Nj fluke meeting tonight

[finchaser]

New Jersey Chapter of RFA Contact: Capt. Adam Nowalsky, Chair/ 888-564-6732

For Immediate Release January 13, 2014















SUMMER FLOUNDER AND SEA BASS PUBLIC HEARING TONIGHT
NJ CHAPTER GIVES POSITION ON ADDENDUM XXV



January 13, 2014 - When it comes to summer flounder or fluke, the management approach to the fishery is about as divisive as the name itself!

While New Yorkers are looking at a regional approach that would put an 18-inch fluke limit, four fish bag and 128- to 135-day season in place for multiple states in a region to possibly include Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey, the idea that Cape May anglers would be forced to accept an 18-inch summer flounder while Delaware fishermen are fishing on a 16-inch size limit is causing concern in the Garden State.

Therefore, the New Jersey Chapter of the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA-NJ) is supporting Option 2 within the Draft Addendum XXV (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001YX5hkz-Zg5U7D2psI55uDuv3RKlAwSM4UQBHNADiGjvX6jaF2YHWFtXOC LIpckVsQQDg9W75SwbFO5kWDUNAuJcGlLy2gKFF1o1KEwNi4Ci e9Yt7MkaSCopiRVKTyWG_sbIyNTD0xwNG8EL5WKVtw3tVwobxq 8Sj_bW5j03OgBWCgTpO3QnR0amE9zEXz0jXzAd283AOYpJEVYp dM26vX3xawt0LJ9oorWFT0Zh4bQMMd3mLAUmJ7iZZTZeEemX1f LfGqWRD4spVFzUcoto8nA==&c=_gBVQD7ebwM1Dmxts98zU18HsC5QXjl__4jwaNaVWteCx_QT aQSyQg==&ch=WQ8PgHFzjxHNEc4sgtQB0kL3J0XX8DxD-dhKKk55xv8W2XaHURkf0Q==) to the Summer Flounder, Scup, Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plan for Public Comment, which would specifically allow states to lend or give their underutilized quotas to states in need of fish to offset an exceedance of its annual harvest target or to liberalize their regulations.

Under Option 2: Utilization of Additional RHL, once states with the opportunity to liberalize their recreational fishery in 2014 have finalized their management plan, any other state would be allowed to request access to the recreational harvest limit (or RHL) that is not going to be utilized by that state.

Based on the 2013 recreational harvest information coming from the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP), there are six Atlantic Coast states which can liberalize their regulations in 2014 based on last year's numbers, with three states that will be forced to take a reduction in harvest. Because Massachusetts significantly fished under their RHL in 2013 according to MRIP, that state can take a 304% liberalization, while North Carolina in turn can liberalize upwards of 195%. Capt. Nowalsky said that Massachusetts anglers fished for 132 days in 2013 on a 16-inch size limit, while North Carolina's season was open year-round with a 15-inch size limit. Considering that North Carolina especially can't liberalize their season, size and bag much more than that, there should be additional quota available to states in need under Option 2 measures in the current addendum.

Nowalsky and the RFA-NJ chapter members are concerned about the push to create regions of shared limits, particularly because of the 'accountability measures' which were hardcoded into the Magnuson Stevens Act back in 2006. In 2013 for example, MRIP showed that Connecticut went over RHL to the point that that state must make a 67% reduction in harvest, while New Jersey must take 21% and New York 15% in 2014. Based on the punitive nature of the 'accountability measures' and the payback mechanisms in the law, if MRIP shows a similar overharvest in 2014 in that region, instead of sharing an 18-inch size limit these same states could end up looking at 19- to 20-inch size limits in years ahead as payback.


















About Recreational Fishing Alliance
The Recreational Fishing Alliance is a national, grassroots political action organization representing recreational fishermen and the recreational fishing industry on marine fisheries issues. The RFA Mission is to safeguard the rights of saltwater anglers, protect marine, boat and tackle industry jobs, and ensure the long-term sustainability of our Nation's saltwater fisheries. For more information, call 888-JOIN-RFA or visit www.joinrfa.org (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001YX5hkz-Zg5U7D2psI55uDuv3RKlAwSM4UQBHNADiGjvX6jaF2YHWFpFhY dLEWRDVNcB8lZRyxUbxtm0f6xO-oQF7Lc7BirX92i5OkVbZjOOqRXFQtq71548-haS8CXnwumjlXQJN8IpeTt77vmqr6-fb6IYM3Q95cGy8nuduTRU=&c=_gBVQD7ebwM1Dmxts98zU18HsC5QXjl__4jwaNaVWteCx_QT aQSyQg==&ch=WQ8PgHFzjxHNEc4sgtQB0kL3J0XX8DxD-dhKKk55xv8W2XaHURkf0Q==).


https://imgssl.constantcontact.com/ui/images1/btn_fbk_160_a.png (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001YX5hkz-Zg5U7D2psI55uDuv3RKlAwSM4UQBHNADiGjvX6jaF2YHWFi6eo P7PHYREAKvlK3D59H5b0YGqgDl6BTc52HBYI9NXftZMGTWTgNs 0FyEU5Tm6qZoJAaAOEKTGPrYe43B_eDL0Jau64PwzK_AhLpqO4 s14Sv7rcQWgeBQdqDJtl1_oFlCfsSTKSnRUmtAlcJpLo4yawwN 4_s86Mg==&c=_gBVQD7ebwM1Dmxts98zU18HsC5QXjl__4jwaNaVWteCx_QT aQSyQg==&ch=WQ8PgHFzjxHNEc4sgtQB0kL3J0XX8DxD-dhKKk55xv8W2XaHURkf0Q==) https://imgssl.constantcontact.com/ui/images1/btn_twit_160.png (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001YX5hkz-Zg5U7D2psI55uDuv3RKlAwSM4UQBHNADiGjvX6jaF2YHWFgbDz KQbtwIvxC7VzeM7yml9pp_Ee_QG-hVbfPWd7fab7TlbyFXb1TtwW2lmKefp6EKAPa_AyCSvJjb84QF u0wmpGqkietH6h3ZbVGPCVr7cR-jGPYb82YuFWMuGUaVSYA==&c=_gBVQD7ebwM1Dmxts98zU18HsC5QXjl__4jwaNaVWteCx_QT aQSyQg==&ch=WQ8PgHFzjxHNEc4sgtQB0kL3J0XX8DxD-dhKKk55xv8W2XaHURkf0Q==)

[bababooey]

New Jersey Chapter of RFA Contact: Capt. Adam Nowalsky, Chair/ 888-564-6732

For Immediate Release January 13, 2014
















, the idea that Cape May anglers would be forced to accept an 18-inch summer flounder while Delaware fishermen are fishing on a 16-inch size limit is causing concern in the Garden State.

Therefore, the New Jersey Chapter of the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA-NJ) is supporting Option 2 within the Draft Addendum XXV (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001YX5hkz-Zg5U7D2psI55uDuv3RKlAwSM4UQBHNADiGjvX6jaF2YHWFtXOC LIpckVsQQDg9W75SwbFO5kWDUNAuJcGlLy2gKFF1o1KEwNi4Ci e9Yt7MkaSCopiRVKTyWG_sbIyNTD0xwNG8EL5WKVtw3tVwobxq 8Sj_bW5j03OgBWCgTpO3QnR0amE9zEXz0jXzAd283AOYpJEVYp dM26vX3xawt0LJ9oorWFT0Zh4bQMMd3mLAUmJ7iZZTZeEemX1f LfGqWRD4spVFzUcoto8nA==&c=_gBVQD7ebwM1Dmxts98zU18HsC5QXjl__4jwaNaVWteCx_QT aQSyQg==&ch=WQ8PgHFzjxHNEc4sgtQB0kL3J0XX8DxD-dhKKk55xv8W2XaHURkf0Q==) to the Summer Flounder, Scup, Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plan for Public Comment, which would specifically allow states to lend or give their underutilized quotas to states in need of fish to offset an exceedance of its annual harvest target or to liberalize their regulations.

Under Option 2: Utilization of Additional RHL, once states with the opportunity to liberalize their recreational fishery in 2014 have finalized their management plan, any other state would be allowed to request access to the recreational harvest limit (or RHL) that is not going to be utilized by that state.















.











finchaser I don't forsee there being much cooperation among the states mentioned. Do you? thanks for keeping us informed

[plugcrazy]

So what were the results did we get any decent numbers?

[finchaser]

Meeting was total BS with fed government trying to force us to accept one of 3 plans. All were done with bogus figures from 1998. Also they based a 15 % throw back mortality coming up with an average size of 2.8 pounds which is a 19" fish. They also had a figure that the whole state of Mass only caught 32,000 fish for the season. The answers to most of our questions were : from our data compiled from various sources and to the best of our knowledge. The out come was option 3 was to be eliminated as it was totally a political option. Next meeting to vote on options 1 or 2 to decide 2014 is in February some time.

Below is from the RFA Today










Recreational Fishing Alliance Contact: Jim Hutchinson, Jr. / 888-564-6732

For Immediate Release January 16, 2014


















SUMMER FLOUNDER REGIONALIZATION
A SHARED RECIPE FOR DISASTER




January 16, 2014 - The regionalization plan proposed by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) for the management of summer flounder pits state versus state, angler against angler, and business owner over business owner.

As such, the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA) sees the ongoing effort to create regions along the Atlantic Coast for sharing season, size and bag limits on summer flounder as being a recipe for disaster which does not attack the truly systemic management failures under the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) during the past two decades.

RFA executive director Jim Donofrio said the organization has spent the past 7 years rallying coastal support for efforts to fix the federal fisheries law, and calls this summer flounder debate at the ASMFC another 'train wreck' in the making.

"All of us who fish, no matter which state we're in, recognize the insanity of this management debacle," Donofrio said. "In 1998 when the summer flounder stock was rebuilding and not yet as fully robust as it is today, New Jersey had 2.7 million fluke while the state of New York had 1.2 million fish, yet here we are with a healthy, rebuilt fluke stock and we're looking at 75% of that 1998 fishery allocation under a status quo, do nothing management approach."

Donofrio said it's easy to see why states are up in arms and fighting for whatever scraps are available in the fishery, but he's worried that NMFS' flawed data could lead to excruciating payback measures in 2015 under a regional approach.

"It's patently unfair to punish anglers by continuously reducing quota due to erroneous landings estimates produced by a still broken recreational data collection system, and it's critical that NMFS dismiss the overages predicted under this survey program under a new system is fully implemented, properly calibrated by NMFS, and ultimately peer-reviewed at a federal level," Donofrio said.

Donofrio said the reauthorization of the Magnuson Stevens Fisheries Management and Conservation Act in 2006 contained dangerous and arbitrary provisions which have ultimately denied anglers access to rebuilt fish stocks, something RFA has been working to change for more than 7 years.

"Anyone with common sense, perhaps not a PHD in science or high-level marketing position at an environmental society, would be dumfounded to think that we were assigned more fish when the stock was rebuilding and 75% less once the fishery was declared rebuilt," Donofrio said, adding "and therein lays the fatal flaw in the management system."

"It's a system that's been designed primarily to benefit the commercial fishing industry, with the former Bureau of Commercial Fisheries (NMFS) still geared towards preserving the interests of the commercial fleet at the expense of the recreational sector," Donofrio added.

"Forcing neighbors to argue with neighbors over a totally inadequate and scientifically untenable quota allotment is result of our government's inaction and I just don't see this plan can to cure the ills of a broken management system," said RFA Board member Nick Cicero about the ASMFC fluke debate. "More importantly, the proposed changes will do nothing to address the real problem which is clearly the repeated management failures at NMFS during their 20 years of irresponsible stewardship."

"The real issue now is which U.S. Senator is going to step up and tell Senator Harry Reed, Senator Mark Begich and the rest of congressional leadership that Magnuson has to be fixed and it has to be fixed immediately," added Donofrio. "NMFS has to get an accurate and transparent data collection system in place now and stop wasting money like the $25 million they just assigned to create catch share systems in the Gulf of Mexico."

According to Donofrio, while recreational anglers in the Gulf of Mexico for example of spearheaded opposition to sector separation plans and assigned fish tags there, the regional management body under pressure and funding through NMFS is moving forward with plans to divide the recreational sector.

"The fisheries service says they have no money for data collection, yet they've been wasting all of these federally allotted funds on non-science based initiatives to further keep anglers and recreational business owners fighting one another at the state and regional level," Donofrio said.

RFA said the overall problem in the recreational community is that anglers and business owners don't often get active in protest and reform efforts until the pendulum swings in the opposite direction.

"It's time for everybody in all the states and all the groups to get on the same page and call for Magnuson reform," Donofrio said, adding "this hurray for me, I don't care about you attitude is killing our industry and destroying our opportunity for change."

[bababooey]

. The answers to most of our questions were : from our data compiled from various sources and to the best of our knowledge. The out come was option 3 was to be eliminated as it was totally a political option. Next meeting to vote on options 1 or 2 to decide 2014 is in February some time.


Where are they compiling their data from. Maybe its just me but "to the best of our knowledge" sounds like bs. Where are the actual figures or is it all smoke and mirrors?

[finchaser]

Where are they compiling their data from. Maybe its just me but "to the best of our knowledge" sounds like bs. Where are the actual figures or is it all smoke and mirrors?

Answer for where does data come from was various sources