Fisheries Management & Legislative Report

I received an email from someone who works at the PEW Foundation. The writer questions the science that backs up a quote from Bruce Freeman that appeared in the Asbury Park Press. The quote came from a statement made at the New Jersey Outdoor Writers Workshop on November 15th. The entirety of his statement was not included, just this quote. "Historically, we have more summer flounder now than we've seen in living memory, at least 60 years," Freeman said. "We're going to destroy the fishery, and in three or four years the stock will be doubled, and people can't rationalize that. . . . People won't accept it."

Rather than just respond to the writer of the email, I am compiling information that I want to share more broadly.

Bruce Freeman has a lot more history in the fishery than anyone I know. His work goes back to the sixties and the seventies when he was responsible for compiling the recreational catch figures for summer flounder at the Federal Bureau of Sportfishing. When it was merged into NMFS he continued that work. Nobody on the current MAFMC staff who is dealing with this issue has been involved for more than a couple of years. Bruce’s comments, taken in total, reflected exactly what NMFS has been saying by setting these targets. At various times in public forums, NMFS has been asked, “Will these low quotas actually result in reaching these imaginary targets?” We know NMFS is required by law to set a quota that will meet the rebuilding targets. For summer flounder, this means setting targets that will reach a doubling of the present spawning stock biomass and biomass. Yet, when asked the question, the answer has been a refusal to guarantee any specific outcome. However, NMFS continues to set targets using imaginary numbers and refusing to adjust these targets when actual data is available. Even if we consider that slight overages or the contention that the regression analysis would have called for a smaller target, there is no way this minimal difference would have had a dramatic impact on the total outcome. We are talking about a stock that was producing 33 million fish into the system in 1993 with a spawning stock biomass of 20 million pounds. We now have a spawning stock of between 80 and 109 million pounds, yet the actual production has averaged 27 million fish, a drop of 5 million fish per year in recruitment. That is fish, not pounds! The total spawning stock biomass, even with the 3 year increase from 2005 to 2007 of 30 million pounds, the total biomass went down by 1 million pounds. NMFS admits that their targets, using their questionable science, are not producing desired results. Their solution is to blame some unforeseen background mortality. Even though they admit this problem is not due to fishing pressure, reducing fishing pressure is their only solution. We all know the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

PEW and some other environmental organizations are pushing for compliance with the newly passed Magnuson/Stevens Act based on their interpretations of the Act. The Magnuson/Stevens Act requires that the Federal Management Council’s Science & Statistical Committee (SSC) sets the targets. PEW never questions that Mid-Atlantic Marine Fisheries Council (MAFMC) and NMFS refuse to send the monitoring committee report to the MAFMC Science & Statistical Committee (SSC) as required by the M/S Act. The MAFMC gave the excuse to Congress and the fishing community that it could not be done before their meeting in early August. That was three months ago and there have been opportunities to be in compliance and send the report to SSC to set the quota. The SSC has a different makeup than the ASMFC and MAFMC Monitoring Committee. We rely on SSC to look at a variety of factors. Why hasn’t PEW joined with Congress and the commercial and recreational fishing communities to demand this is done?

Under this act, NMFS is required to set quotas that will rebuild any stock within 10 years. In looking at summer flounder, NMFS is restricting the quota with the intention of reaching their imaginary target for the spawning stock and the biomass during the ten year rebuilding period using targets that are based on assumptions rather than facts. If you read the Magnuson/Stevens Act, the clear intention is that the targets and quotas are developed using actual data, not the personal assumptions made by the modelers. What PEW and other groups are doing is basing their decisions on the assumption that NMFS uses actual data. What PEW and other groups fail to do is question the recent failures of the projections. When NMFS sets up an unrealistic target and fails to meet that target, we need to be asking about other factors (environmental, competition for habitat and prey, poor data) rather than repeating the same mistake again and again. When PEW questions Bruce Freeman’s statement that the stocks will double in the rebuilding period, you are, in effect, questioning everything NMFS has done. Has PEW come to the realization that what NMFS is projecting won’t happen? Does PEW believe that we cannot increase this stock to 197 million pound spawning stock biomass and 215 million pound biomass from its present level of 93 million spawning stock biomass and 104 million pound biomass? I think that looks like doubling the stock to me. I was at the Congressional briefing with Bruce Freeman when NMFS said this is the largest spawning stock biomass and biomass they have on record. That is what the facts show. I can only imagine that PEW believes we will actually meet some imaginary target set by projections that have not considered any ecosystem management. It makes no sense to me when so-called environmental groups totally ignore environmental concerns when decisions are made. That is bizarre!

I need to mention that, according to the newspapers, PEW is suggesting we should implement a moratorium on summer flounder fishing like we did on striped bass without any regard for how many small family businesses will go bankrupt and how many people will lose businesses and jobs. I guess PEW wants people to do something else besides fish. That is how it looks to me and a lot of the fishing community. PEW has never questioned NMFS refusal to do an economic study of the effects of the regulations on the recreational fishing community as required by Magnuson/Stevens. Striped bass and summer flounder were two completely different plans. There was never a ten year rebuilding plan with striped bass. The striped bass plan called for us to protect the 82 year class until they spawned at least once which took almost 7 years. If you understand summer flounder, you know they spawn after one year. The plan required that we look at a specific three year running average for the young of the year index. This was based on actual sample and data collected, not on assumptions. There was never a target for SSB or total biomass. We were also striving for good age class distribution in striped bass just like we have with summer flounder now. The older age class distribution is just as good as or better than on striped bass. Is that what PEW wants to do on summer flounder? JCAA would love those criteria for summer flounder. If that plan was in effect right now for summer flounder, we would be basing the quotas on fishing mortality and I am sure the quotas would be much larger than anything proposed by NMFS for 2007 or 2008. For the record, there was no coastwide moratorium on striped bass. Maryland and Virginia put in a moratorium after a period of time and were in discussions how to reopen the fishery before the good YOY Index that allowed the ASMFC to relax regulations. There were large striped bass being sold during that entire period. I was at all those striped bass board meetings back then and I know PEW was not represented. I don’t believe PEW was even involved in fisheries management during that time period.

JCAA has always supported rebuilding stocks and our membership has been willing to make hard choices for the greater good. However, JCAA has never supported developing targets or quotas based on faulty science. We have always supported looking at all of the science, not just the models. We understand ecosystem management and have been supporting making decisions with the environment in mind for over 25 years. It was JCAA that pushed for predator/prey information in 1995 that led to an ongoing study of these relationships. Right now, I see a group of NGOs that have lost sight of environmental causes and have made the fishermen the “bad guys” and blamed us for all of the environmental problems. Before these NGOs point the finger at us, they need to look at their own practices. JCAA leaves a small footprint. Some of these NGOs spend more on décor than JCAA has ever raised or spent. I guarantee their rent on their fancy offices is greater than JCAA’s and other fisheries organizations’ 25 year budgets. Of course, we don’t have huge foundations’ oil money funding us. In fact, we pride ourselves in not funding with polluters’ money. JCAA has been offered but refused to do that for all the years that I have been involved with it. We fund ourselves from contributions from people who fish and care about the environment. Think about who stands on the higher ground!

I received this document for public comment on the 2008 quota on for summer flounder, black sea bass and scup. I have already been told that there will be written comments sent in by certain Environmental NGO's calling for the smaller quota on summer flounder because of the recommendations of the Monitoring Committee. You need to send in your comments supporting the higher quota of 15.77 million. Even though 15.77 million pounds is a disaster it is better than 12.90 to 11.64 million pounds recommended by the Monitoring Committee. The NMFS will probably publish the rule before the joint meeting of the MAFMC and ASMFC on December 12 at Holiday Inn, Harmon Meadows, 300 Plaza Dr., Secaucus, New Jersey 07094. I just received the agenda and it is below also. I will keep you posted on the exact date of summer flounder meeting. After NMFS decides which quota to go with, we will contact you, if necessary, to show up in force in Secaucus. If they publish 15.77 as the final recommendation to bring all of you to the meeting as that’s the best we can do right now. JCAA will be represented no matter which quota NMFS chooses.

Excerpts from NOAA’s Release on Proposed Quotas

NOAA Fisheries Service today proposed limits on fishing three key species in order to end overfishing and promote rebuilding of the stocks. The proposed 2008 total allowable landing limits are:

• Summer Flounder – 15.77 million pounds, 8 percent less than the 2007 limit of 17.11 million pounds;
• Scup – 7.34 million pounds, 39 percent less than the 2007 limit of 12 million pounds; and
• Black Sea Bass – 4.22 million pounds, 16 percent less than the 2007 limit of 5 million pounds.

Since 2000, recreational fishery harvests have exceeded their annual limit in most years. NOAA recently urged the Council and the Commission to look for more effective approaches for constraining recreational harvests in 2008. Currently, each state implements its own recreational measures: usually a combination of seasons, minimum fish size and bag limits. The proposed limits are based on calculations that assume the states will no longer exceed their recreational harvests.

“If recreational harvests appear likely to exceed the annual limit before the end of the 2008 fishing year, NOAA will look at options to ensure the rebuilding effort is not jeopardized, including closing the recreational fishery in federal waters,” added Hogarth.

The bill (S 2635) that would rid New Jersey artificial reefs of pots that interfere with drifting, anchoring and even additional reef-building passed through the Senate Environmental Committee on Thursday, October 18th. JCAA would like to thank Senator Robert Smith, chairman of the Environmental Committee for holding a special hearing on this bill and for all of his support. Other Senators who supported this bill are Senators Adler, Sweeney, and McNamara. We would also like to thank Senate President Codey for allowing this special hearing. His continued support is needed to get this bill posted and passed by the full Senate. We also need Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts to post this bill for passage by the Assembly. Governor Corzine, Senate President Codey and Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts know how important this bill is to you. We want this bill posted during the session following the November election. There is no reason to begin this process again in the next legislature to reach the same outcome. Call or write them now.

JCAA, NJSFSC and I have been working hard to get S138/A636 Hooked on Fishing-Not on Drugs Bill passed. It was heard by the Senate Environmental Committee on Monday, September 17 and was moved out of committee. JCAA would like to thank Senator Robert Smith, Chairman of the Senate Environmental Committee for posting this bill for hearing. We would like to thank Senator John Adler and Senator Andy Ciesla for their support. This bill has already passed the Assembly Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee with a unanimous vote. We now need to work on getting the Assembly Appropriations Committee and Senate Appropriations Committee to hear the bill after the elections and then get the bill passed by the full Assembly and Senate.

Assemblyman Herb Conaway is a co-sponsor and a member of the Assembly Appropriations Committee. In the Senate there are two members of the Senate Appropriations Committee who are co-sponsors, Senator Barbara Buono and Senator Nick Asselta. We will need their help to get this bill posted for a vote and out of the Appropriations Committee in their houses. These are the committee members that we need to contact to have the next hearing on S138/A636.

Assembly Appropriations Committee Members
Nellie Pou – Chair, Joseph Cryan, - Vice-Chair
Herb Conaway, Michael J. Doherty, Robert Gordon, Louis Greenwald, Reed Gusciora, Marcia A. Karrow, Richard A. Merkt, Joseph Pennacchio, Valerie Huttle Vainieri, John S. Wisniewski.

Senate Budget and Appropriations
Bernard F. Kenny – Chair, Sharpe James - Vice-Chair
Nicholas Asselta, Martha W Bark, Anthony R. Bucco, Barbara Buono, Joseph Coniglio, Joseph V. Doria, Walter J Kavanaugh,. Leonard Lance, Robert E Littell, Paul A. Sarlo, Stephen M. Sweeney, Shirley K. Turner, Joseph F. Vitale.

The key is also to get the leadership to make sure the Assembly Appropriations Committee and the Senate Appropriations Committee hear and pass these bills. Senate President Richard Codey and Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts need to make sure this happens and that the bills are posted for a vote by the full Senate and Assembly. To make sure this happens we need to get a commitment from them before the elections to post and pass the bill. Here is their contact information.

Senate President Richard Codey 449 Mount Pleasant Ave.
West Orange, NJ 07052 
Phone Number: (973) 731-6770 
Fax Number 973-731-0647

Assemblyman Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr Brooklawn Shopping Plaza, 
Route 130 & Browning Rd, 
Brooklawn, NJ 08030  
Phone Number: (856) 742-7600
Fax Number 856-742-1831