2010 Coastwide seabass regs

[DarkSkies]

Sent in by Fin, thanks!

60 days total per year you will be allowed to fish for them.
Dr Lubchenko will soon take over the whole fishing world, one species at a time....

http://www.asmfc.org/speciesDocument...alMeasures.pdf

[Pebbles]

I should get Dr. Lubchenko's job.

[dogfish]

Well if you look better than her, I would vote for ya!

[voyager35]

This is unreasonable, and will put a lot of captains out of business. 2 months is nothing, and during the rest of the time does she expect the captains to shut down and go on welfare? No, they will simply switch over to targeting striped bass. Look at the ads in the fishing section next spring and you will see I am right. Unbelievable.

[baitstealer]

No, they will simply switch over to targeting striped bass. Look at the ads in the fishing section next spring and you will see I am right. Unbelievable.

Then they will shut down the striped bass too, no? it really sux.

[DarkSkies]

Then they will shut down the striped bass too, no? it really sux.

That's the whole point of why this is all connected, Baitstealer. I rarely fish for seabass, why should I care?

The answer: Prevent people from fishing from fluke, seabass, and other species. What species is left that will begin to receive more pressure? Striped bass.

I C&P the chart here:

[ledhead36]

As discussed before on here eventually there will be no fishing allowed except for commercials. Thanks for posting the chart.

[rip316]

I just don't get it.

[Jackbass]

I want my change Back. Welcome to the green lobby and it's current Matriarch. We will have to deal with this kind of Crap for the next three years at least. Make noise! This kind of stuff is unacceptable.

The only way we will have a voice as citizens of this country is to put the people in Washington and in our local legislatures back to work for us! Eliminate the Beltway Politicians, Here in MA we see our elected officials during elections. It is disgusting. They are supposed to be representing the many and instead represent the few. Our country has gone *** backwards and I am tired of it.

[DarkSkies]

^ Right on the money, Jackbass. I blame ourselves for some of that. Until about 5 years ago I didn't get involved in the political processes very much. I wrote letters when I was a kid, to try to get the 200 mile limit passed. Then, for some reason, I stopped getting involved.

I didn't feel I could make a difference any more, I said "What's the use?" I gave up.

I have since realized that many politicians count on that apathy. They WANT many of us to give up, to not pay attention. If they truly felt they would be held accountable for every decision, they would vote and make political appointments a lot more carefully.

So I'm all in favor of people getting involved and arming themselves with knowledge. educating themselves as to what's really happening. Statistically, there will be only a certain % of people who get involved on any issue. We need to build that number up, even slightly, if we want politicians to respond to our needs.

It's not like that everywhere in the country. When we went to Tennessee, we saw a people who were so involved in their gov't process they told us they would run politicians out of town if they screwed with them.

We need more people like that on the East Coast, Jackbass, and people like you. Please don't lose sight of that.

[skinner]

You have to look at the writing on the wall when this happens. With only 2 months of fishing permitted, you can tell they really don't want us to fish.

[DarkSkies]

This was originally posted by Capt Tony Bogan and sent to me:

from tony Bogan


The 2nd step in regaining a Sea Bass Season has been taken!

The first step in trying to regain some sanity and semblance of reality in our Black Sea Bass regulations was taken at the Mid-Atlantic Council meeting this past December. That step was getting the council to vote to send the Quota recommendation for Black Sea Bass back to the SSC to be re-examined.

The second step was the actual meeting between the SSC and the Monitoring Committee to do just that. The meeting was today and finished not long ago.

Here is the recommendation that came out of the meeting:

Quote:
The SSC recommends revision of their 2010 ABC to the same level of 2008. Specifically, the recommendation for the 2010 ABC would be 4.5 million lbs. The basis for this recommendation is as follows. The 2009 catch level (associated 2.3 million lbs TAL) was based on an assessment that was not considered acceptable by the DPSWG peer review process. Examination of black sea bass stock dynamics in response to the fishery indicate that stock removals around 4-4.5 million lbs of total catch result in stable to increasing stock biomass. The upper level (4.5 mil lb) of that range may not be supported by this stock. This recommendation does not incorporate management uncertainty, which the Regional administrator may wish to take into account in the specifications of TACs/TALs under any emergency action to revise the 2010 measures.

While the actual TAL (Total Allowable Landings) will be lower once discards etc. are taken into consideration (we should be looking at around 3+million pound total quota) this is a HUGE step forward.

Considering the TAL for 2010 was 2+ million pounds, there is the potential for at least some relaxation of our 2010 regulations.

Many things still have to happen before our regulations can be changed, and this will NOT have any impact on the current winter fishery since that fishery was closed by an emergency action from NMFS (the closure is in effect until mid-April)

We STILL do not have the wave 5 (Sept. and Oct.) landings data from 2009 and wave 6 (Nov. and Dec.) would not normally be available until mid-February.

The NMFS would still need to change, likely through emergency action, the already approved quota for 2010 of 2.3? (I forget the decimal but I am close) million pound quota that is currently in place, and then the regulations forwarded to NMFS by the Council in December would also have to be changed. That cannot really take place until such time as the actual landings for 2009 are known.

However, as I said previously, had we not fought in December to get the council to send the quota back to the SSC, NOTHING would have happened.

We now know that the SSC has changed their recommendation SIGNIFICANTLY and now must continue to work to ensure that this change in quota recommendation can have a positive impact on our regulations in a timely manner.

[DarkSkies]

^^ For those who aren't aware of some of the terms used above, here's an informative thread originally posted by NJDiver that attempts to explain some of that stuff:

(SSCs and the disparity of catch data)
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...ead.php?t=5579



This is another thread which explains some of the fisheries management terms:
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...ead.php?t=5533

[finchaser]

Well if you look better than her, I would vote for ya!

She looks like where she came from

PEW

[DarkSkies]

^^ I think ya have a secret crush on her, Fin. She could be the woman of your future dreams, ya never know!

[DarkSkies]

OOPS!


From the Asbury Park press 1-11-10

www.app.com



January 11, 2010


Bigger catch for black sea bass recommended

By KIRK MOORE
STAFF WRITER

In the midst of a six-month shutdown of the black sea bass recreational fishery, science advisors to the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council have concluded that they underestimated the size of the black sea bass population, and now say 2010 catch limits can safely be increased by about 50 percent,

"It's not final, but it's a big hurdle," said Chris Zeman, a New Jersey representative on the council. "I was very happy. I remember looking at those (earlier) numbers back in October and thinking, 'This can't be right.' "

Black sea bass is the latest issue to divide government managers and the recreational angling community which is banned through March from fishing for the species in federal waters outside three miles. Several New Jersey and New York party boat operators could face civil fines over trips in November when customers kept the bass they caught.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials imposed the emergency ban in October, based on survey results that indicated the recreational sector would overshoot its share of the catch in 2009. Meanwhile, the Mid-Atlantic council lowered catch limits for 2010 at the recommendation of its science and statistical committee, despite a reassessment of black sea bass that showed the stock was not overfished as previously thought.

Last Friday that group and the council's monitoring committee met jointly to review the quota recommendation.

"They determined that when they had previously met on this issue in July, they did not fully understand that the 2009 quota was already highly precautionary, and reflected the results of a no-longer-valid stock assessment methodology that had previously indicated sea bass stocks were in precipitous decline," wrote Adam Nowalsky, a charter captain who tracks black sea bass issues for the Recreational Fishing Alliance member, in an e-mail summary.

The Friday "meeting with the monitoring committee helped them understand that," Nowalsky said. The science panel then decided "that the 2008 landings were the best baseline to use for setting the quota for 2010, because landings at that level have not caused a decline in the stock and the stock is now considered rebuilt, and no overfishing is occurring."

The new recommendation calls for a 2010 allowable biological catch of 4.5 million pounds, the same as 2008, Nowalsky said. After routine adjustments that will probably work out to around 3.25 million pounds, although the council staff must develop that number, Zeman said.

To implement a higher catch, Zeman said the council will ask Patricia Kurkul, NOAA's northeast regional fisheries director, to issue another emergency order this time, to allow anglers to catch more black sea bass.

[plugaholic]

U.S. increases black sea bass quota by 60 percent

Action comes as Galloway-based alliance sues over closed fishery

By RICHARD DEGENER, Staff Writer | Posted: Saturday, February 13, 2010

The federal government this week took emergency action to increase the black sea bass quota in 2010 by nearly 61 percent over what had been proposed.

The action came amid a six-month closure of the fishery and a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court by the Galloway Township-based Recreational Fishing Alliance.

The National Marine Fisheries Service on Tuesday announced the emergency action to increase the recreational harvest limit from the 1.14 million pounds already approved for 2010 to 1.83 million pounds. The commercial harvest had been set at 1.09 million pounds this year but is now increased to 1.76 million pounds.

season will likely be extended but it remains unclear by just how much.
"Management measures for the 2010 recreational fishery are still being developed, with rulemaking expected to begin later this spring," Mooney-Seus said.

Sea bass catch
Fishing groups are warning anglers that, even with the increase, there is still going to be less sea bass fishing than in the past, and the RFA says the higher quota did not eliminate the moratorium that is set to end April 12. The RFA said the government has no plans to allow the traditional winter fishery in federal waters, from 3 to 200 miles offshore.
Tom Fote, legislative chairman of the Jersey Coast Angler's Association, expects the season to run from May into September. Fote said that would destroy the winter season.

"That means summer flounder and black sea bass will be open and closed for almost the same season. This will cause a huge economic impact on New Jersey and other states' fishing industries and the recreational angler fishing experience," Fote said.


http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/n...bf3409d48.html