Big Hearings Regarding Recreational FLUKE, BSB, Scup & Bluefish coming up!! SPEAK UP

[hartattack]

SCOPING FOR THE RECREATIONAL SECTOR SEPARATION AND DATA COLLECTION AMENDMENT

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), along with the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC), have scheduled a series of scoping hearings to gather public input on issues and information to be considered in the Recreational Sector Separation and Data Collection Amendment https://static1.squarespace.com/stat...ID_Jan2025.pdf to the Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plan (FMP) and the Bluefish FMP. Hearings will be held February 24 – March 5. Written comments will be accepted through March 20, 2025.

Scoping is the first and best opportunity to provide input on the issues to be addressed during development of management options. The purpose of the proposed amendment is to consider modifications to the recreational management program for summer flounder, scup, black sea bass, and bluefish. Specifically, options may consider managing for-hire recreational fisheries separately from other recreational fishing modes (referred to as sector separation), and options related to the collection and use of recreational data, such as private angler reporting and enhanced for-hire vessel trip reporting requirements. The Public Information/Scoping Document provides a broad overview of the issues identified for consideration in the amendment. Additional information and updates are available on the MAMFC action page https://www.mafmc.org/actions/recrea...tion-amendment or the ASMFC public input page https://www.asmfc.org/about-us/public-input .

NOTE: the regulators are considering breaking out the For Hire group from the Recreational sector is most interesting, and will be quite telling in terms of attendance and comments.

If past history repeats, the For Hire entourage will be well-represented and vocal, as one would expect because this is a source of their livelihood, while the Recreational only group will be minimally represented.

It will be interesting to see if the latter group wakes up and participates in these sessions, instead of whining from their keyboards after the fact...




HEARING SCHEDULE

Below is information on how to participate in each hearing. If you are unable to participate in your state’s scheduled hearing, you are welcome to participate in any of the hearings.

Date and Time Hearing Type State Contacts

Monday, February 24 (Gerry says see my comment below this meeting is now on the 2/25)
6:00 - 8:00 p.m. Webinar Hearing (Register here) https://register.gotowebinar.com/rt/3741827630312556894
New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection
Joseph Cimino (NJ)
609.748.2020

Wednesday, February 26
6:00 - 8:00 p.m. Hybrid Hearing
In-Person Location: New York State Marine Resources Headquarters, 123 Kings Park Blvd., Kings Park, NY 11754
Webinar Registration link above
Martin Gary (NY)
631.444.0430
Matthew Gates (CT)
860.876.4393

Thursday, February 27
6:00 - 8:00 p.m. Hybrid Hearing
In-Person Location: University of Rhode Island Bay Campus, Corless Auditorium, 215 South Ferry Road, Narragansett, RI 02882
Webinar Registration (Zoom) https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...#/registration
Jason McNamee (RI)
401.537.4141

Tuesday, March 4
6:00 - 8:00 p.m. Webinar Hearing (Register link above) Ron Owens (PRFC)
804.224.7148
Pat Geer (VA)
757.247.2200
Chris Batsavage (NC)
252.241.2995

Wednesday, March 5
6:00 - 8:00 p.m. Webinar Hearing (Register link above) Corrin Flora (ME)
207.446.8126
Renee Zobel (NH)
603.868.1095
Nichola Meserve (MA)
978.619.0017
Additional webinar instructions are available HERE. https://www.mafmc.org/newsfeed/2025/...ection-scoping



SUBMITTING COMMENT

All interested individuals are encouraged to provide comments at any of five public scoping hearings or by submitting written comments through one of the methods listed below. Comments must be received by 11:59 pm EST on Thursday, March 20, 2025.

ONLINE at https://mafmc.knack.com/public-comme...ta-collection/
EMAIL to kdancy@mafmc.org (subject: Recreational Sector Separation and Data Collection)
MAIL to Dr. Christopher Moore, Executive Director, Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, 800 North State Street, Suite 201, Dover, DE 19901 (Please write “Recreational Sector Separation and Data Collection” on the envelope)
All comments, regardless of submission method, will be compiled into a single document for review and consideration by both the Council and Commission.

If you have any questions about this amendment, please contact either:

Kiley Dancy, Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, kdancy@mafmc.org, 302-526-5257
Tracey Bauer, Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, tbauer@asmfc.org, 703-842-0723

[AndyS]

I still can't believe they took away our offshore sea bass season, January was the best with a 25 fish limit !!

[hammer4reel]

Originally Posted by AndyS

I still can't believe they took away our offshore sea bass season, January was the best with a 25 fish limit !!

Millions of other anglers are glad to be able to catch them through the spring when everyone can catch them inshore and mid shore
.
No need for a 25 fish limit on them for a short period of time , instead of a yearly moderate limit .

.

[AndyS]

No meat on a 13 inch sea bass, sorry to see people keep these knowing they grow to 5 pounds.

[bulletbob]

Originally Posted by AndyS

No meat on a 13 inch sea bass, sorry to see people keep these knowing they grow to 5 pounds.

agreed, but inshore,where most guys can target them readily and affordably,thats the size of the vast majority of the catch..for every four or five pound sea bass caught,there are a hundred one or two pounders caught.

[dales529]

The bigger issue here as I understand it and depends where you stand on it is that they want to separate recreational For Hire vs Private Rec anglers. They currently have different bag limits for bluefish and tilefish For Hire vs Private Recs.
Now looking to do the same on summer flounder , scup and seabass. Seems like they are trying to further separate us / fraction the Rec community?

While I always will support the For Hire Rec community is this where we want to go??

[Broad Bill]

This is all about management reporting to the Department of Commerce. They prioritize for some reason revenue generation (commercial and for hire) versus spending which is the economic impact recreational brings to the table. A fish caught commercially generates revenue by catch value from commercial to processing plant, again from processing plant to distributors or wholesalers, again from wholesales to retailers (restaurants / fish markets etc.) and finally to the consumer for restaurant consumption or a home cooked meal. In my opinion, they view the recreational sector as the red headed step child and will never allocate fisheries or make decisions equitably to both sectors as they view economic impact completely different between both.

[Gerry Zagorski]

Looks like this meeting has been rescheduled to 2/25

UPDATED: MAFMC and ASMFC to Hold Public Information/Scoping Hearings on Recreational Sector Separation and Data Collection Amendment
Please note: This press release revises the February 3rd announcement by changing the date of the New Jersey hearing from February 24 to February 25. The hearing time and location remain the same.

The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council) and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (Commission) have scheduled a series of scoping hearings to gather public input on the range of issues and information to be considered in the Recreational Sector Separation and Data Collection Amendment to the Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plan (FMP) and the Bluefish FMP. Hearings will be held February 25 – March 5, 2025. Written comments will be accepted through March 20, 2025.

[Gerry Zagorski]

Originally Posted by dales529

The bigger issue here as I understand it and depends where you stand on it is that they want to separate recreational For Hire vs Private Rec anglers. They currently have different bag limits for bluefish and tilefish For Hire vs Private Recs.
Now looking to do the same on summer flounder , scup and seabass. Seems like they are trying to further separate us / fraction the Rec community?

While I always will support the For Hire Rec community is this where we want to go??

I'm inclined to agree with you Dave and think this might not be what we want..