by Bill Degnan & Gary Caputi
A CRISIS IN PARTICIPATION REACHES CRITICAL MASS
(from Jersey Coast Anglers Association - November 1996 Newspaper)
Very shortly, 1996 will come to a close. We fought a lot of battles on a variety of issues, but the war still rages on with no let up in sight. The only thing that doesn’t seem to change is the people who are on the front lines on our behalf and the people that work behind the scenes to supply research materials, statistics and impact studies for them. They carry the burden of representing and presenting the position of recreational anglers for us all, with very little help and credit for the work they do.
This might sound like something you’ve heard before, but this is directed to all of you who read this newsletter, who are members of clubs affiliated with JCAA or who are just anglers who want to be able to continue enjoying the sport we all love. If we are to continue to gain ground (or even hold the hard-fought ground we have won already), we need your help! WE NEED YOUR HELP NOW!
There are too many anglers sitting back saying, "I don’t have the time to give." Well people, if you don’t give some time now, you’ll have plenty of spare time in the future to say, "I should have helped." What are you going to do when we’re socked with more closed seasons, unfair bag limits and closed fisheries. Every fishery we participate in is now regulated and the restrictions just keep rolling in. About the only thing the Councils, Commissions and NMFS are always willing to give a fair share of to the
recreational community is the restrictions necessary to rebuild a depleted fishery after they let the commercial boys decimate it. They do the damage¾ we become full partners in the restrictions necessary to rebuild it, even though we did not cause the problem in the first place. That’s fisheries management folks and it will continue that way unless we double and redouble our efforts to change it.
What we must continue to drive home is just how economically important recreational fishing is. How about all the hard earned money you spend on tackle, boats, motors, buggies. Did you know that over 17,000 jobs in New Jersey alone rely directly on recreational fishing (using 1991 statistics gathered by the state).
Here are other related statistics from the Compendium of Sportfishing Statistics, published by the American Sportfishing Association in June of 1996, but keep one important thing in mind when you are thinking about how powerful they seem. In the 1980s, New Jersey boasted over 1 million recreational saltwater anglers, not just 695,000. The manner in which fisheries have been managed since then, the over regulation of recreational fishing and the decline in key species abundance has reduced the roles of recreational anglers in this state by about 40% already, with the resulting decline in economic benefits, tax dollars and the like also declining proportionately. During 1994, New Jersey anglers took 5,325,000 shore-based fishing trips, 1,754,000 party/charter boat trips and 9,036,000 private and rental boat trips. During 1991, the last year we have figures from the state in dollars, anglers in this state spent $630,930,000 on their sport, a figure that appears very low compared with the number of trips actually taken. They generated $44,165,000 in state sales tax alone. The survey showed that only 695,000 resident and 268,000 non-resident anglers generated that economic boost to the state economy. That works out to $655.17 per person over age 12. Do these numbers give you an idea of just how important recreational fishing is to the economy of this state? Then why must we continually battle for recognition within state, regional and federal fisheries management bodies? Why don’t our elected representatives represent us to the extent of the economic benefits we generate?
In 1995, New Jersey residents purchases of boats, motors, trailers and other marine accessories amounted to $136,577,000. As of the last year on record, we spent $55,986,141 on boat fuel, $8,533,803 on boat launch ramp fees, $29,065,643 on bait, $32,520,481 on fishing rods, $21,113,001 on fishing reels, $19,368,301 on artificial lures and the list goes on and on. This is only a summary to show how important we are to the economy of this state. If you’re are willing to spend this volume of hard earned dollars on fishing, why can’t you spend some time helping to preserve the sport for today and tomorrow, to help us gather the political recognition and momentum we deserve in the management process and the only way we can do that is with your help. WE NEED YOUR HELP NOW!
JCAA has a core of about a dozen dedicated volunteers that pull 90% of the weight necessary to run this association and carry out the lobbying and educational functions necessary to represent recreational fishermen. They don’t get paid, they donate their time and efforts and they have jobs and families just like you. But how long can we continue to depend on those few individuals before they say, "to hell with the members and member clubs. If they can’t help even a little bit in fighting for our common cause, why are we killing ourselves?" Without an immediate increase in volunteer help at our office and around the state, the core group will become even more burned out and when they throw up their hands and say "enough," we all loose!
Am I getting through yet? Is there anyone out there in those dozens of member clubs that really gives a damn? Then turn off the TV with the remote in your hand, get out of the recliner and do something constructive to help. Attend the meetings, but much more importantly, get involved with the inner workings of the association. Your contribution can be a simple as donating a few hours a month to help us put together the JCAA Newspaper, the most important vehicle we have to communicate issues to concerned fishermen, members of the press, legislators and fisheries managers who all read it religiously.
If you have talents we can use to help us with fund raising, even better. We are in the planning stage for next year's JCAA-Jersey Coast Fluke Tournament. This is our major fund raiser for the year and we need a considerable amount of help to improve it and increase participation. It helps fund more than 50% of our annual operating costs, which have risen exponentially in the past few years. There are just so many places we need help and if our own member clubs can’t provide the manpower, you won’t have to worry about having fishing clubs much longer. You’ll be able to make them knitting circles or book clubs when we are regulated out of a few more fisheries. Then you can read to your children about the wonderful sport of saltwater fishing you used to be able to enjoy, but that has been taken from them because you were to lazy to get off your behind and work to preserve it.
The JCAA, after almost two years of searching, has a new Striped Bass Committee Chairman and he needs assistance. His name is Mike Burke with the Berkley Striper Club based in Seaside Park. If striped bass are your fish, call and help Mike. The striped bass might be in a rebuilding mode, but Chesapeake Bay states are fighting tooth and nail for dramatic increases in the commercial harvest of 18 inch fish again this year. Maryland’s DNR is pulling out all the stops in pushing for 2.5 million pound increase for their Bay netters, while the Striped Bass Board of ASMFC is calling for a 40% reduction in harvest for the coastal states. Did you think the striped bass battle was won and over? Forget it !!! When commercial greed, supported by corrupt state agencies pushed along by politicians who have been bought and paid for by commercial PAC moneys are trying to stay in the drivers seat, we can not let down our guard for a minute. Guys, wake up and smell the rotten fish. JCAA and other state advocacy groups can never let down their guard, because as soon as they do, regulations will permit the decimation of the fisheries we have fought so hard to protect. Commercial harvest is already at levels that pushed striped bass populations into collapse¾ yet Maryland DNR under Pete Jensen is pushing for more fish for his commercial consistence. Call Mike, his phone number is listed in the personnel listing under Striped Bass Committee. He needs your help! You need your help!
Another committee that needs immediate attention is the Menhaden Committee. We all know what can happen when reduction boats come in¾ the bunker disappear and so do the fish that follow and feed on them, like striped bass, bluefish, weakfish and others. The reduction boats harvest unbelievable quantities of bunker for making chicken feed and they have strong financial backing and political power from the chicken industry. They basically own the politicians through big money donations. They don’t care if they strip our inshore waters clean of this important baitfish. They couldn’t give a damn about the repercussions of those actions and how it negatively affects recreational fishing and the New Jersey economy, while not putting one red cent into this state because those bunker are not even landed here. Even worse, the legal "bait" fishery for bunker inside 1.6 miles has gone through the roof. In just the past few years, the commercial bait harvest has risen from a couple million pounds a year to over 30 million pounds. You read that right¾ 30 MILLION POUNDS! Is that catch being used to provide bait for New Jersey fishermen. NO! It’s being shipped to Maryland, Virginia and points south for use in commercial crab pots. IS ANYONE READING AND UNDERSTANDING THIS YET???? PLEASE TELL ME I’M GETTING THROUGH THE HAZE AND YOU’RE STARTING TO GET MAD ENOUGH TO GET INVOLVED!
With all this happening, we’re having trouble getting anyone to show interest in working on the Menhaden Committee. Greg Hall, an energetic member of the Spring Lake Live Liners (not a member club of JCAA) has done yeoman’s work on compiling the statistics when he was a committee chairman for this fishery under the now-defunct New Jersey Alliance to Save Fisheries. He would like to work within JCAA to impact the problem, but even his own club won’t back him and join this association. They can’t find one member willing to come to one lousy meeting a month, yet they will complain and wine about the bunker problem, fisheries declines and restrictive bag limits louder than most clubs. Why, then, won’t a least a few members of their club support JCAA and Greg’s initiative and do something about it? Damned if I know¾ maybe because it’s easier to just complain, roll over and play dead. What are recreational fishermen in this state coming to? Are they so self interested that they can’t put in time to support initiatives taken on by their own club members? JCAA would like to take this fight to Trenton, but without the help to accomplish the task, we simply don’t have the spare personnel. Those dozen overburdened volunteers everyone wants to take on "their issues" are already up to their necks in other battles. Remember, they’re volunteers who have businesses and families too. Amazingly enough, they would like to have the time to go fishing once and a while, too, yet they work their tails off on our behalf and far too many of you just sit and complain when they don’t generate enough clout to accomplish a specific task. It’s time to put up or shut up, gentlemen.
These are only two of the many committees we need help with. Only you can make a difference if you want to see these fisheries brought back to health and see recreational fishing continue to be a viable sport in the years to come. Without pressure, the Governor, legislators and fisheries managers in this state will continue to kowtow to the commercial lobbyists, of which there are now seven or eight full time, paid representatives in New Jersey alone. Do you think they give a damn about recreational fishermen? They only care about their pocketbooks, how much they can take without giving anything back to the resource. Deplete one fishery, then move on to the next with government’s blessing, unless we serve as an opponent to their wishes and a conscience to our elected officials.
The new Governor’s appointee to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is John Connell. He is brand new to the process and must undertake a rapid and intense indoctrination into the process. The learning curve is going to be steep if he is to represent the recreational fishermen of this state without loosing ground during the initiation phase. I am sending Mr. Connell an invitation to attend JCAA meetings, the sooner he comes, the better. It is incumbent upon us to bring Mr. Connell up to speed if he is to do the job he was appointed to do. If you have suggestions, comments or recommendations for Mr. Connell, he can be reached at 27 Plymouth Drive, Freehold, NJ 07728 (908-431-4260). We look forward to see him at a meeting very soon.
Gentlemen, I can’t be any more blunt than I was in this column. JCAA is undergoing a crisis of participation and it has to be reversed. Many of you thought that when the New Jersey Alliance to Save Fisheries came on the scene, everything would be taken care of for you. They were going to generate industry money, political lobbyists and get our positions on the front burner and many of you were willing to sit back and let them do the work. Well, the NJ Alliance fizzled as many well intentioned advocacy groups have in the past. But JCAA is still here working hard to represent us, as it has been for the past 15 years. The guys fighting the battles for JCAA are getting tired. They need backup and the association can not continue to be recognized as the recreational fishing advocacy powerhouse on the East Coast if they don’t get it. What are you willing to do to further the cause? Isn’t it time you stopped reading about what we do and become part of the process? Without your help, we can not continue to fight and without our voices being heard loud and clear in Trenton and Washington, we will, most definitely, lose more ground, more fisheries, more access to those fisheries. Sounds scary? Then do something about it! DO IT NOW!
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