From the 9/19/09 Press of Atlantic City
- The region’s fishing officials will discuss a possible moratorium on weakfish catches and changes to the management plans for striped bass during upcoming meetings.
- The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, a compact of East Coast states that regulates migratory fish, announced the meeting schedule this week.
- The most contentious issue is whether to ban weakfish catches so the stock can recover. The ASMFC has managed weakfish since 1985 and has never seen stocks as low as they are now. The stock is estimated at 2.9 million pounds from southern Florida to Massachusetts Bay. The goal is to bring stocks up to 22.4 million pounds. Harvests in 2008 were estimated at 1.8 million pounds.
- Tina Berger, a spokeswoman for the commission, said a weakfish board will meet Sept. 28 to decide what measures to propose. They will be posted a day or two later on the commission’s Web site.
- The options are expected to include a moratorium on harvests, or allowing only a “by-catch fishery,” which means catches while targeting other species could be retained. Other options could be proposed.
- Meetings on the options have been set up along the coast, including one in Ocean County at 8 p.m. Oct. 6 at the Toms River Clerk’s Office, 33 Washington St.
- The Galloway Township-based Recreational Fishing Alliance, a saltwater anglers organization, is against a moratorium. “A moratorium could be reckless. If a moratorium was the answer, we’d agree with it. We don’t think that’s the answer,” RFA Director Jim Donofrio said.
- The RFA wants a ban on commercial fishing for weakfish during spawning season in the spring. A small commercial by-catch could be allowed during the rest of the year, Donofrio said.
- The RFA also would support cutbacks for anglers, including a reduction in the daily bag limit from six to two fish that would cover incidental catches anglers may land while seeking other species.
- Donofrio said trawl surveys are finding lots of juvenile weakfish in the 2-inch to 3-inch range but they are not making it to maturity, possible due to competition from dogfish sharks and striped bass.
- “They are cyclical. When striped bass is real high, they’ve been low,” Donofrio said.
- Commercial weakfish landings, which have been recorded since 1880, have always fluctuated wildly. The top year was 18,084 metric tons in 1908. The other top years were 16,182 metric tons in 1930 and 16,293 metric tons, or 35.9 million pounds, in 1980. Today’s East Coast stock is estimated at 1,333 metric tons.
- Records for anglers do not go back that far, but as recently as 1985, anglers in New Jersey caught 3.4 million pounds, more than today’s estimate for the entire East Coast stock.
- The ASMFC also will discuss striped bass at 7 p.m. at the same date, Oct. 6, and location, Toms River. The council will take comments on a plan to allow unused commercial striped bass quota to roll over to the next year instead of being eliminated.
- New Jersey has a commercial quota of 321,750 pounds per year but gives it to anglers who purchase a bonus tag for a third fish per day. Anglers are already allowed two fish at 28 inches per day. Only a small portion of the bonus tag quota is used.
- “New Jersey could roll over any unused quota on the commercial side to apply to the recreational side,” Berger said.
- Donofrio is opposing this measure and says the RFA is fighting commercial operations in Virginia and North Carolina allegedly catching stripers illegally in federal waters outside three miles. Striper fishing is allowed only in state waters inside three miles.
- “There’s been a lot of damage done. We don’t want any increase for the commercial sector until the ASMFC and the feds figure out the illegal problem out there. There’s a lot of illegal fishing going on,” Donofrio said.
- New Jersey could conceivably use its unused quota to allow anglers one smaller fish per day. Tom Fote, of the Jersey Coast Anglers Association, said nobody is “banging down the doors” for changes to the bonus tag program.
- “Most don’t want to take more than two striped bass,” Fote said.
- The commission also will host a meeting on shad, river herring, scup and black sea bass at 7 p.m. Oct. 5 at the Division of Fish and Wildlife Marine Enforcement Office, on Route 9 in Port Republic.
- Shad stocks are at an all-time low, and measures being considered include a moratorium. Fote said river herring, used as bait for striper fishing, also could be closed Jan. 1, 2011, unless the state can prove it is a sustainable fishery.
- “New Jersey doesn’t have the money for the research, so we’re looking at a moratorium. I don’t think striper fishermen are aware this will impact them,” Fote said.
- E-mail Richard Degener:
- RDegener@pressofac.com