January 29, 2017 — Ice fishermen and groundhogs are scarce today.
The weather will make more ice this week, and some groundhogs will pose on their day Thursday.
So much for good news. Summer flounder fishermen will have to wait until next month to see if their season will be crippled by size reductions this summer.
The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council will vote then on options that could the increase minimum size to 19 inches and a shorter season.
January 29, 2017 — Point Pleasant Beach, NJ — “Enough is enough,” said New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner (NJDEP) Bob Martin at a press conference and rally on January 27, 2017 at Fishermen’s Supply Company in Point Pleasant Beach.
Standing alongside federal and state lawmakers and leaders of the state’s recreational and commercial fishing industries, Commissioner Martin continued to hammer home the message, repeating the refrain several more times while addressing about 175 fishermen and media members gathered along the Manasquan River front dock, where commercial and recreational boats were docked side-by-side.
“For too long summer flounder fishery management has been driven by knee-jerk reactions that lack scientific foundation and have profound impacts on the lives of many people,” Commissioner Martin said, explaining how families plan summer vacations based on the run of summer flounder.
January 27, 2017 — The New Jersey General Assembly approved a resolution Tuesday, Jan. 24 asking the federal government to conduct a new summer flounder assessment before implementing catch limits for 2017-2018.
Assemblyman Vincent Mazzeo of Northfield was a sponsor of the resolution, AR-206. Assemblyman Chris Brown of Ventnor was a sponsor of similar legislation that was not adoopted, AR-205, which called for President Donald Trump to reject the 40 percent reduction in summer flounder catch limits recommended jointly by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council. It asked the president to repeal, rescind, or otherwise prohibit the implementation of the rule adopted by the National Marine Fisheries Service Dec. 22.
Brown had previously written to the U.S. secretary of commerce to stop the implementation of summer flounder quotas for 2017-2018 and conduct a new study of the fishing stock.
“We have too many local jobs at stake, so the federal government needs to go back to the drawing board and get it right,” Brown said. “Many of my constituents have pointed out they believe the data the federal government used is flawed. The only fair thing is do is conduct another study that is scientifically sound.”
January 26, 2017 — A rally against the proposed cuts to the summer flounder harvest is planned for this Friday morning in the parking lot of Fishermen’s Supply in Point Pleasant Beach.
Along with members of the fishing community, the commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection Bob Martin and U.S. Congressman Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) will lead the rally and speak in opposition to the harvest reduction.
Both Martin and Pallone have been critical of the Atlantic State Marine Fisheries Commission and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management for their proposed drastic cuts to the summer flounder harvest.
Pallone has been outspoken against the science used to count fish landings and stock biomass that has led those management bodies to conclude that anglers overfished their quota last year and the biomass of summer flounder is shrinking.
January 19, 2017 — A South Jersey lawmaker introduced a bill Tuesday that would urge the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to halt proposed reductions to this year’s summer flounder catch.
Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo, D-Atlantic, introduced a resolution asking NOAA to conduct a new summer flounder assessment before implementing the proposed regulations, which would cut the flounder catch by 40 percent.
The reduction plan was advanced at a Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council meeting last month but has been roundly condemned by recreational fishermen and prominent state leaders, including U.S. Sen. Cory Booker and U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd.
Federal officials say the cuts are necessary because a recent NOAA report concluded the flounder fishery is overfished.
Recreational fishermen at a hearing earlier this month in Galloway Township questioned NOAA’s methods for measuring flounder, and Mazzeo’s resolution, a draft of which was sent to The Press of Atlantic City, asks the agency to take another look at the stock.
January 17, 2017 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:
The New England Fishery Management Council has RESCHEDULED its Montauk, NY and Cape May, NJ scoping hearings on Amendment 5 to the Northeast Skate Complex Fishery Management Plan. The new dates are as follows:
Both hearings were initially scheduled to take place the previous week. However, in order to avoid potential conflicts for stakeholders who are planning to attend the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s Feb. 14-16 meeting in Kitty Hawk, NC, the New England Council has decided to hold its Mid-Atlantic region skate scoping hearings the following week.
January 16, 2017 — PORTLAND, Maine — Maine’s scallops have surged to a record high price at the docks this winter after several years of rising in value, according to fishing regulators in the state.
Fishermen harvest Maine scallops with dragging boats or by hand while diving in frigid waters. The scallops are selling for about $13.50 per pound at the dock, the scallop manager for the state Department of Marine Resources said. In 2015, they sold for $12.70, which was a record, and more than three times the price in 2004.
The state’s scallops are sought after in the culinary world and typically sell for about $20 to $25 per pound to customers, which is slightly more than other sea scallops.
This year’s high prices are a boon to fishermen, who seem to be catching about the same amount as last year, said Dana Black, a fisherman out of Blue Hill. He said fishermen have been able to catch large, meaty scallops that are especially prized by buyers.
“This year shouldn’t be any less than last year – in fact, it could be better,” Black said.
Scallop season in Maine runs from December to April, with December often a busy month. But bad weather this December held back some of the fleet from getting on the water. The state is affording fishermen extra days at sea to compensate.
Maine’s scallop fishery is a small piece of the worldwide industry based around the shellfish. The U.S. scallop fishery, based mostly in Massachusetts, Virginia and New Jersey, was worth more than $400 million last year.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Portland Press Herald
January 10, 2017 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Managment Council:
The New England Fishery Management Council has scheduled six scoping hearings to gather public input on Amendment 5 to the Northeast Skate Complex Fishery Management Plan. This action could lead to the development of a limited access program for both the skate bait and skate non-bait/wing fisheries.
The hearings will be held Jan. 24 through Feb. 16 from Portsmouth, NH to Cape May, NJ. The deadline for written comments is March 6.
The skate fishery currently is “open access,” so any vessel may join at will. The Council is considering converting the fishery to “limited access” and establishing qualification criteria, permit categories, permit conditions, and other measures to better manage the fishery.
“In initiating this action, the Council is responding to calls from industry members who wish to see these fisheries maintained,” said Dr. Matt McKenzie, chairman of the Council’s Skate Committee.
Skate fishermen have expressed concern that increasingly strict measures in other fisheries – particularly groundfish – could lead to unrestrained increases in fishing effort on skates by new entrants into the fishery and: (1) cause quotas to be harvested more quickly; (2) trigger reduced skate trip limits; and (3) have negative economic impacts on current participants.
The scoping hearings mark the first opportunity for members of the public to make suggestions or raise concerns about the range of issues the Council should consider in a limited access program under Amendment 5.
“We welcome constructive public comments from all interested stakeholders – either in person or submitted in writing,” said McKenzie.
Qualification criteria may include factors such as: the time period vessels have participated in the fishery; historical levels of landings; and dependence on the fishery. The Council may develop different categories of limited access permits. If so, these categories may treat vessels differently and possibly differentiate between vessels that target skates and those that catch skates as bycatch in other fisheries.
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.
January 5, 2016 — Patrons of farmers’ markets in Monmouth County and those who support the Grown in Monmouth campaign will be seeing a lot more of the Belford Seafood Co-Op in 2017.
The facility, nestled off Route 36 near the Sandy Hook Bay, has revamped its retail store and will be making efforts to make the organization more visible.
David Tauro is dock manager at Belford Seafood Co-Op, a group of about 20 commercial fishing companies that have been in business together since 1953.
Patrons of the retail store can find just about every kind of Atlantic coast seafood one can imagine, including flounder, cod, tuna, scallops, squid, crabs, lobster and numerous other products.
Scallops furnished by Belford Seafood Co-Op were recently included in a chef’s competition in Asbury Park organized by the Grown in Monmouth marketing initiative.
“We sell pretty much every kind of fish you can think of in the retail store and we also have a wholesale operation at which we sell all the fish caught in our local waters and out as far as 175 miles to the Hudson Canyon,” Tauro said in his office, near several huge walk-in freezer rooms.
The fish typically follow the Gulfstream, he said.
As water near the New Jersey coastline gets colder, whiting, fluke, bluefish, porgies and other fish swim with the warmer waters of the Gulfstream.
“The water can be 70 degrees out there. The canyon water is very deep and warmer and the fish follow it out as it gets colder here. You can be wearing a t-shirt out there in the middle of January,” said Tauro, an experienced commercial fisherman who has made many harvesting trips out to the Hudson Canyon.
He said it can take anywhere from 12 to 15 hours to get there, depending on the commercial vessel you’re on.