Saving Seafood

Gov. Murphy signs law banning shark fins in New Jersey starting in 2021

January 9, 2020 — Shark fins will be banned in New Jersey next year under a law signed Thursday by Gov. Phil Murphy.

The new law is designed to end the shark fin trade, which kills about 72 million sharks a year, primarily for soup, according to Humane Society International. Shark fin soup is a delicacy in Asia, but the method of making it poses a threat to the fish.

Sharks are caught and their fins are cut off while they are still alive — a practice known as shark finning — before being released back into the water to drown or bleed to death. At least 70 shark species are at risk of extinction because of the practice, according to the advocacy group Wild Aid.

Read the full story from the Trenton Bureau at NorthJersey.com

Rutgers Cooperative Extension to Host Introductory Fisheries Science for Stakeholders (IFISSH) Course

January 3, 2020 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

Rutgers Cooperative Extension is offering an introductory fisheries science course to educate New Jersey’s commercial and recreational fishing industries’ stakeholders on science and management processes impacting their industries. Classes will meet from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. every Tuesday from January 28 through March 31, 2020.

This will be a “HyFlex” course to provide students with the option to participate live in-class or remotely via webinar. The in-class meeting location is Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Ocean County, 1623 Whitesville Road, Toms River, NJ 08755. The program fee is $60 per person.

Register before January 24, 2019 by contacting Kelly Jurgensen (Administrative Assistant, Marine Extension Program), Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Ocean County at kjurgensen@co.ocean.nj.us or by calling 732-349-1152.

If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Douglas Zemeckis (County Agent III – Assistant Professor), Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Rutgers University at zemeckis@njaes.rutgers.edu or 732-349-1152.

Download the course flyer or visit the IFISSH webpage for more details.

New Jersey submits striped bass measures to federal commission

December 10, 2019 — At the close of last month, New Jersey submitted a range of striped bass conservation equivalency measures to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, or ASMFC, for review.

Just what those options were, Larry Hajna, a spokesman for the Department of Environmental Protection, didn’t disclose.

The ASMFC recommended states adopt a one-fish bag limit and a 28- to 35-inch recreational limit for ocean fisheries in order to reduce the coastwide harvest by 18 percent. This was on the ASFMC’s findings that striped bass are being overfished.

However, states are free to develop their own option as long as it achieves the required reduction.

Hajan said the ASMFC’s Striped Bass Technical Committee will review the measures and whatever options it approves will be made public and presented to N.J.’s Marine Fisheries Council.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press

PRESS OF ATLANTIC CITY: Doubling NJ offshore wind power will require work, cooperation

December 6, 2019 — Gov. Phil Murphy, who already will be remembered for launching New Jersey’s offshore wind energy future, recently more than doubled the state’s commitment to electricity from turbines in the Atlantic Ocean.

In June, when the state picked Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind to develop its first wind farm off Atlantic City, its goal of producing 3,500 megawatts by 2030 was considered ambitious. Five months later, with climate activist Al Gore at his side, Murphy ordered the state to produce 7,500 MW by 2035. That would be enough to power 3.2 million homes.

The original goal was worthy and very timely, and this one is good too. But don’t assume that scaling up New Jersey’s wind energy will be easy or done well, or even at the reasonable cost of the first 1,100MW Ørsted will deploy by 2024.

Read the full opinion piece at the Press of Atlantic City

New Jersey forms offshore wind working group

December 3, 2019 —  

 

  

 

Read the full story at Windpower Engineering & Development

Shark fin soup may soon be illegal in New Jersey. It’s now up to Murphy.

December 2, 2019 — New Jersey is now one step away from becoming the latest state to outlaw shark fins — a move conservationists say is crucial to help some shark species from going extinct but others warn will unfairly penalize fishermen in the Garden State.

The Democratic-sponsored measure would prohibit the harvesting, sale, trade, distribution, and possession of shark fins in the state.

It’s now up to Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy to decide whether to it sign it into law after both houses of the Democratic-controlled state Legislature passed the measure.

If he does, New Jersey would become the 13th state to enact such a ban.

Supporters say the goal is to cut down on shark finning, in which fishermen cut off a shark’s fin and dump the animal back into the water while it’s still alive. The shark then dies, often slowly.

According to estimates by the Humane Society of America, 72 million sharks die each year because of the practice.

The fins are often used for shark fin soup, a delicacy in China and other East Asian countries for hundreds of generations. It’s frequently served at banquets and weddings and has long been seen as a symbol of status.

Read the full story at NJ.com

Shell shock: Giant invasive mussels eradicated from U.S. ponds

December 2, 2019 — Most Americans know mussels as thumb-sized shellfish that occasionally adorn restaurant dinner plates.

But a colony of mussels as big as the dinner plates themselves has recently been wiped out from a New Jersey pond, where they had threatened to spread to the nearby Delaware River and wreak ecological havoc, as they already are doing in other parts of the world.

Federal wildlife officials and a New Jersey conservation group say they’re confident they have narrowly avoided a serious environmental problem by eradicating Chinese pond mussels from a former fish farm in Hunterdon County.

The mussels, in larvae form, hitched a ride to this country inside the gills of Asian carp that were imported for the Huey Property in Franklin Township and quickly began reproducing. Unlike the little mussels many Americans know, these ones can approach the size of footballs.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at WHYY

NEW JERSEY: Legislature Succumbs to Humane Society’s Misinformation Campaign Against Sustainable Shark Fishing

November 25, 2019 — The following was released by the Garden State Seafood Association:

The Garden State Seafood Association (GSSA) is disappointed with the passage of Assembly Bill A4845/S2905 today, which would prohibit the possession, sale, or trade of legally harvested shark fins in New Jersey.

The U.S. Humane Society and environmental organizations have been pursuing this anti- conservation legislation for many years. The bill prohibits the sale and trade of shark fins under the guise of stopping “shark finning.” The commercial sector and U.S. fisheries passed a law nearly 20 years ago making shark finning and the sale of those fins illegal across the country and in all U.S. territorial waters.

GSSA is certain that existing federal laws prevent any sale of illegal shark fins in New Jersey.

“All this legislation does is to penalize legitimate, hard working fishermen of the state,” said Greg DiDomenico, Executive Director of GSSA. “Instead of acknowledging the leadership of our commercial industry, which operates a globally-recognized sustainable shark fishery, those supporting this legislation will penalize New Jersey fishermen, forcing them to discard a natural resource for no purpose.”

“This legislation rewards illegal poachers in underdeveloped and less-regulated nations by removing sustainable harvested fins from the world market,” said Scot Mackey, Legislative Agent for GSSA. “It will only increase the value of the fins these poachers will continue to harvest, while preventing our well-managed and sustainable shark fisheries from utilizing the whole animal.”

New Jersey Beach Walkers – Please Keep an Eye Out for Sea Turtles!

November 18, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The recent cold snap has caused a sudden uptick in the number of cold-stunned sea turtles washing up on beaches in northern, NJ – particularly Sandy Hook and Long Beach Island. We are asking all individuals walking these beaches, and beaches throughout the northeast, to report stranded turtles immediately to our stranding hotline at 866-755-6622. Responders from our Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network are standing by to help!

Please keep pets away from these turtles since they are in a severely distressed state. If possible, please move them above the high tide line and cover lightly with seaweed and stand by the animal until a trained responder arrives. We greatly appreciate your assistance in helping us save these endangered animals.

Striped bass fishers in New Jersey eyeing new regulations with caution

November 12, 2019 — George Bucci has been fishing the waters off New Jersey’s coast for about 30 years, and says the striped bass population has taken a sharp dive in recent years.

He remembers boom times after a moratorium on the fish ended in the late 1990s.

“I would go in the ocean in ’98 and just see miles and miles of striped bass,” Bucci said.

But overfishing has brought it back to critical levels.

“I almost strictly target striped bass,” said Bucci, 52, of Northfield. “In the last five years, I’ve seen the decline in the population. I wouldn’t call it a steady decline, I would call it a sharp decline. … The biomass has shrunk to the point where the juice isn’t worth the squeeze almost.”

The dwindling population led the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board in October to amend the rules for commercial and recreational fishers alike.

The commission, in amending the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic striped bass, is aiming for an 18% reduction in commercial removal of the popular fish from 2017 levels, according to a release from the organization.

Read the full story at The Press of Atlantic City