Fisheries Management & Legislative Report

Bruce Freeman and I have included our thoughts on the MAFMC Science and Statistical Committee and Monitoring Committee meetings in the press release below. I could not attend the joint meeting of MAFMC and ASMFC when they voted on the quotas for summer flounder, black sea bass and scup for 2009. John Toth and Bruce Freeman were there and briefed me on the meeting.

I was very disappointed that the NMFS Northeast Regional Director Pat Kurkel opposed 19.02 million pounds for summer flounder that was approved by the SSC and the Monitoring Committee. She knows the 19.02 represents significant conservation and significant probability of maintaining the goals of the plan. It can only appear that NMFS remains hell bent on destroying the recreational fishery for summer flounder. For many years NMFS personnel, both on and off the record, have stated that limiting recreational fishing is one of NMFS’ goals. What better way to accomplish this goal than to make people so disgusted with the limits that they give up fishing altogether and find other pursuits. They have already driven party boats, tackle stores and charter boats out of business and chased away hundreds of thousands of anglers. This may be the only success they can claim!

At the joint meeting they also voted to greatly reduce the black sea bass quota. They know that there is no approved stock assessment for black sea bass or scup and we are not closer to having one than when I advocated for the stock assessment as the Governor’s Appointee to ASMFC in 1992. What is even more disturbing is the fact that they are retiring NMFS former research vessel and bringing a new one on line. The information gathered by the original vessel is what NMFS uses to establish the present quotas since it is the “best science” they have available. They are currently trying to develop a mathematical model that will allow comparisons between the information gathered by both boats. One wonders why they bother since the information has been rejected for use in setting quotas for years.

Some people might think I am being hard on NMFS and ASMFC but both of these groups knew we had problems with these stock assessments in the early 90’s. Now in 2008 they have not spent the money or effort required to develop reliable stock assessment data. NMFS always has their fall-back position – the “best science available.” That means we are stuck with lousy science again and again. We could joke about their failings except that their decisions have a negative impact on the lives of many of our citizens.

Every individual and every industry has been touched by the escalating prices of natural gas and gasoline. Some of us remember the gas crisis of 1973 and we realized then that our reliance on foreign oil left us in a precarious position. I was driving about 25,000 miles a year in 1973 and remember the gas lines on odd and even days. Like everyone else, my memory is short and once the crisis passes, we all go back to our gas guzzling ways. With out forward-thinking leadership and some political bravery, nothing gets done. So here we are again. The promise of quick fixes is appealing and makes great sound bites for our politicians. What the public wants is a solution with no pain. What we need to remember is that every “solution” comes with a consequence and a shortsighted solution (off shore drilling and LNG) will only compound the pain later. In my discussions with my fellow anglers, all of us keep focusing on the price of gas. We forget about the consequences of oil spills on the environment. Remember some of the big tanker spills that still have a negative impact on our environment. There is no such thing as a foolproof oil rig in the ocean. JCAA’s historical position has been opposed to off shore drilling on the east coast and the proposed LNG facilities. LNG will only increase our dependence on foreign natural gas from Russia, Iran and Venezuela. Do we want to be even more at their mercy?

We need to make a personal commitment for conservation. Every one of us can do something. JCAA bought a hybrid car to cut our gas consumption. We have more than doubled our personal gas mileage with the purchase of a hybrid. Some time this fall we will have solar panels on our home. I understand that everyone can’t make these changes. But you can buy fluorescent light bulbs, schedule your driving efficiently, carpool whenever possible, and look for other energy saving options. Each action is small but the accumulated impact is enormous. We need to have a long-term commitment and stop looking for short-term solutions. We worry about leaving our children with accumulated national debt but just keep spending. The same is true with our energy debt. We need to find better and cleaner sources of energy. My father’s generation won the Second World War and my generation went to the moon. We can do this if we have the will and the leadership.

I have gathered several editorials, fact sheets and articles about off shore drilling. I have included two articles from NRDC since they focused on issues and not politics. Other articles are available via email or I have included the links to their webpages. Bruce Smith and I asked Clean Ocean Action to write an article about LNG. Clean Ocean Action has much more information available on their webpage. You can just Google off shore drilling and numerous articles are available.

JCAA was contacted by members of the Shark River Surf Anglers about public access at Takanassee Beach Club. We set up meetings with DEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson and worked with DEP personnel to find a solution that was acceptable. Thankfully the township, DEP and the developer worked together to accommodate the anglers’ concerns. JCAA was pleased to help. The APP Article is below.

These access issues are increasing and the attacks on existing public access or trying to circumvent new public access are always there. JCAA is looking for a chairman for a northern public access committee to deal with these issues. Ray Marione has been our chairman for years but at 91 he says he wants to remain active on the committee but needs to be replaced as chairman. Please contact me or John Toth if you are interested. Senator Robert Smith and Assemblyman John McKeon held a joint meeting of the Senate Environmental and Assembly Environmental Committees in Toms River in August. Public access and LNG were the two topics. JCAA has gone on the record supporting the concerns expressed by the marinas about the new public access rules. But we are not in favor of exempting developers from meeting their mandated requirements. We are afraid that new legislation will be introduced supporting the developers and limiting our access along the Hudson River, ocean beaches and new condominium developments that have replaced marinas. We will keep you posted.

Bruce Freeman and I attended the Mid-Atlantic Marine Fisheries Management Council Science and Statistical Committee (SSC) and Monitoring Committee Meetings. This SSC meeting represented the SSC’s first opportunity to set the total allowable catch for scup, summer flounder, sea bass and bluefish. It was an interesting process to observe. Bruce and I were the only recreational people in the audience for the two days of meetings. There were also some commercial fishermen from Virginia and North Carolina and Greg DiDomenico from Garden Seafood Association in attendance for the SSC meeting. Because of the scheduling and the short notice, many members of the SSC were not in attendance. I had expected to see a more diverse group of SSC members, representing universities and the states. However, I was surprised to find that many of the SSC members are NMFS employees. These members were for the most part from other regions of the country but I am still concerned that they are part of the NMFS system. State governments generally develop committees for monitoring that have at least the perception of independence and objectivity. We all know how important perception is to the acceptance of any decisions. I am not questioning the integrity of any of the committee members, I am just concerned about the public perception about the decisions they will make.

The benchmark assessment did accept a higher mortality rate than the plan is currently using. I want to point out some important information. In reviewing how the new stock assessment impacts on the fisheries management plan for summer flounder, I asked, “When we are fully recovered and we reach the new goal, what is the maximum sustainable yield we can harvest?” To my surprise, the answer was 28.2 million pounds. In 2005 the quota was as high as 30 million pounds. We still had stringent regulations in place in most of the states. Even with the new plan using the new mortality rates, we’re never going to be allowed to harvest 30 million pounds under the current system. When I looked at some of the earlier recreational catch figures, we were as high as 12 million pounds in the mid 90’s. For the most part that was on 14 inch fish. We are now going to harvest 1/3 the number of fish. They will be bigger fish, mainly females but that means the success rate for the average angler will be down considerably. It also means that the hook and release mortality will probably grow. The thing that is driving this whole system which is so unusual and is causing all the problems is that even with having a spawning stock biomass almost 5 times what it was in 1994, we have not increased recruitment based on available surveys. The bottom line is that as we have increased the spawning stock biomass we have not seen an increase in recruitment. This is totally outside of what we would normally and historically expect and should cause us to reexamine all of the factors that may be impacting on summer flounder. On a positive note, members of the benchmark stock assessment and the SSC have acknowledged that there is currently no reliable relationship between spawning stock biomass and recruitment. The problem remains, what to do next. We need to fill the data gaps with new scientific, environmental and biological information. That new data will allow us to use the model to develop appropriate projects and ultimately appropriate quotas. My bachelors and masters degrees are not in biology but in business. In business school we learned that money spent developing reliable projections is money well spent. The only way to do reliable projections is to invest in the data.

The SSC and Monitoring Committee report on bluefish contained few changes. The biggest change is that the recreational projections are forecasting that we will maximize or exceed our quota. There will be no transfer of unused recreational quota to the commercial quota under these recommendations. The committees’ recommendations are status quo for scup but calls for a reduction in the sea bass fishery by 50%. I cannot tell you what those reductions will be if this proposal is accepted by the Council and ASMFC because we don’t know yet what this year’s recreational catch is.

The SSC has expressed the same frustration on sea bass and scup that Bruce and I have experienced since 1992. In 1992 the Council and Commission proposed fishery management plans for sea bass and scup and indicated we would have a stock assessment available. It is now 2008 and we still don’t have a valid stock assessment for either species. The SSC recognizes that it is questionable to base a plan and quotas without a valid stock assessment. I wish, with the passage of the new Federal Law, I could promise you that in the immediate future we would have a peer reviewed stock assessment. I am not confident that will happen.

Below is Bruce Freeman’s report on Summer Flounder. A more detailed report will be available after the Council and Commission make their decisions next August 5 & 6.

The Science and Statistical Committee (SSC) met July 31 to review recommendations of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s staff (Council) concerning the fishery quotas for fluke, bluefish, sea bass and scup for 2009. Recent additions to the Federal Fishery Law now require the SSC to review changes in annual quotas to make certain they are supported by the best scientific information. In addition, the Council must follow the recommendations of the SSC.

The SSC agreed with the recently completed assessment of the coastwide fluke stock that supports a change to the model used as well as change to a key variable used in the predictive fishery model. These changes, together with the most recent survey data, now indicate that the fluke stock is not overfished and overfishing is not occurring. This means that the fluke resource is more than 75% restored to its maximum sustainable level and at the existing catch rate, we should see a complete recovery of the fluke spawning stock to 151 million pounds by the fall of 2012. Federal Law requires the stock to be rebuilt no later than 2013.

The SSC recommended a total allowable catch level for the 2009 fishing year of 19 million pounds which is divided among recreational fishermen (7.6 million pounds) and commercial fishermen (11.4 millions pounds).

The 2008 coastwide recreational fishery has been held to about 6 million pounds because of concern that the fluke stock will not be fully restored over the next 4 years. The updated analysis and change in model variables now indicate the stock is more improved than previously indicated and that the recreational catch for 2009 could possibly be increased to 7.4 million pounds, a 19% increase, yet be fully restored by 2013.