New Jersey Archives - Page 103 of 106

Bills could make striped bass New Jersey’s state fish

November 19, 2015 — There is a movement to have striped bass designated as the official saltwater fish of the state of New Jersey. The two bills that could make that a reality are sitting in the both state houses waiting on a vote.

The Assembly bill (A4563) was introduced in June and the companion Senate bill (S3192) followed in October. Fishermen are now urging legislatures to pass them.

“There are several reasons do it,” said Ray Dziadul, the conservation officer for the Raritan Bay Anglers Club. “It is the premier fish that fishermen fish for. It generates a lot of money for our economy.”

Just as important to Dziadul said is the benefit it would provide for striped bass, which have been in a recent population dive according to fishery managers.

Read the full story from the Asbury Park Press

NEW JERSEY: Garden State Seafood Association Fisheries Workshop and Holiday Party

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — November 18, 2015 — The Garden State Seafood Association will host a Fisheries Workshop on December 11, 2015 at the Jacques Cousteau Coastal Center in Tuckerton, NJ. The GSSA will also host its annual Holiday Party later in the evening at the Tuckerton Seaport. The GSSA Board and Staff will all be in attendance, as well as local officials. For more details contact Greg DiDomenico at 609-675-0202 and Heather Larson at 940-642-2806.

View a PDF of the Fisheries Workshop Draft Agenda

View a PDF of the Holiday Party invite

New nationwide coalition seeking to unify commercial fishing interests

November 16, 2015 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — A Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group with strong New Bedford ties is creating a national coalition of commercial fishing interests to boost outreach and communication for the industry, which supporters claim often can be overmatched by unified environmental groups that promote competing interests.

“America’s fishing communities and seafood industry have been maligned by special interest groups working in collusion, who have slandered hard-working Americans with outrageous claims and misrepresentations,” Bob Vanasse, a New Bedford native and executive director of Saving Seafood, said in a Monday news release. “We’re aiming to bring the entire supply chain of fishermen, shoreside businesses, processors, markets and restaurants together to join this effort to move the national conversation in a positive direction.”

The Saving Seafood release said the nonprofit, formed in 2009, is conducting a membership drive for its new National Coalition of Fishing Communities (NCFC). Vanasse said the coalition, so far, has about 60 members across the country, including New Bedford’s Harbor Development Commission.

The NCFC will formally launch in Washington in January, during the next U.S. Conference of Mayors event. Vanasse said New Bedford Mayor Mitchell will be chairman of the coalition’s mayors’ group, reaching out to municipal leaders in Seattle, Honolulu, Atlantic City and other cities with strong commercial fishing ties. Coalition members already include commercial fishing associations from Hawaii, Oregon, North Carolina, New Jersey and more.

“I believe there needs to be a stronger voice for fishing communities in the halls of Congress,” Mitchell said.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard -Times

NEW JERSEY: Massive school of fish fights off predators in Raritan Bay

November 16, 2015 — A group of New Jersey fishermen pulled their boat into a breathtaking scene last week and captured video of massive numbers of menhaden schooling to avoid the jaws of predator bluefish.

“My father and his friend have a combined 120 or so years of experience on the water and they had never seen anything like that,” said Nick Kita, 22, of Manville, who shot the video and posted it to Youtube. Kita also provided the video to NJ.com.

A professional photographer, Kita used both a submerged GoPro camera and an overhead drone to capture dramatic footage of the fish.

Read the full story at New Jersey Advance

Fishermen’s Energy Loses Bid for Wind Farm Leases Off LBI

November 10, 2015 — The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held an offshore land lease sale for the purposes of developing future wind farms on Monday, Nov. 9. Although a locally held company, Fishermen’s Energy, participated in the auction, it lost out to two other concerns.

US Wind Inc. won the right to develop the Wind Energy Area off Ocean and Atlantic counties by bidding$1,006,240 for 183,353 acres, Outer Continental Shelf Lease Area 0499. RES America Developments Inc. won the right to develop the 160,480 Wind Energy Area acres from Atlantic City south to Cape May County, paying $880,715 for Lease Area OCS-A 0498.

The New Jersey Wind Energy Area starts about 7 nautical miles offshore and extends roughly 21 nautical miles seaward. To see a map of the New Jersey Wind Energy Area, go to boem.gov/New–Jersey.

Each lease will have a preliminary term of one year, during which the lessee will submit a site assessment plan to BOEM for approval. A site assessment plan describes the activities (installation of meteorological towers and buoys) a lessee plans to perform for the assessment of the wind resources and ocean conditions of its commercial lease area.

Fishermen’s Energy Chief Operating Official Paul Gallagher was not available for comment on Tuesday.

Fishermen’s Energy was developed in 2007 by a consortium of eight commercial fishing and dock facilities along the East Coast from Massachusetts to Virginia. In New Jersey, Viking Village in Barnegat Light, Atlantic Cape Fisheries and Cold Spring Fish and Supply Co. are some of the partners.

The idea was to take a leadership role in building wind energy farms that would be sensitive to fishing areas and the marine environment.

Read the full story at The SandPaper

Feds auction 340,000 acres for offshore wind power

November 9, 2015 — Two energy firms will spend more than $1.8 million to potentially develop wind farms in federal waters off the coast of New Jersey, officials announced Monday.

The companies — RES America Developments and U.S. Wind Inc.— won the rights in a lease auction on Monday. Combined, the firms bought up leases for nearly 344,000 acres of space, the Department of Interior announced.

If the area is fully developed, the Department of Energy predicts it could provide enough electricity to power 1.2 million homes.

In a statement, officials said the lease sale is designed to spur renewable energy development under President Obama’s climate agenda. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell called the sale a “major step in standing up a sustainable offshore wind program for Atlantic coast communities.”

“We are pleased to see continued commercial interest in the offshore wind industry, as demonstrated by today’s lease sale,” Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Director Abigail Ross Hopper said in a statement.

Read the full story at The Hill

ASMFC Horseshoe Crab Board Sets 2016 Specifications for Horseshoe Crabs of Delaware Bay Origin

November 5, 2015 — ST. AUGUSTINE, Fl. – The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Horseshoe Crab Management Board approved the harvest specifications for horseshoe crabs of Delaware Bay origin. Under the Adaptive Resource Management (ARM) Framework, the Board set a harvest limit of 500,000 Delaware Bay male horseshoe crabs and zero female horseshoe crabs for the 2016 season. Based on the allocation mechanism established in Addendum VII, the following quotas were set for the states of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, which harvest horseshoe crabs of Delaware Bay origin:

	Delaware Bay Origin Horseshoe Crab Quota (no. of crabs)	Total Quota
State	Male Only	Male Only
Delaware	162,136	162,136
New Jersey	162,136	162,136
Maryland	141,112	255,980
Virginia*	34,615	81,331

*Virginia harvest refers to harvest east of the COLREGS line only

The Board chose a harvest management program based on the Technical Committee and ARM Subcommittee recommendation. The ARM Framework, established through Addendum VII, incorporates both shorebird and horseshoe crab abundance levels to set optimized harvest levels for horseshoe crabs of Delaware Bay origin. Previously the horseshoe crab abundance estimate was based on data from the Benthic Trawl Survey conducted by Virginia Polytechnic Institute, however, due to the Benthic Trawl Survey not having been conducted in recent years, a composite index of the Delaware 30ft Trawl Survey, New Jersey Delaware Bay Trawl Survey, and New Jersey Ocean Trawl Survey was used instead. Funding has been secured for the Benthic Trawl Survey to be conducted in 2016.

The Horseshoe Crab Technical Committee, Delaware Bay Ecosystem Technical Committee, and the ARM Subcommittee also recommended the ARM Framework be reviewed and updated in 2016. The Board agreed with this recommendation, with specific interest in re-considering the thresholds to allow the harvest of female horseshoe crabs, as well as the recent listing of red knot as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The ARM subcommittee will develop specific recommendations to the Board on changes to the ARM Framework in 2016.

For more information, please contact Kirby Rootes-Murdy, FMP Coordinator, at 703.842.0740 or krootes-murdy@asmfc.org.

N.J. adopts new artificial reef plan to ease tension between commercial, recreational fishers

November 5, 2015 — The Christie administration adopted new rules this week that will give way to a plan to develop an artificial reef just north of Barnegat Inlet, officials announced Wednesday.

The plan developed by the Department of Environmental Protection ends a decade-long rift between commercial and recreational fisherman. Anglers argue their hooks get caught on commercial pot lines.

Under the new rules, commercial and recreational fisherman will be required to use lobster, fish and conch pots only in certain areas. The lobster potters will also have to mark individual pots with a buoy and set them up between the hours of sunrise and sunset. They must also contact Marine Law Enforcement Headquarters two hours prior to setting their pots, officials said.

Read the full story at NJ.com

RHODE ISLAND: Investigators looking for witnesses of fatal collision between yacht, fishing boat off Napatree Point

October 21, 2015 — WESTERLY, R.I. — A hired crew from New Jersey was piloting the 60-foot yacht that collided with a small fishing boat off Napatree Point last month, fatally injuring an 81-year-old fisherman from Stonington, Conn., investigators said Tuesday.

The yacht, a brand new 2016 Viking Princess 60 model, had been on display at the Newport International Boat Show and was on its way to another boat show in Old Saybrook, Conn., Sept. 22 when it struck the 23-foot Steiger Craft captained by Walter S. Krupinski, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management said in a news release.

Read the full story at Providence Journal

Filing: Wrong Man Charged With Killing Whale off New Jersey

October 9, 2015 — A tuna fisherman charged with killing a pilot whale that died of a bullet wound said Friday the charges against him should be dismissed.

The fisherman, Daniel Archibald, said in a court filing that the investigation disregarded the facts. He alleges investigators used an illegal, warrantless search. He also says investigators ignored ballistics tests that showed a bullet in the whale could not have come from his Mosin-Nagant rifle, a World War II-era weapon.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Jersey declined to comment on the case. The government has not yet responded to the briefs calling for the charges to be dismissed.

The pilot whale was found on a beach in Allenhurst in September 2011 and it died soon after that. Authorities determined that the 740-pound mammal starved to death because of an infection caused by a bullet that hit it about a month earlier.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at ABC News