finalize the agenda by then.

Also feel free to call if you have any questions or would like to discuss the meeting further.

Banned Chemicals - DDT, Dieldrin and PCBs - Found in OmegaPure Brand Supplements

WASHINGTON – An independent laboratory analysis released today has identified high levels of three toxic chemicals in the popular brand of Omega-3 fish oil nutritional supplements known as OmegaPure.

These contaminants include DDT, Dieldrin and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) which have all been identified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as ‘probable’ carcinogens and have been banned in the United States. The contaminants were also found in the fish oil and meal used in pet food and animal feed as nutritional supplements. OmegaPure is produced by Houston-based Omega Protein, Inc., which is the largest producer of fish oil in the United States.

“Consumers have a right to know that the products they buy to supposedly improve their health could actually be putting them at risk,” said John Hocevar, Greenpeace Oceans Specialist. “Omega Protein’s products should either be cleaned-up or pulled off the market. In the meantime, consumers seeking the benefits of Omega-3 oils should consider safer sources such as flaxseed oil or algae-derived sources of Omega-3s.”

The Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) laboratories – an executive agency and research body within the government of the United Kingdom - performed the analysis for the Greenpeace Research Laboratories located at the University of Exeter.

The demand for Omega-3-fortified products has increased over the years following reports that consumption of the fish oils may reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke. These benefits appear to be driving the development of a new market for Omega-3 enriched products including orange juice, yogurt, butter and peanut butter among others.

"These newest findings point to the need for the White House to let the Food and Drug Administration finalize regulations setting manufacturing standards for dietary supplements,” said Bruce Silverglade, legal director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). ”The White House Office of Management and Budget has effectively prevented the FDA from finalizing these rules, known as ‘Good Manufacturing Practices,’ for more than five years."

Over the past several years, fishermen and conservation organizations have expressed serious concern that the vast scale of Omega’s operations may be taking food away from striped bass, seabirds, and whales.

“We first became concerned about Omega Protein after watching them do everything they could to avoid regulation of their fisheries,” added Hocevar. “Not only does the company lack concern for the impacts of their fishing practices on the environment but there is a similar lack of concern for the contents of the supplements they sell.”

Close to the heart of Barnegat Bay, nestled along its western shoreline, near marshes and waterfront homes and crossing beneath Route 9, lies one of New Jersey’s strangest artifacts: the only river in the world that flows backward.

The rush of water landward up the Forked River has nothing to do with the lunar pull upon the tides. It is pulled rather by the force of greed through a channel of political expediency, and it is literally sucking the life out of Barnegat Bay.

Each and every day, the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station pulls 1.4 billion gallons of Barnegat Bay water into its “once-through” cooling system. The water is sucked up the Forked River and spat out – superheated and greatly depleted of living organisms – into Oyster Creek.

Many persons remain unaware of this carnage – and indeed unaware of the very presence of the oldest nuclear plant in America – on account of a single fact: while other energy producing plants use highly visible cooling towers to minimize the volume and environmental impact of their cooling systems, Oyster Creek does not.

This negligence results in at least five kinds of ecological damage to Barnegat Bay:

1. Massive destruction of biomass. Shellfish larvae, fish eggs, plankton, and microorganisms of many kinds suffer high mortality as they are strained out of the water at the intake (“impingement”) or as they are superheated inside the plant (“entrainment”). Billions of fish and aquatic organisms are killed.
2. Thermal pollution. The water in the Oyster Creek discharge canal is extremely warm – up to 110 degrees Fahrenheit – which alters the natural character of Barnegat Bay. A looming question is whether this extreme artificial warmth is contributing to the prevalence of stinging sea nettle jellyfish, Chrysaora quinquecirrha, currently one of the most severe environmental problems of Barnegat Bay.
3. Destruction of endangered sea turtles. Critically endangered Kemps Ridley, Atlantic Green, and Loggerhead turtles are killed each year as they are attracted to the warm water and then sucked toward death on the cooling system intake. The number of Diamondback Terrapins lost is not known.
4. Large fish kills occur in the winter when the plant temporarily shuts down for maintenance or mishap. Hundreds of fish attracted to the artificial warmth of Oyster Creek’s outflow suffer fatal shock from the sudden onset of cold water.
5. Biocides such as chlorine are allowed to be released into Oyster Creek and Barnegat Bay at levels known to be lethal to striped bass, bunker, and other species.

All these problems have a simple, sane solution. The plant’s archaic “once through” cooling system can be replaced with a much lower volume “closed loop” system of cooling towers, a routine solution during the twentieth century and no less of a necessity in the twenty-first. This step would reduce mortality by 95%.

The most frustrating aspect of Oyster Creek’s elementary failure to protect the waters of Barnegat Bay is that installation of a closed loop cooling system is already required by the Clean Water Act. This fact was recently reaffirmed for another plant by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

This gives Governor Corzine and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection the option, and perhaps the obligation, to require a “once through” cooling system with towers under Oyster Creek’s pending permit renewal under the Clean Water Act.

The expense of building cooling towers should be well within the financial means of Oyster Creek’s operator, Amergen, since it could be amortized over the life of the plant.

At a time when the Barnegat Bay ecosystem is greatly overstressed by other intractable problems – such as over development and eutrophication caused by excess nutrients from runoff and air pollution deposition – the single act of requiring cooling towers at Oyster Creek would achieve and immediate, salutary and progressive ecological result. The Governor would do well to seize this opportunity.

Interested citizens may remind Governor Corzine of the requirements of the Clean Water Act by phoning him at 609-292-6000, writing him at The State House, Trenton, NJ 08625, and emailing him from his website [topic: natural resources, clean water].

Ask Governor Corzine to enforce the Clean Water Act by requiring a closed loop cooling system at Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station. Barnegat Bay deserves no less. Let’s get the Forked River flowing seaward again.