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FISHERIES MANAGEMENT & LEGISLATIVE REPORT
by Tom Fote
FISHERIES MANAGEMENT & LEGISLATIVE REPORT
by Tom Fote
(from Jersey Coast Anglers Association March 2000 Newsletter)
Clean Ocean Action and American Littoral Society Killing Artificial reef Program
Support the Artificial Reef Program - Poor and Subsistence Anglers Take it on the China Again
A New Direction in Fisheries Management - A Two Year Review (Tom Fote)
Have you noticed how our friends in
the environmental community are trying to protect us right out of the fisheries? They claim they are acting in our interest and in
the interest of the marine resource. With these friends, who needs enemies! I will not
repeat my concerns about summer flounder and the lawsuit filed by environmental groups. They are now trying to get the NMFS to overturn
recent ASMFC decisions that we believe were appropriate.
These decisions were based on good science and are protective of the summer
flounder resource. I have no doubt that
these measures will be restrictive enough to insure the continued rebuilding of the
stocks. So as we go to print I am not sure if the restrictions for summer flounder will be
more restrictive than the current ASMFC Plan. Frank Richetti wrote this piece below to
explain what the summer flounder options are at the present time.
By now you have all heard that the
fluke season in federal waters, 3 miles and beyond, is set at 15 ½ inch minimum size with
a 3 fish bag limit. The federal season will run from Memorial Day to Labor Day. In state waters we will have to reduce our catch
by about 27% from last years landing but not the 50% reduction that was required in
federal waters.
The various options to meet the
required reductions were not available as this issue of the JCAA newspaper went to press.
The NJ Marine Fisheries section of the Department of Fish and Wildlife has promised that a
document with the options will be ready by the JCAA general meeting on Tuesday, February
27. Be sure to have a representative from your club at our meeting to start the
discussions of which options will be best for the NJ anglers.
My current indigestion, however, is
closer to home. You probably remember the articles about the letters written by Clean
Ocean Action and the American Littoral Society opposing the use of subway cars to build an
artificial reef. They didn’t stop there
even though I thought we had come to an agreement and would be working together. Instead, they continued to pressure the
Commissioner of DEP and the NMFS. As a
result, I am concerned that the subway cars, which pose no threat to the ocean, will go to
Delaware and Maryland rather than New Jersey. It is interesting to note that Commissioner
Shinn and Stan Gorski from NMFS are the same bureaucrats who allowed the dumping of
contaminate category 2 dredge spoil material into the ocean. If they can’t tell the difference between a
clean subway car and contaminated dredge spoils we are in real trouble. Could it be the Port Authority’s money speaks
louder than the needs of the recreational anglers?
If we lose these 650 hundred subway
cars and the future opportunities to work with NYC Transit then our fishing off the coast
of New Jersey will be much poorer. The artificial reef program doesn’t need us to
make a case for continuation. The studies
have clearly shown the success of this program. Truthfully, I think we can thank Clean
Ocean Action and the American Littoral Society if this program is killed. The only ally Clean Ocean Action and the American
Littoral Society have in this battle is Nils Stolpe from the Garden State Seafood
Association. Since Nils would be happy to eliminate all recreational fishing you have to
wonder about the friends our friends are keeping. We
should thank other environmental groups like the Alliance for a Living Ocean who have
written letters in support of the artificial reef program. Lately I seem to spend as much
time worrying about our “friends” as I do about our enemies. It is sometimes hard to know which groups to
trust.
In a recent letter to Jeffery T.
Michaels, Governor DeFrancesco’s Chief of Staff, I wrote the following:
JCAA and NJSFSC received the
disturbing news of the loss of 600 railroad cars from NY Transit Authority that were
intended to be used to help expand the New Jersey Artificial Reef Program. This was a deal that took a year to develop. We were told Wednesday that the Commissioner
killed this project at last minute. This was
done without consulting the many groups that supported this project. This deal would have created new fishing
opportunity for over million New Jersey marine recreational anglers and meant millions of
dollars and jobs to New Jersey’s Marine Recreational Fishing Industry over the next
decade. The Recreational Fish Alliance and
New Jersey Divers Association and their members support this plan.
In a conversation on Saturdaywith the Governor’s Chief of Staff,
Jeffrey Michaels, I learned that the Governor has not made a final decision and there may
be some hope remaining for this plan. It is important that you contact the Governor’s
office immediately and let them know you support this program.
At the last Atlantic States Marine
Fisheries Commission meeting it became evident again that fisheries directors,
environmental groups and most of the recreational organizations present don’t care
how their decisions impact on the poor or subsistence fishermen. When fisheries managers raise the size limit on
certain species of fish they almost always eliminate certain historical fishing
communities from that particular fishery. The Federal Councils and the ASMFC do not even
consider this in their deliberations. They are required to consider the social and
economic impact of the management decisions they make but in most cases they don’t
even give lip service to this requirement. I
have been participating in the process for 12 years as a fishery manager and continue to
try to make the social and economic impact part of the discussion. Unfortunately, no one
really wants to discuss it. Most recreational anglers who attend these
meetings have the means to take a day off and spend the money it takes to travel and
attend. They don’t represent the poor and subsistence fishermen. Not all but some of
the charter boat and party boat organizations are just worried about paying customers. The environmental groups are just trying to make a
point and they don’t seem to care who suffers. It was probably naïve of me to think
the environmental groups would speak for the poor. The
only group who speaks at all for this segment of the population is Green Peace which has a
good record of speaking for native populations and their rights.
At
the last ASMFC meeting we finally raised the size limit for scup in New York and New
Jersey. The size limit went from seven inches to nine inches. Big deal you may say! In fact the two inch increase makes a big
difference to shore based anglers and anglers who fish from small boats in bays and
estuaries. In all the years I fished the bridges, docks and piers in the bays and
estuaries of New York and New Jersey, I never saw a scup over nine inches. We have
effectively cut these anglers out of the fishery. When we raised the size of Seabass to
eleven inches, we effectively do the same thing. I
could make a list that included fluke, tautog and many other species that only inhabit the
bays and estuaries as juveniles. There might
be a rare opportunity to catch a keeper scup, Seabass, fluke or tautog but they would
truly be the exception.
What
makes this a criminal act it that the shore-based and
estuarine anglers were not the cause of the problem in the first place. Their total catch is really insignificant when you
look at the whole picture. ASMFC and the MAFMC were actually discussing 100,000 pounds of
scup for research projects on bycatch. The
actual bycatch is many times larger and is originally what caused the problem in the scup
fishery. The 100,000 pounds probably
represents 100 times the amount of seven-inch scup caught in New York and New Jersey bays
and estuaries by the poor or subsistence anglers.
When
I talk to law enforcement agents, they tell me about people keeping sublegal fish from the
canals, piers and docks. Of course they keep sublegal fish. That’s all they have the
opportunity to catch. I wish JCAA had enough money to sue the ASMFC and MAFMC for
discriminating against the poor and subsistence fishermen. Any good lawyer could win this
case! I am looking for some research money to provide data to prove what we already know
about this issue. These are the types of
studies NJ Sea Grant should be doing. But they are committed to working with the NJ Port
Authority and PSE&G. Just follow the money!
The article below was written in
January of 1999. I figured I reprint it since it is as timely as ever.
By Tom Fote
In the December 1996 JCAA Newspaper, I
wrote an article entitled “Time For a New Direction in Fisheries Management.”
This article is available at the JCAA website <http://www.jcaa.org/>. The main idea
of this article is that historically, we were all subsistence or recreational fishermen.
It is only in modern times, when some anglers could catch more than they would consume,
that we began to have a commercial fishery. Yet recreational anglers and subsistence
fishermen are often treated like the new guys in town, not the historical users. I
suggested as a model for discussion the New Zealand Plan, a plan that puts recreational
use first and then distributes any additional catch allowed under a comprehensive
fisheries management plan to the commercial side. A comprehensive management plan protects
the resource, allows for a healthy and renewable stock and preserves the recreational and
subsistence fishery.
Was anyone paying
attention? After looking at the newest round of decisions on the management plans for
highly migratory species, billfish, bluefish and summer flounder, I have to believe the
answer is no. And if we were to give an award to the agency that pays the least attention
to the needs of the recreational angler, the unanimous winner would be the National Marine
Fisheries Service. They have systematically manipulated the quotas in favor of the
commercial interests by selectively choosing the years from which they take their data.
While they claim to be scientific, they are choosing the base years when the commercial
interests have the highest landings and ignoring the historical nature of the recreational
fishery. What this does is continue to reward commercial interests for overfishing a
species to collapse. And who can blame them, NMFS is always there to bail them out by
restricting the recreational catch. In case there are any undecided votes, let’s look
at their recent decisions. As Al Ristori points out in his article, NMFS took a
recreational fishery (sharks), decided it was underutilized, and promoted a commercial
fishery for fins. Once this fishery collapsed, due to the pressure of the commercial
catch, NMFS “solved” the problem by placing the most restrictions on the
recreational angler.
This is typical NMFS behavior. For
example, under the new shark management proposal recreational anglers are eliminated from
the harvest. We of course can catch and release while commercial interests are
allowed to harvest and sell their catch. Additionally, NMFS for years threatened a
restrictive bag limit on bluefish claiming overfishing by recreational anglers.
Finally they have recognized that the bluefish stocks, while down, are not
endangered. In fact, they have admitted that we have fished under quota for the last
three years and should have a larger quota. When an increase in bag limit was
requested by a recreational group, NMFS turned them down. They were able, however,
to transfer the unused recreational quota to the commercial sector to maintain a higher
commercial quota. Although the quota is on the books as an 80/20 split, in reality
it is closer to a 50/50 harvest. As another example, when the summer flounder fishery
collapsed because of overharvesting by the commercial sector, they were rewarded with a
60/40 split. Historically, the quota should be 70/30 with the recreational anglers
allowed the 70% catch.
Unless we get to work,
we will enter the new millennium with NMFS firmly in charge and continuing to
create havoc for recreational anglers. It doesn’t take any genius to predict
what will happen in the next five years if we don’t get our act together. We
will have only hook and release for sharks. We will have a 3 fish bag limit at 20
inches for summer flounder. We will still be fighting about whether we can take home a
safe striped bass to eat. And we will be at a 2 yellow fin limit per boat and 2 dolphin
per man. NMFS will have succeeded in cutting recreational participation by 50% and
destroying the entire industry. If this seems far fetched, just remember that in 1990 we
had a 13 inch no bag limit on fluke, no bag limit on blue fish, four small blue fins per
man, and no recreational limits on sharks.
Right now, you must get
involved and support the organizations that represent your interests. You must let
your elected representatives know that your vote is based on their actions to preserve
recreational fishing and the resource. You must put pressure on state and federal agencies
and insist that they listen to the recreational sector. Attend meetings when you
can, respond to our requests for letters, emails and faxes, and support the existing
organizations with your time and money. What is recreational fishing worth to you?
Think of all the money you spend on tackle, boats, etc. Take the time to list every
expense associated with recreational fishing. Then write a check for 2% of the
total. Send that check to JCAA. We cannot represent you without an increase in our
budget.
JCAA is concerned about the impact
of beach replenishment on the fisheries resource and fishing access. Many beach
replenishments have not expanded the use by anglers and have actually created a decline in
the areas available. Some of this decline is a lack of access, some is a destruction
of habitat. The beach replenishment project at Deal and Asbury Park is a prime
example of these problems. Due to time constraints JCAA was unable to sign on
to the letter reprinted below. However, it accurately discusses the problem and we
will discuss the issues raised at the next JCAA meeting. After that meeting, JCAA
will communicate with the interested parties about this project. In addition, JCAA will
participate in a press conference with the groups signed on below.
February 9, 2001
William J. Muszynski
Acting Regional Administrator Region II
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
290 Broadway,New York, N.Y. 10007
Col. William H. Pearce
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
26 Federal Plaza, Rm. 2109
New York, N.Y. 10278
Hon. Cari J. Wilde
Assistant Commissioner
N.J. Department of Environmental Protection
Box 404, 501 E. State Street
Trenton, N.J. 08625
Re: Request for Expedited,
Emergency Relief to Save
Dear Administrators:
This urgent request is made by, the
Asbury Park Fishing Club, Surfers’ Environmental Alliance and the American Littoral
Society. Each organization is a registered, non-profit, tax exempt association whose
substantial membership is committed to protecting our fragile coastal resources from
projects that present adverse environmental impacts and impair reasonable recreational use
of essential public assets that create opportunities for citizens to engage in ocean
fishing, surfing, kayaking, swimming, diving, beach walking, bird watching and other
ocean-related activities.
We have joined together in making this
request in an effort to further emphasize the gravity of the problem, the need for
immediate action by all agencies involved in the current beach replenishment project, and
the regrettable consequences that will result from a failure to act.
Deal Lake, situated between the
northern boundary of Asbury Park and the southern boundary of Loch Arbour, is the site of
an annual spring ritual involving spawning ocean dwelling alewives, herring and shad
seeking to return to the place of their birth to reproduce. This natural phenomenon
has occurred annually every spring for more than one hundred years. Without immediate
action by you, this year’s spawning ritual may not occur, possibly causing the death
of hundreds of fish, preventing the birth of hundreds more, and also potentially altering
the local marine ecosystem. Such a result is a consequence of the ongoing joint
state-federal beach replenishment project, and it can no longer be ignored.
In addition to the potential fish
emergency caused by the replenishment project, please be aware that the sports of surfing,
bodyboarding and diving are also seriously threatened along much of the northern Monmouth
County coastline. The public’s legal right to engage in these legitimate
recreational uses of the ocean is being extinguished without any consideration or public
debate. The government has no right to unilaterally terminate the public’s
right to engage in such activities without a careful and balanced consideration of the
adverse effects of a proposed action. No such review has occurred. Your help
is needed to preserve the public’s rights from precipitous, unlawful and possibly
permanent disruption.
The Emergency: Beach Replenishment
Project has Blocked Fish Access to Deal Lake and Threatens the Sport of Surfing &
Other Recreations
Monmouth County, New Jersey, is
presently the site of an extensive beach replenishment project that is being jointly
implemented by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (“NJDEP”)
and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The project includes the substantial extension
of existing beaches and the removal or substantial alteration of existing jetties and
groins. Deal Lake flows into the Atlantic Ocean through a large underground flume
that terminates on the north side of what is known as the Eighth Avenue jetty. The
flume extends seaward only to the mid-point of the jetty. The replenishment project has
been completed on the jetty’s south (Asbury Park) side, but the beach on the north
(Loch Arbour) side of the jetty has neither received the project’s sand nor has the
flume been extended to ensure the passage of both water and marine life.
The flume has now become largely
impassable to fish due to the natural movement of the newly deposited sand from the
jetty’s south side around to the north side, where it has created a large sand bar.
The movement of the sand is due to predictable ocean current and wave action. The
blockage of the flume to water and marine life, while also predictable, appears not to
have been anticipated by the involved agencies.
Secondly, it is well known that the
federal-state beach replenishment project has destroyed most of the historic locations for
the sport of surfing in northern Monmouth County and has seriously affected many former
sport diving areas. Like the diving community, the surfing community is a strong,
close-knit group of individuals, many of whom participate in the sport year-round. Their
lifestyles are uniquely dependent on local beach contours, slopes and structures that have
formed naturally over the past 50 100 years.
While the surfing community recognizes
the critical need to protect low-lying areas in towns such as Sea Bright and Monmouth
Beach, this community has borne the brunt of the adverse recreational impacts from the
beach replenishment project. Due to the NJDEP policy directing that jetties and
groins must be notched, dismantled, or destroyed, and combined with the admittedly
experimental nature of the beach re-engineering plan, especially the new steep angle of
beach slope, there are only a handful of locations remaining along the entire northern
Monmouth County coastline where surfing and other wave riding sports are feasible. Just 5
years ago there were several dozen. One of the few remaining surfing beaches is the
area facing and adjacent to the Deal Lake flume on the jetty’s north side.
We are concerned that the
project’s remedial actions regarding the flume and notching of all of the remaining
jetties in the Elberon to Deal Lake reach, will continue to adversely effect our
community. We urge you to be cognizant and protective of these important recreational and
social interests as well.
Background: The Annual Deal Lake Fish Migration
The Deal Lake flume, and its predecessors which have existed since the end of the 19th
century, replaced a former natural inlet. As was true with the inlet, the flume, which
lies under Ocean Avenue at the east end of the lake, has been a principal migratory route
for alewives, herring and shad. Additionally, the flume, during high tide, has
permitted ocean water to enter the lake creating a brackish condition, which has provided
the necessary aquatic environment for fish and other forms of marine life in the lake
itself.
Until approximately four months ago,
the east end of the flume extended into the ocean. The boulders protecting the flume
are covered with marine growth attesting to the continuous submergence of the structure
over the past several decades. Anglers were therefore able to stand on or near the jetty
and flume and fish in the water at its termination point. More importantly, the
migrating species had easy access to the lake which has always been a critical spawning
site. Alewives have had no problem entering the lake through the flume, and this is
also true of the other migratory anadromous species.
Unfortunately, following the beach
replenishment program in Asbury Park, the fine sand that was deposited on the beach to the
south of the Deal Lake jetty has migrated northward around the jetty and has accreted a
very broad beach in front of the flume, so that the flume itself now ends on a wide dry
sand area. In fact, the sand buildup on the north side of the jetty is so extensive that
the flume is now about 100 feet from the surf line at low tides. The flume, under these
circumstances, has lost its ability to act as a passageway for migrating fish since the
water coming from the flume is now a shallow flow, no more than three or four inches in
depth. As a result, any small fish which find themselves in this trickle en route to the
ocean have been easy prey to the hundreds of gulls that are now regularly perched on the
jetty and beach waiting for them to try to exit the lake. The gull’s consumption of
these juvenile fish trying to return to the ocean has been prodigious. Few survive this
aviary gauntlet.
Equally disastrous is the failure of
spawning fish to complete their spring migration from the Atlantic Ocean through the flume
into Deal Lake. Many of these fish will likely die trying to locate the flume. The loss of
the spawning fish presents a serious short- and long-term risk to the general Deal Lake
aquatic environment that deserves immediate action and further study. These fish are
indigenous to Deal Lake and many will not spawn anywhere else, at least not in the short
term. Unless corrective measures are taken and the spawning and habitat area is
restored and preserved, the Deal Lake migratory fish could lose their spawning run into
Deal Lake entirely.
The loss of habitat will also destroy the site as an important recreational area
frequented by the many anglers who fish there on a regular basis.
Request: Prompt Coordinated State
and Federal Emergency
Action and
Comprehensive Environmental Study
The alewife migration commences at the
end of March or early April and continues until early June. Although it is now too late
for the undertaking of permanent remedial measures which will restore the flume for this
year’s migration, temporary emergency remediation could allow this year’s
migration to take place. One possible short-term solution would be the removal of the sand
buildup which separates the flume from the sea. This could create a channel of
sufficient depth to permit fish to enter and exit the lake through the flume, and at the
same time to avoid predation by gulls and other sea birds. Other low cost
alternative solutions exist and we implore you to consider all reasonable options.
This Emergency Request has been sent to
all of the agencies involved in the beach replenishment project since the flume blockage
is a direct result of that project. Moreover, it is apparent that the project’s
developers, promoters and supporters have failed to consider the project’s impact on
the annual spawning run and related consequences from the blocked flume. The
situation demands a coordinated response by the involved agencies to remedy what is
developing into a public policy disaster.
A publicly financed project that
threatens the existence of this natural resource and also seriously jeopardizes yet
another year-round recreational resource for fishermen, surfers, divers and others
deserves a thorough policy review.
We thank you in advance for your careful attention to this matter and we respectfully
request a meeting with you to discuss this situation in more detail. Such a meeting
would signal your agency’s intention to provide an opportunity for a cooperative and
thoughtful policy discussion of this important issue directly related to the beach
replenishment project.
We look forward to hearing from you
very soon.
Sincerely yours,
Surfers’ Environmental Alliance
American Littoral Society
Asbury Park Fishing Club
JCAA has been working with Congressman
Frank Pallone’s office to secure a hearing in New Jersey by the EPA on the PCB
contamination in the Hudson River. We received word from his office that he has
secured a hearing in NJ. JCAA wishes to thank the Congressman for securing the
hearing. This hearing will be to solicit public comments pertaining to the decision to
remove then PCBs from the sediments of the upper Hudson River. The hearing is:
Date: Wed., March 7
Time: 7PM
The Place: Saddle Brook Marriott
Garden State Parkway at Interstate 80
Saddle Brook, NJ
If you care about the Hudson River and
the fish that live there and travel through it, it is imperative that your voice be heard.
If you have ever eaten a striped bass or a bluefish you have probably consumed
contaminates from the Hudson River. JCAA has not voted on a formal position on this
issue. We will discuss this and develop a position at our February 27 meeting. JCAA
Vice-President Thomas Siciliano is also the chairman of JCAA’s committee on PCBs in
the Hudson River. His report follows the letter by Charlie Stamm. The Hudson
River Fishing Association NJ has also been asking for hearings in NJ and has sent a copy
of their position to the JCAA. We will consider their position when we discuss this
issue at our next meeting. I have included their communication below.
The following was received from
Charlie Stamm, Hudson River Fishing Association of NJ:
The HRFA feels these PCBs do not
belong in the river where they are susceptible to entering the food chain. We feel
the EPA decision was correct in saying...We have enough Data...We have enough
evidence...We've studied this problem for long enough...It's time to act.
Their decision was that the best way
to restore the Hudson River, the estuary, the fish, birds and the environment around it
was to remove the PCBs from the sediments up river.
We agree.
The General Electric Company has spent
millions of dollars in the last two months on an advertising blitz directed at the people
of New York State. A media blitz of half truths and innuendos to convince the people that
these toxins should remain in the river.
Not surprising, do not subscribe to
this train of thought. The PCBs should be removed from the sediments and thus be
less susceptible to entering the food chain.
We need your help. We need you to
attend this meeting. We need you to tell the EPA these PCBs do not belong in our river.
We want them removed as environmentally sound as possible. We will only
accept environmentally sound methods of removal. This issue will affect the striped
bass population along the entire east coast.
We need your help on this issue!
Thanks
Chas Stamm
Director HRFA NJ