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FISHERIES MANAGEMENT & LEGISLATIVE REPORT
by Tom Fote
(from Jersey Coast Anglers Association December 2001 Newsletter)
FISHERIES MANAGEMENT & LEGISLATIVE REPORT
by Tom Fote
(from Jersey Coast Anglers Association December 2001 Newsletter)
AS you know the Assembly passed the
Menhaden Bill (S2252/A3512) prior to going on recess.
Now the Senate has an opportunity to finally move on this legislation. The Senate Environmental Committee voted this bill
unanimously out of committee on Monday, November 18.
We would like to thank Senator McNamara, for posting this bill and voting
for the bill. We would also like to thank the other members of committee for voting to
recommend the bill to the to the full Senate for passage.
The other Senators voting to support the bill in committee were Senator
Andrew Ciesla, Senator John Adler, Senator Anthony Bucco and Joseph Vitale. Please let them know you appreciate their vote.
Now it goes to the full Senate for a vote as soon as it is posted. We are so close to getting this vital legislation
passed but if it is not completed in this lame duck session, we have to start all over
again. Given the many crucial issues the new
legislature will have to deal with, it could be a long time before they get around to the
menhaden bill. You must contact your senators
immediately. There is no time for delay. They could vote on this legislation within a week. Contact Acting Governor and Senate President
Donald DiFrancesco and tell him you want this bill posted promptly. He has always been a supporter of this legislation
and all he needs is a reminder. Thank him for
his support. Write, fax, email or send mail
to your Senator today. You can get mailing
information from the NJ Legislative homepage at < http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/>. If you want updates, send your email address to tfote@jcaa.org. Remember, this legislation has taken twenty years. We can’t afford to let up now. Thank you for all your hard work. Here is the Acting Governor’s web address and
mailing address
http://www.state.nj.us/governor/govmail.htm
Acting Governor Donald DiFrancesco
P.O. Box 001
State House, Trenton, NJ 08625-0001
PH 609-292-6000
FAX 609-292-3454
I guess the season of tough decisions is upon us.
In the next few months we will make tough decisions on striped bass, weakfish,
summer flounder, tuna, and many other important recreational species. I guess in the early eighties, when I first got
involved in JCAA, I had a dream. My dream
was that the recreational community along the east coast would work together. I thought by 2000 we would be well-organized and
winning battles. I thought striped bass
would be a gamefish along the entire coast. I
thought there would be an equitable plan for sharing the fish available between the
recreational and commercial communities. I
thought all of us would benefit as stocks were rebuilt.
We’re not even close. We were
actually closer in the mid nineties than we are now.
And before we blame all our problems on agencies and commercial groups we need to
take a long look inside our own house. We
are frequently our own worst enemy. In the
early nineties there were no national organizations along the east coast and the existing
collaboration of state organizations was functioning with increasing effectiveness. We recognized our differences but concentrated on
those battles we had in common. We were able
to have meetings where we would freely discuss our concerns and find common ground. We left our egos in the parking lot and supported
one another in every way possible. We
attempted, whenever we could, to speak with one voice but recognize individual concerns. We were careful when we disagreed to keep the
differences in-house and not attack one another publicly.
We always gave credit to the hard work done by each organization and allowed
each other to take the lead in our home states. We
had no interest in making one another look bad to accumulate power, money or members. We shared our successful organizational strategies
because we knew that stronger local and state groups ultimately made all of us stronger
and more effective.
We have entered, I fear, the 21st Century with more organizations but
less civility. There are more of us actively
involved but the communication and coordination among groups is at an all time low. People are reluctant to speak freely because they
are afraid they’ll find their name maligned on a message board or in the press. Keeping discussions and disagreements in-house
seems to be a thing of the past. I have been
reluctant to bring this discussion into print but I am so disillusioned and frustrated
that I feel I have no choice.
Choices on striped bass will not be made on what best serves the resource and the
recreational community but on what organization can use this for headlines or fundraising. And what is really obvious is that some decisions
are supported just to make other organizations look bad.
Enough is enough. We have two
national organizations that have to learn to work together or they are of little or no use
to the rest of us. Their bickering causes
more problems and few solutions. We spend
more time worrying about and responding to them than we do actually problem solving. I understand that starting and maintaining a
national organization is difficult. Different
states have different needs and different agendas. Add
to the mix recruiting members and raising money while competing with another organization
and you have a recipe for trouble. This needs
to stop. We have so many battles to fight and
our opposition in well funded and well organized. We
have plenty to do to fight the commercial organizations, the agencies that regulate us,
and, most recently, some environmental organizations.
We cannot afford to fight each other.
It is the time of year again when we
set the recreational size and bag limits for summer flounder, scup and seabass. Some people were hoping with the small increase in
summer flounder quota that the regulations would be relaxed. I was not optimistic. As I have pointed out before, the quota should be
much higher than it has been in recent years. We
keep making the regulations more stringent and the recreational anglers are harvesting
larger and larger fish. In some years we have
actually landed less fish but because of the increased size, we have gone over quota. From the preliminary data that has been reported
to me, we are going to be over quota again this year.
The technical committee continues to tell us that the stocks are not
rebuilding at the rate necessary to increase the quota dramatically. They continue to tell us that there simply are no
large summer flounder available. Yet our own
observations and catches contradict their findings. We
are seeing plenty of five-year old fish and are fishing on stocks the technical committee
thinks don’t exist. Even while fishing
for striped bass in mid November, there are summer flounder over 18 inches long caught. On November 15th a party boat reported
a summer flounder over 10 pounds caught on jigs while striped bass fishing. I have landed many flounder in the surf in mid
November, all over legal size. Ten years ago
I don’t remember seeing or hearing reports of summer flounder that size in New Jersey
at this time of year. Remember, we’re
not targeting summer flounder or using the techniques that are normally used. Of course, anecdotal data doesn’t count so we
will need to live with the decisions of a technical committee that uses models that are
ultraconservative and rely more on art than science.
What does this mean for this year for summer flounder season? It means a tightening of regulations, especially in New Jersey and Virginia. Preliminary data suggests that both states are over quota, even fishing on larger fish. According to the data gathered by the Marine Recreational Survey, even Delaware with a 17-inch size limit, is over quota. The seasons and bag limits will be decided at the meetings listed below. Please call to check on dates since meeting schedules can be changed. You can also email to request additional information. New Jersey’s recreational industry took a huge hit last year because of the summer flounder decisions. It looks like we will take another hit and the only choice we have is how to distribute the quota we’re allowed. We need to insist on decisions that provide whatever benefit possible to the recreational fishing community. Unlike the environmental community, we don’t have the deep pockets necessary to sustain a lengthy lawsuit.
Regarding summer flounder there are
two meeting dates to keep in mind:
| Advisory Panel Meeting | Wednesday December 5th | Holiday Inn BWI | 10:00AM |
| ASMFC Summer Flounder, Scup & Black Sea Bass Management Board Meeting | Tuesday December 11th |
Sheraton Society Hill, Philadelphia |
8:00AM - 12:00PM |
The seabass seems to be in good shape
recreationally. However, we appear to be over
quota on scup. Most of the overage appears to
be from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York. We will have to see how this plays out. JCAA will be in attendance at all of the meetings
listed below. We will pass on additional
information by email as it becomes available. If
you are not on our email list send your email address to tfote@jcaa.org.
November 28 MAFMC & ASMFC Summer
Flounder Scup and Seabass Monitoring Committee Meeting at Holiday Inn, BWI, 890 Elkridge
Landing Road, Linthicum, Maryland (410-859-8400)
November 29-30 ASMFC Summer Flounder
Regulatory Discards Workshop
Meeting at Holiday Inn, BWI, 890
Elkridge Landing Road, Linthicum, Maryland (410-859-8400)
MAFMC & ASMFC Joint Meeting on
setting up the 2002 Recreational Summer Flounder, Scup and Seabass seasons, size and bag
limits will be at the Sheraton Society Hill, One Dock Street, Philadelphia, PA (:
215-238-6000) on December 12. Here is the
preliminary schedule, summer flounder 8:00-12:00, scup 1:00-3:00 and sea bass 3:00-5:00.
For more information, to check the
date and time of a meeting or get materials before the meeting, contact the following:
1 The ASMFC Summer Flounder, Scup and
Seabass Fishery Management Plan Coordinator - Michael Lewis. You can reach him at 202.289.6400 or email him at
mlewis@asmfc.org
2. The MAFMC Summer Flounder, Scup
and Seabass Fishery Management Plan Coordinator - Chris Moore. You can reach him at 302-674-2331 or email him at
<cmoore@mafmc.org>
Many of you may have read in the
paper that we lost the summary judgment on the yellowfin lawsuit. With a thank you to Paul Turi, I have included
below how a summary judgment works.
Here is how a summary judgment motion
works. The attorneys for both sides will
present whatever evidence they have to the trial judge along with briefs arguing their
positions. The judge will read the papers and
then hear oral argument from the attorneys. The
judge will make his decision based on those papers and the oral argument (no oral
testimony will be heard). Under the law, if
the judge finds there are no material issues of fact in dispute, he can decide the case
himself and either rule in favor of the plaintiff or the defendant and the case is over,
or he can find that there are material issues of fact in dispute, and in that instance a
trier of the facts would have to hear oral evidence and decide the case either in favor of
the plaintiff or the defendant. The trier of
fact can either be a jury or the judge himself, depending on what court the case was filed
in and whether or not the plaintiffs made a demand for a jury trial. So, in its simplest form, if the judge feels there
are material issues of fact in dispute, it goes to a full trial. If he feels there are no material issues of fact
in dispute, he decides the case on the motion and the case is over.
This means the judge has ruled there is no reason for a trial on the original lawsuit about the yellowfin tuna regulations. This is a decision in favor of the defendant (National Marine Fisheries Service). We have the right to appeal this decision. This is what the environmental groups did when they were dissatisfied with the original rulings on summer flounder and they were successful. But we don’t have the deep pockets of the Pew Foundation to fund our lawsuits. JCAA has not met with the other plaintiffs yet to discuss our next move. The information I have received from the RFA suggests they are not anticipating appealing due to the cost. The RFA put up a substantial amount of money for the original lawsuit. The overall fundraising, however, has been very slow. JCAA contributed an initial $500 and then urged individual clubs and members to send money to the RFA fund. Many JCAA members made individual contributions and many of our clubs did so as well. Most of the money raised for this lawsuit came from New Jersey anglers. We could not convince other states that this was about more than the three fish bag limit. Clearly, for us, this lawsuit was about principle, not numbers. The judge’s decision allows the National Marine Fisheries Service to continue to arbitrarily set recreational bag limits without supporting science. That’s what this lawsuit was about and that’s what we lost. If an appeal is not made this ruling stands. We will feel the effects of this ruling for many years and for many species. JCAA had committed another $3,000 if other organizations would match our contribution. After the summary judgment, JCAA’s board agreed to increase that amount to $5,000. But understand, $5,000 is not enough. We need to raise well over ten times that amount. And we can’t expect the RFA to fund the rest. It is a shame that other national and state organizations didn’t join the lawsuit and encourage their members to support this effort financially. Unless our fairy godmother suddenly appears with a lot of money we will have to begin again with the next outrageous action by the National Marine Fisheries Service. It’s only a matter of time. We would like to thank Phil Kozak and the National Fishing Association for their support and contribution. They were one of the driving forces behind this lawsuit.
As you read in the indigestion
column, no formal decisions have been made about Amendment 6. JCAA will be soliciting for a striped bass
committee to look at positions on this issue. We
have not changed our position on one size limit in the producing areas and the coast. If New Jersey can maintain a single size limit in
our producing areas and the coast, there is no reason other states cannot do the same. I am afraid that people will argue over the
minutia and lose sight of the big picture. It
is crucial that we stay focused. In some
states recreational anglers are so frustrated with their inability to deal with the
commercial illegal fishery, bycatch and size limits, that they are talking about further
penalizing their recreational colleagues. This
makes no sense at all. New Jersey’s
anglers are often accused of hogging the fish because of our bonus program allowing for a
third fish. I will repeat: we catch less than
8,000 pounds of the 225,000 pounds available. JCAA’s
members have made it clear that they would gladly give up the bonus program if the other
states just did away with their commercial fisheries.
All the other states have to do is follow our lead and make striped bass a
gamefish. Until then, we will continue to
fight for this quota even though we take so little advantage of it. At least it keeps the 225,000 pounds here in New
Jersey so the quota can’t be gobbled up by other states’ commercial fishermen. I have not heard discussion from a single national
group of its plans to work to cut back the commercial fishery. I
am particularly concerned about the quota being over the base years in the Chesapeake Bay
and the Delaware Bay.