FISHERIES MANAGEMENT & LEGISLATIVE REPORT

By Tom Fote

(from Jersey Coast Anglers Association - June 1996 Newspaper)

Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission Week

Weakfish FMP

Striped Bass

Mud Dump

Moving Marine Fisheries to Department of Agriculture & Sunday Clamming

Status of Striped Bass Bills

Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission Week

The ASMFC will be meeting the week of May 28 and many important decisions will be made. This month has been pretty quiet as far as new regulations but it is only the calm before the storm. Next months newspaper will report on what happened.

Weakfish FMP

The ASMFC will be holding a Weakfish Board meeting during the week of May 28 and Amendment to the Weakfish Plan is supposed to be approved. I will be there to make sure that the good things that I negotiated stay in the finale version. The two parts in particular are the 12 inch minimum size limit for all ocean fishing regardless of gear and recreational anglers will not get more restricted in 1997.

Striped Bass

Al Ristori attended the advisor’s meeting in Washington on May 17 and his report is in the JCAA Newspaper. Damon Tatem said the advisors agreed that it is premature to consider opening the EEZ until we go to full MSY. There will a Striped Bass Board meeting to make sure that the Board listens to the advisors and takes their comments into careful consideration.

There is still talk of a major commercial increase in quota for 1997. JCAA is working with advocacy groups from North Carolina through Maine concerning this. We have started establishing a list of suggestions on what we feel should be done for the 1997 season. When they are done we will circulate them along the coast to different advocacy groups so we can go forth with a coastwide united position. The JCAA Striped Bass Committee needs to meet to come up with these positions. This committee needs more members and if a club wishes to participate, call the office and leave the name of your representative. The striped bass advisors recommendations will receive careful consideration in our deliberation Amendment 5 was crucial, but what happens in 1997 will determine the fate of this fishery for the next ten years. This is not the time to sit back and when your group is called upon to participate, it must be willing to take the time to respond. We must put aside any differences we might have and work for the good of the striped bass resource and future recreational participation. Remember, the Mid-Atlantic Council voted that it wanted to see the EEZ opened in 1997, with the possible resulting increase in commercial exploitation of striped bass by commercial gear types not now in the fishery.

Mud Dump

The Mud Dump Hearing was held on May 6, from 7 to 9 PM at the Monmouth Beach Municipal Building Auditorium on 22 Beach Road. The purpose of this hearing was to discuss the proposed expansion of the Mud Dump as a dredge spoils repository. Almost two hundred interested parties attended this hearing including Congressman Pallone, Assemblyman Corodemus, Assemblyman Lance, Mayor Joe Brennan (Highlands) and Mayor John Peterson (Seaside Park), all supporters of keeping the mud dump closed. In this large crowd, only one person spoke in favor of expanding the mud dump. Everyone else was absolutely opposed to the dumping of any toxic dredge spoils at this site.. The damage done by the exponential increase in size and the volume of dredge materials the government wants to dump on this site would have drastic and far ranging consequences for all fishermen, beach goers, and people interested in seeing our near-shore ocean waters continue to improve in water quality. This was the clear message that the EPA got at this hearing. We can only hope they were listening.

My statement focused on the legality of dumping this material in the ocean. What the Port Authority is proposing would not be allowed for any government agency at the federal, state or local level or for any business. There is no doubt that the EPA would automatically reject a request from any of these groups to dump this type of highly toxic material in the ocean and any attempt to subvert EPA rules would be met with astronomical fines and other more severe penalties. Anyone who dared to so blatantly violate EPA rules would probably end up in jail. Yet our government agencies and most businesses could use the same economic arguments put forth by the Port, saving jobs and cutting costs. The Clean Water Act, which has resulted in the recovery of various fish stocks and measurable improvements in water quality, would prevent any other agency or business from so damaging the ecosystem. Unfortunately, the Port Authority is exempt from the Clean Water Act.

It is the sheer size of the proposal that is the most frightening. Most superfund sites are measured in acres or less. The volume of material is measured in a thousand tons or less or a few thousand cubic yards. But the Mud Dump proposal is for an increase from two and one half square miles to twenty-six square miles. Think about the size of the town you live in and compare that to the size of the mud dump. The proposal for the amount of material that would be sent to the mud dump is measured in two to three million cubic yards per year with no end in site until the entire twenty-six square miles is filled. This about the size of your town buried under thirty feet of contaminated muck. One of the justifications used to get this increase to twenty-six square miles is that the toxic material previously dumped in the two and one half square mile site is now being found throughout this twenty-six square miles. Imagine how far it can spread when the original dump site is twenty-six square miles in size. Oh well, then we can increase it each year to account for the spread and soon have it right up against the beach! Keeping it out of the shipping lanes, a clear priority for the Port, will push the increased size of the dump closer and closer to the beach. Why not just turn the ocean off Monmouth County into the dump site and be done with it.

It was especially gratifying to see commercial and recreational anglers and the environmental groups working in complete agreement to oppose this proposal. The Port Authority has done everything possible to play these groups off against one another but we have confounded their best efforts and remained allied to protect our ocean environment. It was the fishermen who came out to fight this proposal, not the paid lobbyists or spokespersons from either community. If we keep doing our job, we will stand together and defeat this proposal.

The EPA has a report, as yet unreleased, which shows extremely high levels of dioxin in the tomalley of the lobsters caught in the area of the current mud dump site. We owe thanks to the newspaper reporter who broke this story prior to the hearing. This news confirms our worst fears about the toxic material getting into the food chain. These levels are higher than those reported in previous studies from the 1980’s done at the mud dump. Could the most recent additions to the mud dump, illegal deposits of toxic dredge material from the Port, had an impact on the most recent lobster readings? In any case, we cannot allow a further expansion of the site. Commercial and recreational anglers, environmental groups and politicians have worked together to end the dumping of wood, sewage, chemicals from businesses, and even outdated war materials. If we can win this last battle and make the Port Authority responsible to the same rules as everyone else, we will have finally insured a cleaner ocean for ourselves and our children.

The good citizenship that each of us learned in school, that we were all entitled to fair and equitable treatment under the law and none of use are above the law, certainly applies to this case. If the Port Authority is simply held to the same standard as every governmental agency and business, then this proposal will be turned down. That is all we are asking for and we will accept nothing less.

If you would like to present written comments or get a copy of the entire EPA proposal, write to:

Joseph Bergstein,
Environmental Impacts Branch
U. S. Environmental Protection Agency
290 Broadway, 28th Floor
New York, NY 10007-1866

or

To have it faxed to you, call 212-637-3521.

Moving Marine Fisheries to Department of Agriculture & Sunday Clamming

There was a meeting of State Senate Committee on Senior Citizens, Veterans’ Affairs and Agriculture on May 2 and they passed the Sunday Clamming Bill (S.75) out of Committee. This Bill is sponsored by Senator Louis Bassano and Senator Andrew Ciesla. We would like to thank the Committee members especially the Chairman, Senator Robert Singer, for moving S.75. It now has to go before the full Senate for a vote. Contact your local senators and tell them to vote yes on this bill.

The Committee then discussed a bill by Senate Zane that would have moved Marine Fisheries to the Department of Agriculture. George Howard testified representing the Federation of Sportsmen Clubs and I represented the JCAA. We spoke in opposition to the bill. The bill was not moved in a large part because of arguments George and I made. But it did not go away. The Committee say it wants to study this issue further. Write to the members of this committee and tell them you do not support this bill. Agriculture knows how to promote seafood but not concept of managing a public resource for the good of all the citizens.

These Committees Members are:

Status of Striped Bass Bills

This is the forth month that we run this column. Have you written your congressional representative yet? JCAA supports two striped bass bills that are currently in Congress. We have been lax about getting all our New Jersey Representatives on these HR:393. In the past, every member of the NJ delegation was on HR 393. For the most part our Representatives just need a gentle reminder. Please write a letter to your Representative if he or she is not currently listed as a cosponsor. It is particularly disappointing that Richard Zimmer, who is currently running for U.S. Senate, has removed his name as a cosponsor. He should hear from all of us throughout the state. Tell him how disappointed you are with his action and that you consider this is a major betrayal of the recreational community. Listed below are the names of our Representatives who are cosponsors and the names and addresses of those who are not cosponsors.

HR:393 Striped Bass Gamefish Bill

Sponsor:

Congressman Frank Pallone

Co-sponsors:

New Jersey: Congressman James Saxton, Congressman Robert Torricelli, Congressman Chris Smith, Congressman Robert Andrews
Connecticut: Congressman Christopher Shays, Congresswoman Barbara Kennelly, Congressman Sam Gejdenson
Texas: Congressman Pete Geren
Maine: Congressman Jim Longley
Indiana: Congressman Mark Souder

New Jersey Delegation missing from HR 393

Congressman Frank LoBiondo, 2^nd District, 513 Canon HOB, Washington, DC 20510

Congresswoman Margaret Roukema, 520510Washington, DC ^th District, 2469 Rayburn HOB,

Congressman Robert Franks, 7^th District, 429 Canon HOB, Washington DC 20510

Congressman William Martini, 8^th District, 1513 Longworth HOB, Washington, DC 20510

Congressman Donald Payne, 10^th District, 2244 Rayburn HOB, Washington, DC 20510

Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen, 11^th District, 514 Canon HOB, Washington, DC 20510

Congressman Richard Zimmer, 12^th District, 228 Canon HOB, Washington, DC 20510

Congressman Robert Menendez, 13^th District, 1730 Longworth HOB, Washington, DC 20510

HR:2655 Keeps EEZ Closed For 5 Years for the taking of Striped Bass

Sponsor:

Congressman James Saxton

All of the Congressional Delegation of New Jersey is on this bill as co-sponsors.

Cosponsors from other States:

Connecticut: Congressman Sam Gejdenson, Congresswoman Nancy Johnson
Alaska: Congressman Don Young
Oklahoma: Congressman Bill Brewster
Tennessee: Congressman John Tanner
Maine: Congressman James Longley
Texas: Congressman Pete Geren
New York: Congressman James Walsh, Congressman Thomas Manton Congresswoman Susan Molinari Charles Schumer

The only member of the New Jersey congressional delegation not on HR 2655 is Congressman Richard Zimmer,

12^th District, 228 Canon HOB, Washington, DC 20510. JCAA cannot understand why this congressman is not on HR:2655. Please write and tell him of your disappointment and ask him to make New Jersey delegation unanimous on their support of HR2655. There are now 23 Congressional representatives on HR2655.

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