The New Jersey Outdoor Alliance (NJOA) held a December 18, 2014 caucus with New Jersey's legislators at the State Capitol Annex Building starting at 9:00 a.m. The purpose of this meeting is to update legislators on fishing and hunting issues so that they can better understand them, especially when legislation comes up that affects them. Three main topics were on the agenda and they included: the proliferation of white tail deer, upcoming changes in striped bass regulations and how municipalities and residents can better co-exist with the expanding black bear population.
After opening remarks by NJOA Chairman, Anthony Mauro, and the explanation of the agenda by Thomas Connors, Legislative Liaison, the meeting was turned over to Senate President, Steve Sweeney, who expressed his gratitude for hunters and anglers taking time off to visit with our legislators. Senator Sweeney also indicated that he and his legislators turn to the NJOA and its member clubs to receive input and direction on how to vote on upcoming legislation. After his remarks and welcoming comments from other legislators, the meeting moved to its agenda:
White-tailed Deer - Who hasn't had some type of near miss of hitting a deer with a car or hitting one with resulting car damage? Carol Stanko from NJ Fish & Wildlife gave a presentation on white-tailed deer and indicated that they are both a liability and an asset. They are a liability because they cause car damage, 26,860 cars estimated by State Farm in 2013. They also carry ticks with Lyme disease and cause serious crop damage. While there are deer seasons to cull the herds, one of the big problems in reducing the herds further is that 82 % of NJ's land base is in private ownership and access to control the deer is up to the landowner. Hunters cannot hunt where they are restricted. They are also an asset since deer hunting generates sales of guns, ammo, permits and related industries resulting in $74 million into our state's treasury.
Striped Bass - Russ Allen, Chief, Bureau of NJ's Marine Fisheries, briefed our legislators on how striped bass are regulated and that the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) has approved a 25% harvest reduction from 2013 based on information contained in the latest stock assessment completed in 2013. Our legislators have to approve upcoming striped bass regulations and it is important that this legislation moves quickly or anglers may not be able to fish for bass with the start of the striped bass season by being out of compliance. Russ informed our legislators that these proposed measures are up for review by the ASMFC. There are two proposals indicated in each category below, but only one of them will receive expected approval by the ASMFC.
Striped Bass Bonus Program
In the above scenarios, anglers will be able to catch 2 striped bass, and also be eligible to catch an additional striped bass under the Bonus Tag Program - 3 fish in total.
Timelines for Implementation
ASMFC Technical Committee reviews NJ's plan on January 8, 2015 and the ASMFC Board will take action on February 5, 2015.
The NJ Marine Fisheries Council will discuss these options and take additional public comment on January 8, 2015.
New Jersey's fishing season for striped bass opens on March 1, 2015 so the Division would like to have legislation in place at that time.
What is important here is that this NJOA caucus gave a "heads up" to our legislators so that they know what is coming up on striped bass and that they have to move quickly to have legislation in place so that we can legally fish for striped bass in March 2015.
Black Bear Issue - Kelsey Burgess, Principal Biologist, NJ DEP, Division of Fish & Wildlife, gave a presentation on the problems posed by black bears, especially in light of the recent killing of a young man by a bear. Kelsey indicated to legislators that if they remembered only one thing about his presentation, he requested legislators to look at a graph that showed most of the bear population living in the northwestern section of our state several years ago. Then he showed another graph and this most recent graph showed the bear population expanding much over our entire state, even down to the Cape May region where they have not been before! Unquestionably, our bear population is exploding and we have to find a better way to control it!
The above three staff members from the NJ Division of Fish & Wildlife (Carol Stanko, Russ Allen and Kelsey Burgess) gave their presentations in a very professional manner to our legislators and demonstrated that they really know their field of expertise. Kudos goes to all of them!
