November 2, 2012 — Chris Zeman, a voting member from New Jersey on the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, is at a loss to explain the logic behind the recent closure of the black sea bass fishery in federal waters for the remainder of 2012.
“I don’t understand how a fall closure of federal waters will address excessive catch in Massachusetts’ state waters in the spring time?” Zeman said.
He was referring to the fact that, according to NOAA’s own data, 2012 black sea bass catches in state waters of Massachusetts totaled close to a million pounds out of a total quota of 1.3 million pounds. Most of that catch comes in the spring. By the time catches in other states are counted, the quota has been filled or exceeded. In the case of black sea bass, the overage was over a million pounds. A similar crisis occurred in 2010 when Massachusetts caught about 650,000 pounds in the spring.
However, Massachusetts state waters remained open and instead NOAA shut federal waters from Maine to North Carolina.
“It’s happened before and it will happen again,” Zeman said.
The black sea bass fishery was shut down in October of 2009 when NOAA elected to close it based on projections that the black sea bass quota was going to be exceeded.
That shutdown prompted a federal law suit filed on behalf of fishermen by the Recreational Fishing Alliance, the United Boatmen and other fishing advocacy groups. The government dismissed the suit the following spring after the sea bass season reopened, ruling that since the season was now open the suit was rendered moot.