Saving Seafood

JIM HUTCHINSON JR: What I’m Reading

September 22, 2020 — I received a regular email update (Atlantic Coast Fisheries News) from the ASMFC Communications Team on August 26th which contained an interesting section called What We’re Reading featuring links to various online articles that ASMFC staff finds interesting in their daily work.  You tell me if these stories are in any way related to bunker, shad, stripers or tautog. There’s a Wildlife Conservation Society story about statues at the Central Park Zoo in New York City, an appeal by Ocean Conservancy about COVID-19’s effect on marine sciences with instructions on “writing to your representatives” and a link to something called The Revelator about “The 10 Hottest Climate Change Books of Summer.”

ASMFC staff suggests an article from the NY Times entitled “Why Some Tropical Fish Are Gettin’ Squiggly With It” and another from the British tabloid The Guardian about visiting California’s Monterey Bay aquarium via the web.  There’s also a piece from the Canadian based publication Hakai about British Columbia fish farming, as well as a Mother Jones hit piece through a Seattle based non-profit called Grist about President Trump, Kanye West and the greater sage-grouse.

But from a private sector perspective, if you run a widget factory and learn your staff spends a good portion of their work day catching up on the NY Times best seller list or reading up on the indigenous people of Bolivia as spotlighted in the September 3 edition of Atlantic Coast Fisheries News, what exactly would you do?

Read the full opinion piece at The Fisherman

New Jersey shark fin ban bill punishes wrong people

March 18, 2019 — A New Jersey assembly committee will vote on a bill Monday that would prohibit the selling, trading, distribution or possession of any shark fin that has been separated from a shark prior to its lawful landing.

The bill is part of a larger national and international movement to crack down on illegal shark finning, but fishing industry members here say this particular bill will also hurt local fishermen not involved in the illegal trade.

While the shark fin bill doesn’t make it illegal for fisherman to have shark fins that were “lawfully-obtained in a manner consistent with licenses and permits,” it puts the burden of proof on the person to demonstrate the fins weren’t separated from the shark prior to lawful landing.

Jim Hutchinson Jr., the managing editor of “The Fisherman” magazine, said the bill will result in unnecessary penalties for fishermen who catch a legal shark and remove the fins in order to clean a shark, a routine practice by fishermen engaged in legal shark fishing.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press

NEW JERSEY: Anglers Argue Over Fishing Limits

September 13, 2017 — STAFFORD, N.J. — A trip to Annapolis, Maryland might be what saves the 2018 New Jersey fishing season.

Saltwater anglers and their allies crowded the Stafford Township municipal chambers, where the Marine Fisheries Council held its regular Sept. 7 meeting. Although the first hour was filled with its usual reports and comments, the Council’s second hour saw passionate arguments and discussion from Council and audience members about what to do with the ever-shortening fishing season and its negative impact on commercial fishermen throughout the state and beyond.

Jim Hutchinson Jr.’s Sept. 8 article at TheFisherman.com quoted boat captain Adam Nowalsky that cuts felt in fish seasons and quotas for 2017 will be mild compared to what’s expected for 2018, based on the early returns from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries surveys. Those quotas and seasons are set annually.

Captain Victor Hartley III of Miss Ocean City explained to Jersey Shore Online that although regulations dictate what size fish may be kept, anglers must count all fish caught toward quotas.

“We don’t have enough quotas is one issue, and the other issue is we don’t have enough days,” Hartley explained. “We don’t have the time to catch anything.”

Read the full story at Jersey Shore Online

NEW JERSEY: Fishing council votes for summer flounder status quo

January 10, 2017 — I was not able to attend Thursday’s New Jersey’s summer flounder public hearing on Summer Flounder Draft Addendum XXVII in Galloway Township.

From what I heard from those who did, it was standing room only and fishermen were outspoken against the proposed cuts to the fishery.

Jim Hutchinson Jr., managing editor of The Fisherman magazine, reported the New Jersey Marine Fisheries Council voted for the summer flounder to remain status quo.

However, the decision lies with the regional fishery management bodies, the Mid-Atlantic Marine Fisheries Council and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. They will most likely vote in February at the Kitty Hawk, North Carolina meeting.

If the cuts are passed, anglers will be facing a 40-percent reduction in the allowable coastwide catch. For New Jersey anglers that could result in a 19-inch size limit and two-fish bag limit. If anglers are lucky, an 18-inch size limit and a three-fish bag limit.

Legislatures are trying to stop the cuts.

A group of New Jersey delegates made up of Democrats Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr,  and Senators Robert Menendez and Cory Booker, and Republican Congressmen Frank LoBiondo and Tom MacArthur, blasted the science used by the ASMFC and MAMFC to determine anglers’ catch totals this year in a letter to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press