Sea Bass Standoff

[Gerry Zagorski]

Well we have an important decision coming up from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission on Sea Bass this week on 5/3.

NJ is being treated as it's own region and it was looking like we were going to get an significant increase in our quota. That was not the case in the northern region which includes NY, CT, RI and MA. They on the other hand were facing a significant reduction, they took issue with that and filed an appeal.

Here's where it gets interesting.... Unlike Fluke where if individual regions and states decide to got out of compliance, the penalties for doing so rather then apply only to that state, applies to the entire Atlantic fishery.

So it looks as if NJ is at a standoff here. If NY decides to go out of compliance everyone suffers with the same reduced regs no matter the region, or we give up some of our quota to them so they choose not to go out of compliance.

The rub here is the norther region has nothing to loose by going out of compliance since the fishery wide non compliance regs would be an improvement to regs they were facing because of the regional reduction they were facing. That would not be the case in NJ.

Things don't add up here and once again the federal laws in Magnuson make no sense.... We have a fishery that based on their own science is 270% rebuilt and yet we're staring down the barrel of a reduction??

Once again and we've talked about it here at length... Magnuson needs to be reformed and the light at the end of that tunnel is The Modern Fishing Act. Until that happens, we will continue to be on this dysfunctional federal fisheries management tread mill and forced to fight each other for the left over scraps they throw us. This needs to change.....

For those of you who have asked if we are going to be fishing for Sea Bass here in NJ on 5/15. Even if the northern region does decide to go out of compliance, the default regs for all regions would be 5 fish at 14 inches from May 15 to September 15.

More on this once everything plays out and thanks to everyone here in NJ who continues to fight on our behalf.

[Reelron]

Well, it may be time to be a Pirate? :mad: Got to figure, if so, I will have to move my boat to the land of pirates and run out of Belford! :cool: I can't recall seeing any F & W enforcement there in years! :D

[Gerry Zagorski]

Yep it's crazy Ron. We suffer through all the cut backs over the years to rebuild the stocks, the stocks are rebuilt as a result of our sacrifices but we're still threatened with cutbacks??

Kind of makes you want to turn to a life of crime... It certainly is a crime what they're doing to us...

[frugalfisherman]

[QUOTE=Reelron;506907]Well, it may be time to be a Pirate?

What have you been waiting for? Mean while this " Modern fishing act " is still not up for a vote.

[Joey Dah Fish]

FYI meetings started today on Sea Bass then the next 2 days will cover other species. Thursday they will hear the northern regions appeal and at the end of Thursday the meeting will end. Leaving our state with only 7 business days to solidify its regs . Send the off to the Fed and have the Fed sign off them.

[Gerry Zagorski]

[QUOTE=Reelron;506907]Well, it may be time to be a Pirate?

What have you been waiting for? Mean while this " Modern fishing act " is still not up for a vote.

Here is an update from Jim Donofrio from the RFA...

Fishermen have to understand that DC works at a snails pace despite our efforts to push them harder to move the House bill HR 200 which passed out of committee and get it to the floor for a vote.

We are pushing Speaker Ryan hard on this because the senate is waiting for the house to pass their bill. That is the protocol that Sen Dan Sulivan is respecting. As soon as the house bill passes we will have a combination bill that has our good parts of the modern fish act in it. The finished bill should when signed by president Trump fix our systemic problems with NMFS.

As the Trump administration told us tell congress to give us a a bill we can work with and the president will sign it.

Have your readers contact their members of the house and ask them to push speaker Ryan to post HR 200 for vote and also call sen Menendez office and thank them for supporting our efforts.

So for all of you who would like to get involved, go to this site -
https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative, type in your zip code and under the photo or your representative, click on the the email icon
- Fill out the form and choose "Sports and Recreation" as the issue your email relates to
- Use HR 200 in the subject line
- In the comments section ask your representative to encourage Speaker Ryan to post HR200 for a vote.

Your comments might go something like this.

As a constituent of your district and an avid fishermen looking for improvements to Marine Fisheries Management policies, I respectfully request your support to encourage Speaker Ryan to post the HR200 Modern Fishing act for a vote.

[Canyon Runner]

[QUOTE=frugalfisherman;506929]

Have your readers contact their members of the house and ask them to push speaker Ryan to post HR 200 for vote and also call sen Menendez office and thank them for supporting our efforts. [/I]

So for all of you who would like to get involved, go to this site -
https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative, type in your zip code and under the photo or your representative, click on the the email icon
- Fill out the form and choose "Sports and Recreation" as the issue your email relates to
- Use HR 200 in the subject line
- In the comments section ask your representative to encourage Speaker Ryan to post HR200 for a vote.

Your comments might go something like this.

As a constituent of your district and an avid fishermen looking for improvements to Marine Fisheries Management policies, I respectfully request your support to encourage Speaker Ryan to post the HR200 Modern Fishing act for a vote.


Done - that was easy - took less than a minute - everyone should do this!

[Dclark2]

Done Jerry
Thanks for the Link

[bbfisherman]

Done sent email to Pallone to push Ryan don't know if any good will come out of it but can't hurt.

[Detour66]

Done....lets hope it helps!

[TomKaye]

Done--- I write my Rep Frelinghuysen periodically on various issues.
This one is critical and required a phone call, 973-984-0711.

Tight lines all, I hope we get some action on this.

[bender]

email sent to my rep.
keep hope alive

[dales529]

Looks like the Northern Region ( MA, RI, CT and NY ) Appeal will be heard tomorrow May 3 between 8am and 9:15
To listen in go here: http://www.asmfc.org/home/2018-spring-meeting
Then go to Live Stream and enter the webinar after you register.
Should be interesting

[captnvinny]

Here we go! Get the lube out!

[Gerry Zagorski]

Will post here as soon as I know.

If you listen in closely to the meeting, you should be able to hear our pants hit the floor :rolleyes:

[Ttmako]

No idea what they just said.

[captnvinny]

Pierce and his northern klan seem to have slipped some favorable measure in there but also says they wanted to be respectful to what was already passed. I'll let the legal gurus filter this out, I smell something fishy! :(
NJ was the only target on the agenda, we were warned!

[Gerry Zagorski]

Not 100% since it has not been finalized but looks like we've dodged a bullet in NJ and the regs are the same for us as they were before the appeal...
- 12.5" 10 fish 5/15 - 6/22
- 12.5" 2 fish 7/1 - 8/31
- 12.5" 10 fish 10/8 - 10/31
- 13" 15 fish 11/1 - 12/31

[fishbox]

I contacted my Rep. Really appreciate all the information here!! Thank you