NJDEP SMZ Request to the MAFMC

[njdiver]

On September 23, 2016 the Mid Atlantic Fisheries Management Council (MAFMC) published their SMZ Monitoring Team?s report on the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's request for Special Management Zone (SMZ) Designation for 13 Artificial Reef Sites in the EEZ, the report is available here:

http://www.mafmc.org/s/Tab05_NJ-SMZ-Consideration.pdf

Here is a quote from that report:

?Recommendations

1. Based on evaluation of all relevant factors and issues as outlined in Amendment 9 to the Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass FMP, the SMZ Monitoring Team recommends that the Council designate all 13 New Jersey's artificial reefs located in the EEZ as SMZs. The SMZ designation should stipulate that no fishing vessel or person on a fishing vessel may fish in the 13 New Jersey Special Management Zones with any gear except hook and line and spear fishing (including the taking of fish by hand).?

At their October 5th meeting at the Stockton Seaview Hotel, 401 S New York Rd Galloway, NJ, the MAFMC will discuss the above report. It is scheduled for 1:00 ? 2:30 Wednesday the fifth.

http://www.mafmc.org/council-events/oct16-council-meeting

[seamonkey]

So they are finally putting some teeth into getting pots off the reefs. Awesome, thanks for the news.

[hookedonbass]

great!

[jigfreak]

great move for the long run.

[buckethead]

I agree, thanks for posting.

[storminsteve]

So they finally get the pots off the reefs? Is this the official designation for that?

[njdiver]

So they finally get the pots off the reefs? Is this the official designation for that?
This was only the second step of a long process. Next will hopefully be public hearings to solicit public comments on the SMZ Monitoring Team's report and options brought up by "others". Statements made at the meeting indicate November as the time for the hearings. One may be somewhere in Long Island due to a request from the NY Representative who claimed that his fishermen use our northern reefs. If enough public comment warrants, the Council will pass on to NMFS a request for SMZ consideration based on the majority of public input. It will then be up to John Bullard, Regional Administrator of the Greater Atlantic Region of NMFS to accept the request and publish a Proposed Rule in the Federal Register for public comment or publish reasons for rejecting the request. This is the same process DE went through to obtain their SMZs.

[storminsteve]

Great info thanks for the updates!