Striped Bass
The latest on the pending striped bass regulations is that the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's (ASMFC) technical committee rejected New Jersey's proposal for one fish from 28" to under 42" with a second fish 42" and over because it only resulted in a 24.8% cut when a 25% cut is the minimum that is required. However, the New Jersey Marine Fisheries Bureau (NJBMF) modified their request making it one fish at 28" to under 43" with a second fish 43" and over. That option was approved as it resulted in a 25.1% cut.
At their meeting on 1/8/15, the New Jersey Marine Fisheries Council (NJMFC) discussed this proposal as well as others and accepted public comment. People spoke passionately about the proposals and although some favored one fish at 28", most favored the two fish option with one fish from 28" to under 43" with a second fish 43" or larger. Ultimately the council voted unanimously in favor of supporting that option. Though the NJMFC does not have the authority to set regulations pertaining to striped bass, legislators are expected to introduce bills reflecting the council's preferred option. Though assemblymen and senators may introduce bills in the very near future, it is unlikely that they will be heard until the full ASMFC board approves the option at their meeting on February 5th.
The bonus bass program is a separate issue that will be decided upon at a later date. However, it will stay in effect with either a small slot fish at 24"-29" or an additional fish over 28". The program will have to be more tightly monitored though as its quota was reduced and tags are expected to be in higher demand due to the regulation change.
Fluke
For many years fluke were managed by state-by-state measures with conservation equivalency. Each state was given its own quota while being allowed to set their own regulations. In 2013 we still had state-by-state quotas but, additionally, the ASMFC allowed the projected coastwide underage of fluke to be utilized. Ultimately New Jersey and New York shared this quota. It worked out well in that New Jersey was able to add additional days to its season while New York was able to reduce its size limit.
However, in 2014 regionalization was forced upon us against the will of the vast majority of our fishermen, fishing groups and those who represented NJ on the council. New Jersey’s anglers wanted to stay with state-by-state measures or be made its own region. However, despite that the ASMFC, via a conference call, made exceptions for Massachusetts and Rhode Island allowing them to be their own regions even though that option was not in the addendum. Why were they allowed to do that when NJ was not?
New Jersey was forced into a region with Connecticut and New York. In part this was due to a disparity in the regulations in the Raritan Bay area where the commission deemed it was unfair for NJ anglers to be fishing with a 2” lower size limit than anglers from NY who were fishing in essentially the same waters. However, instead of correcting the problem all the commission did was to transfer the problem to Delaware Bay. In 2014 NJ anglers had to abide by an 18" size limit while DE anglers fishing the bay were allowed to keep fluke that were just 16". This was unfair to the anglers of southern NJ and many of our fishing businesses there lost revenue as people opted to fish out of DE instead.
Another problem with the regionalization plan was the fact that a portion of New Jersey’s quota was reallocated to New York. Additionally though, fish from other states were also reallocated to our region. The projected harvest was substantially increased for Connecticut and New York target while at the same time New Jersey’s projected harvest was decreased.
Then lo and behold the MRIP numbers came out and showed that New Jersey over fished its projected harvest but since Connecticut and New York under fished theirs, our region is Ok. The data also showed that the coastwide quota was slightly exceeded but that may be neutralized by a slight coastwide quota increase for 2015. However, it certainly seems as though NJ is being forced to stay in the regionalization plan or face significant cuts under state-by-state measures. Regardless, it would seem that NJ would come out of this OK, but not so fast. There are several options that would change the structure of the regions and rumor has it that New York is pushing for a 18.5" size limit so that our region's season could be extended to 153 days, 25 days more than last year. However, once the ASMFC decides exactly what the regions will be then the states in that region will have to battle it out to determine what the regulations will be. Size and bag limits as well season length must be the same in each region. However, each state may have different opening and closing dates if so desired.
Of the various regionalization plans, Option 5A would be the fairest not only to NJ but to other states as well. This option would have Delaware Bay as its own region and it could act as a transitional area between regions to the north and south of it. Perhaps Delaware Bay could have a 17” size limit while the region to its south could have a 16” size limit and the region to the north of it could have an 18” size limit. A 1” difference between any regions is far more acceptable than a 2” difference. Further, having Delaware Bay as its own region should have minimal impact on the other regions. For example, if the option to split NJ in half were chosen, there would likely again be a 2” gap between the regions.
This would pit northern NJ anglers against those in southern NJ. Northern NJ as well as other states within that region would then likely have to sacrifice fish so to accommodate this. There is certainly a lot to consider and the annual fluke wars are about to begin. We are going to need help from our politicians or we will once again be forced to succumb to the regulations preferred by New York with its political might.
