Mid-Atlantic Council to Hold Hearings on New Jersey Special Management Zones

[njdiver]

Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council
News Release

October 20, 2016

Mid-Atlantic Council to Hold Hearings on New Jersey Special Management Zones

The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council will hold three public hearings in November 2016 to gather public comments on a request by the State of New Jersey to designate 13 of its artificial reef sites located in federal waters as Special Management Zones (SMZ). The hearings will be held November 15-17, 2016. Written comments will be accepted until Friday, November 25, 2016, 11:59 p.m. EST.

Background

In November 2015, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) petitioned the Mid-Atlantic Council to designate 13 artificial reef sites as SMZs under provisions of Amendment 9 to the Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plan. The petition was based on the need to reduce gear conflicts between hook and line fishermen and fixed pot/trap gear at those sites. The SMZ designation could prohibit the use of any gear except hook and line and spear fishing within the 13 potential SMZ sites. The Council’s SMZ Monitoring Team (MT) evaluated the NJDEP request and recommended that the Council designate all 13 artificial reef sites as SMZs. The MT analysis indicated that commercial fishing vessels deploying pot/trap gear off the coast of New Jersey would likely face minimal to no losses in ex-vessel revenue if the artificial reefs are designated as SMZs. The Council is scheduled to review public comments and make a decision relative to NJ SMZ designation at its December 2016 meeting in Annapolis, MD.

Public Hearing Schedule

The dates and locations of the public hearings are as follows:

Tuesday November 15, 2016, 7:00-9:30 p.m., Kingsborough Community College, 2001 Oriental Blvd., Brooklyn NY 11235, Room M239 of the Marina and Academic Center (The Lighthouse).

Wednesday November 16, 2016, 7:00-10:00 p.m., Clarion Hotel & Conference Center, 815 Route 37 West, Toms River, NJ 08755.

Thursday November 17, 2016, 7:00-10:00 p.m., Congress Hall, 200 Congress Place, Cape May, NJ 08204.

These meetings are physically accessible to people with disabilities. Requests for sign language interpretation or other auxiliary aid should be directed to M. Jan Saunders, 302-526-5251, at least 5 days prior to the meeting date.

Written Comments

Written comments will be accepted until Friday, November 25, 2016, 11:59 p.m. and may be sent by any of the following methods:

Mail to Dr. Chris Moore, Executive Director, Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, 800 North State Street, Suite 201, Dover, DE, 19901 (include “NJ SMZ Request” on envelope);

Fax to Dr. Chris Moore, Executive Director, Mid-Atlantic Fishery
Management Council at fax number 302-674-5399 (include “NJ SMZ Request” in the subject line); or

Email to Rich Seagraves at rseagraves@mafmc.org (include “NJ SMZ Request” in the subject line).

Contact

For more information, contact Rich Seagraves, Senior Scientist, at rseagraves@mafmc.org.

Press Contact: Mary Clark Sabo, (302) 518-1143


The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council is one of eight regional councils established by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976. The Council has primary responsibility for twelve species of fish and shellfish in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) between 3 and 200 miles off the Mid-Atlantic coast. Member states include New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. Visit our website for more information.


Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council | contact@mafmc.org | Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council | 800 N. State St. Suite 201 | Dover, DE 19901

[Joey Dah Fish]

Dales can you weigh in on this?

[dales529]

Originally Posted by Joey Dah Fish

Dales can you weigh in on this?

I can try Joe. Best as always to try and attend the meetings but even myself as with many usually cant. What I know is this is basically part of the compromise of getting the Pots off the artificial reefs. Yes most wanted complete restriction of commercial fishing as recreational fishing we thought paid for them.

To my understanding commercial interests in fact put up $600,000.00 to get the Artificial Reef program off the ground so there in lies the compromise or the program never may have happened

Again My understanding is that that Pots off the Reefs would never happen without a compromise which is what we have now and feel its in the best interest as it restricts the Pots areas and gives back the federal funding to NJ for the reefs while giving recreational areas restricted from the pots

As far as the SMZ Zones this is a request from our own NJDEP and while we all fear further restrictions down the road once these are established who knows? SMZ's on reef sites have been used up and down the coast for quite some time with no negative repercussions for anglers to date. To date, no one has actively threatened no fishing on these sites. Could it happen sure but like everything else going on anything could happen in all walks of life.

SMZ ( Special Management Zones) should not be confused with NMS (National Marine Sanctuaries) which we fought hard against in Sandy Hook as we should have.
SMZ again to my best understanding are much less threatening than an NMS which is NOT on the table for the reefs but again who knows for sure.

Is that open ended enough for you! trust me there is no easy answer and definitely no easy solution for our fishery management.

Sometimes I wonder if we just let mother nature take its course and stay out of it we may be better off but of course that had major implications as well in in the 60's 70's and 80's that humans will be humans and we all took more than we should have so I guess its still a step by step and reactionary process.

Today we have a more conservation minded better technique and actually better fishermen / women on the water which is a good thing.

Having learned a few things and certainly not as much as others its not a battle of commercial vs recreational vs government in so much as humans The FISH have it figured out lol IMHO. Not EASY but getting better

[njdiver]

Originally Posted by dales529

I can try Joe. Best as always to try and attend the meetings but even myself as with many usually cant. What I know is this is basically part of the compromise of getting the Pots off the artificial reefs. Yes most wanted complete restriction of commercial fishing as recreational fishing we thought paid for them.

You are correct in that the compromise made on the two reefs in State waters included a verbal agreement that the bid for SMZ status in Federal waters would not be contended.

Originally Posted by dales529

To my understanding commercial interests in fact put up $600,000.00 to get the Artificial Reef program off the ground so there in lies the compromise or the program never may have happened

That is the "Big Lie" that has been thrown around for nine years. The NJ Reef Program was initially funded from fines received by the NJDEP for fish kills by the Oyster Creek Nuclear Plant of $400,000.00.

Originally Posted by dales529

Again My understanding is that that Pots off the Reefs would never happen without a compromise which is what we have now and feel its in the best interest as it restricts the Pots areas and gives back the federal funding to NJ for the reefs while giving recreational areas restricted from the pots

That was the compromise on the Sandy Hook and Axel Carlson Reefs only. The restored funding was only partial.

Originally Posted by dales529

As far as the SMZ Zones this is a request from our own NJDEP and while we all fear further restrictions down the road once these are established who knows? SMZ's on reef sites have been used up and down the coast for quite some time with no negative repercussions for anglers to date. To date, no one has actively threatened no fishing on these sites. Could it happen sure but like everything else going on anything could happen in all walks of life.

The reason we lost our funding for our reefs from the Sport Fish Restoration Program is the same underlying reason there will never be "no take zones" on our reefs.

Originally Posted by dales529

SMZ ( Special Management Zones) should not be confused with NMS (National Marine Sanctuaries) which we fought hard against in Sandy Hook as we should have.

SMZ again to my best understanding are much less threatening than an NMS which is NOT on the table for the reefs but again who knows for sure.

Thank you, there is a Grand Canyon of difference!


Here are some documents that might help:

http://www.mafmc.org/newsfeed/2016/m...nagement-zones

http://www.mafmc.org/s/Tab05_NJ-SMZ-Consideration.pdf

http://www.mafmc.org/s/05_NJ-SMZ-Mon...port_final.pdf

http://www.mafmc.org/s/SMZ-Comments-2016-10-06.pdf