Fluke Cuts - Action Needed by 11/30/2016

[Dclark2]

Done

[tjd24]

Done & forwarded to all my fishing buddies.

[MattRedShirt]

Done. Thanks for letting us know.

[Rubberhead]

Message sent and thank you

[Sullivan]

Done ! My wife too . Had her facebook all her friends to reply also . Get everybody .

[Take a kid fishing]

Completed

[tuna john]

544 comments so far not bad keep em going

[Angler Paul]

11/29/16


NOAA,

The Jersey Coast Anglers Association is composed of approximately 75 fishing clubs and represents thousands of saltwater anglers. We would like to go on record as opposing the 30% cut in the quota for summer flounder. Summer flounder is the most important saltwater fish for our recreational fishermen and any further reduction will have a devastating economic effect on our charter and party boats as well as the tackle stores that are very dependent on our fluke fisherman. In New Jersey boat registrations have dropped by 50,000 from 2007-2014 and charter and party boats as well as tackle stores have been going out of business in record numbers.
We certainly want a sustainable fishery but believe that you are keeping the spawning stock biomass at too high of a level. We understand that there has been poor recruitment during the last few years but this is not directly linked to the spawning stock biomass. During the last four years we have had the highest spawning stock biomass ever recorded and yet we have had poor recruitment. We had much better recruitment when the SSB was significantly lower. We believe that this fishery would be sustainable even with a much smaller biomass and that your proposed quota is far too low.
We also believe that something should be done to reduce catch and release mortality. At the 18" size limit, 95% of the fluke harvested are females. The size limit should be lowered to allow more males to be harvested which would help reduce the c&r mortality.
Lastly, we request that a new stock assessment with improved data be completed as soon as possible. We urge you to leave the quota for 2017 the same as it was for 2016. Then after the next stock assessment, adjustments could be made as necessary.



Respectfully submitted,
John Toth, President
JCAA

[Jigman13]

If you really want to get this issue in front a large number of people boost it on Facebook and select the targeting to all of NJ, people with interest in all forms of fishing and a wide variety of clubs, groups, etc. A couple hundred bucks can easily get this in front of several hundred thousand people statewide. If a charter captain or party boat captain does it from his/her Facebook page you can more than likely write off the expense and effectively reach a highly relevant audience in a very personal way. Encourage folks to comment and provide the link to make it as easy as possible.

I do this for a living and believe me, it works!

Just sent