The New Jersey Angler

The New Jersey Angler

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Publisher's Blog

Updates, perspective and other random thoughts from New Jersey Angler Publisher, Bill Donovan

Fisheries Issues	Page 1 of 1

Your Tax Dollars at Work Publish On 2008-09-17 , 2:46 PM What has become known ‘round these parts as “the fluke issue” has been written about, discussed, debated, and otherwise addressed on the pages of this magazine and elsewhere for quite some time now. Certainly, I’ve spent quite a bit of effort making my feelings on the issue known and attempting to convey the seriousness of the situation to our readers. Over the past year or so, as the situation grew worse and the possibility of actually losing our most important fishery started to sink in, I struggled to keep a somewhat positive attitude and to find small victories to share with our readers. But now I have a confession to make. There was a time - probably in late spring or early summer, and right about the time the American Sportfishing Association decided not to support the Pallone Bill - when I honestly started to believe we couldn’t win this one. I never told anybody this, nor did I allow myself to dwell on the possibility for too long, but I was certainly bracing for a disaster the likes of which our community and industry has never seen. And what a disaster it would be. It actually sends chills down my spine when I consider what the loss of such a fishery would do to all of us - to tackle shops, marinas, boat dealers, charter and party boats, and to the average angler who just wants to take his or her kids fishing for a day. The impact would be substantial and immediate, and the ripple effect could possibly destroy the sport of fishing as we know it. At a minimum, fishing would never be the same, at least for most of us. Yep, despite the little victories I wrote about and the occasional glimmer of hope I found on which to cling, I was quietly preparing myself for some pretty bad stuff. There, I said it. Thankfully, it’s not going to come to that, at least not in the short term. At last month’s joint meeting of the ASMFC and the MAFMC, the outcome of which is detailed in Dusty Rhodes’ Management in Perspective column on page 10 of our September issue, it was announced that a new rebuilding target of 132.4-million pounds has been set. This target is down 33 percent from 197-million pounds. What this means is that the current stock is considered to be 72 percent rebuilt, and we are no longer in an overfished scenario and overfishing is not occurring. Literally overnight, we went from a situation in which the fishery was considered to be in dire straights to one in which the fishery is considered to be reasonably healthy. The crazy part about all of this is that the overall stock estimate has not really changed. All that has changed is the rebuilding target, which we all knew was pulled out of someone’s derriere anyway. So, how did it come to pass that the rebuilding target was reduced substantially in our favor? Well, in layman’s terms, a bunch of scientists got together, crunched some numbers, shuffled them around a bit, and came up with a new set of metrics for the fishery, a set of metrics that now shines a much brighter light on the stock, a light that, based on our collective on-the-water experience, is much more accurate. Of course, marine statistical modeling is a complicated discipline, and I’m intentionally oversimplifying it, but the sentiment is nonetheless the same. As one might suspect, the fact that the shuffled numbers fell in our favor wasn’t just dumb luck. This time around, one of those scientists involved in the stock reassessment was OUR scientist. Dr. Mark Maunder, one of the nation’s most highly regarded marine scientists, was hired by the Save the Summer Flounder Fishery Fund (SSFFF) in order to participate in the summer flounder stock assessment workshop, and his influence no doubt had much to do with the results. This is a scientist that YOU paid for with your donations for SSFFF over the past year. If ever there was an example of money well spent, this is it! Of course, despite this overwhelmingly good news, we are not out of the woods yet. NMFS still needs to rebuild the stock by 2013, and thus we are only looking at a minimal quota increase for 2009. If the stock does not continue to grow, we’ll again have to deal with downward pressure on quotas. It is very important that we build on this victory by working to get the Pallone Bill passed, thus achieving additional rebuilding flexibility. At this juncture, we all need to stay informed and involved. Thus, the SSFFF and the RFA would like to invite you to attend a public meeting on Monday, September 22nd at 7pm, at the Taylor Pavilion in Belmar. They will review all of this in more detail and outline a plan for moving forward. All of the involved parties will be on hand. Please mark this date on your calendar and plan to attend. Wouldn’t it be nice to once again have the privilege of fishing for fluke in September? It can happen, but we need to make it so. We’ll see you at the meeting! Comments (0)

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