Dark, didn't you get into an internet argument with this guy over at the Barn? To me he is an eco freak. Any guy that is so against the RFA has to have some sort of eco agenda. I don't trust him.

Hope they pick Nowalsky. He would be a better choice.



New Jersey's bid for Fisheries Council seat hits a snag
Asbury Park Press by Kirk Moore




The Christie administration's bid to win back an extra seat at the influential Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council is stalled over some fishermen's opposition to the potential designee, Paul Eidman, a Monmouth County charter fishing guide and an outspoken advocate of doing more to reduce fishing pressure at the base of the ocean food chain.

"My main reason for doing this is I'm a forage fish guy," Eidman said of his conservation efforts, which started with river herring rescue efforts to help spawning fish get around New Jersey river dams. "This particular seat is really important to New Jersey. It's really important to all fishermen, recreational and commercial, to have a balanced council."

But Eidman's founding of the group Menhaden Defenders, part of a coalition that seeks further restrictions on commercial menhaden netting, has commercial fishermen alarmed. His nomination to take back a seat now held by New York is supported by three big recreational groups --- the Jersey Coast Anglers Association, New Jersey Outdoors Alliance and the New Jersey Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs.


Eidman supporters make a case that New Jersey's fishing economy is now three to four times larger than New York's and worth $7 billion a year to the national economy, so by that measure New Jersey should have more representation. They warn, too, of New York's lust for a bigger share of annual catch quotas, which could be taken away from New Jersey anglers.

"He's someone untainted by the politics of all this and he's a conservationist," said Anthony Mauro Sr. of the New Jersey Outdoor Alliance. "We know he's a fighter on that and his heart is in the right place."

But Eidman gets no love from the Recreational Fishing Alliance, which dislikes his links to the Marine Fish Conservation Network. Both Eidman and that group are critical of the RFA's efforts to change federal fisheries law.

Jim Donofrio, RFA's director, said the Outdoors Alliance is "endorsing an environmental zealot who supports President Obama's restrictive policies on fishermen, including the National Ocean Policy and catch shares, while opposing local efforts to reform the federal fisheries law."


Christie has two alternative candidates --- Little Egg Inlet charter captain Adam Nowalsky of the RFA and Vineland angler Hansel Torriero --- and Eidman's backers pushed to round up more endorsements from New Jersey's congressional delegation before the Department of Commerce chooses new council members next week. They got Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez, both D-N.J., to sign on, with Reps. Frank J. Pallone Jr., Rush Holt and four other Democratic congressmen, but could not round up any Republican congressmen to sign the endorsement that went out Wednesday.

"It has been us who went to both sides of the aisle about not having anybody" nominated to the extra council seat, acknowledged Greg DiDomenico of the Garden State Seafood Association. "But that's how strongly we feel about Paul."

The Mid-Atlantic council is a quasi-governmental group that sets annual catch limits and rules for federal waters from New York to North Carolina. Potentially up for grabs is an "at-large" seat, an extra vote on the council. New York holds two at-large seats and New Jersey has one.

New Yorkers feel aggrieved by their much smaller share of the annual summer flounder quota --- a circumstance they say of inaccurate, historic catch records --- and they want to reclaim some more share from their neighbors in New Jersey. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., is campaigning for New York to keep the seat so his state's council members can fight for more flounder.

DiDomenico of the seafood association admits "it seems counter-intuitive" for New Jersey commercial fishermen to pass on any opportunity to recapture the at-large seat, which New Jersey last held in 2002. "If we were in a position to pursue it and get it back," the ideal candidate should be an experienced scientist that all the recreational and commercial groups can agree on, he said


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