Winter commercial fish species in NJ?

[bulletbob]

I am wondering about what exactly local NJ commercial fishermen catch this time of year.. Is everything they catch a 100 mile or better run out each way?.. I see the same local fish for sale on ice mid winter as I do mid summer. Sea Bass, Scup, Flounder, Bluefish, various mackerel types, maybe something a bit more exotic such as Monkfish or Swordfish on occasion. Still see Whiting and Ling often[both marketed as Hake] but all the Whiting are little spikes more the size of big Spearing than of the Whiting we used to catch.. Do the local sport species catch any breaks at all once they move offshore?, or is it just game on even when they are out on their wintering grounds?.. Just wondering, as I really don't know that much about what is keeping NY Bight commercial netters going, while for hire sport fishing boats are getting hammered worse each year with regulations and restrictions... I just dont know how the sport fishing captains can close up shop for 3 or 4 months and "stay afloat", no pun intended..bob

[NJ219bands]

Back in the olden days, Boston blues were popular in fish 🐠 and chips in Pulaski, NY. Do they still call pollock Boston blues up there in the Great White North?

[FISHGERE]

Originally Posted by bulletbob

I am wondering about what exactly local NJ commercial fishermen catch this time of year.. Is everything they catch a 100 mile or better run out each way?.. I see the same local fish for sale on ice mid winter as I do mid summer. Sea Bass, Scup, Flounder, Bluefish, various mackerel types, maybe something a bit more exotic such as Monkfish or Swordfish on occasion. Still see Whiting and Ling often[both marketed as Hake] but all the Whiting are little spikes more the size of big Spearing than of the Whiting we used to catch.. Do the local sport species catch any breaks at all once they move offshore?, or is it just game on even when they are out on their wintering grounds?.. Just wondering, as I really don't know that much about what is keeping NY Bight commercial netters going, while for hire sport fishing boats are getting hammered worse each year with regulations and restrictions... I just dont know how the sport fishing captains can close up shop for 3 or 4 months and "stay afloat", no pun intended..bob

I live near the fish co op in point pleasant I’ve spoken to some Dec hands fluke and sea bass maybe 50 miles of the beach right now this is why we don’t have the fluke fishing we had years ago they net these species going and coming. At night I have pictures of the fridgearated trucks waiting for boats to return

[Gerry Zagorski]

Fluke since in the late fall and early winter, they move offshore and tend to congregate to spawn making them easier to target.

[bulletbob]

Originally Posted by FISHGERE

I live near the fish co op in point pleasant I’ve spoken to some Dec hands fluke and sea bass maybe 50 miles of the beach right now this is why we don’t have the fluke fishing we had years ago they net these species going and coming. At night I have pictures of the fridgearated trucks waiting for boats to return

I guess I didn't realize they were wintering only 50 miles offshore, I would have thought it was further.. So they are within range year round I guess.They don't get much of a break do they, the good eating species like fluke and sea bass.. I had a look at the NJ commercial regulations.. I was surprised at some of the size limits.. 9 inches for Bluefish?.. 7 inches for Mackerel??... really? I tried to find red and silver hake but they are absent from the commercial regulations species list, so I guess there is no bag or size limit for commercials on those species.. No wonder I see bait size Whiting and skinny little Ling for sale all the time,,,, bob

[Pennsy Guy]

It's a crime what the commercials are allowed to catch year-round. Where is it sold? Exported to Japan?
I work in a supermarket and check out the "country of origin" on the various seafoods we sell...it's disgusting, for the most part. A lot from China (several species including fluke), Indonesia, India, Vietnam and South America among others--once in a while the United States. Really depressing, no fish in our waters, I guess (tongue-in-check). Indonesian "tailpipe" tuna and swordfish @ $10 and $14 per lb. really torques my jaws.

OK, I'm done.

[Broad Bill]

Pennsy, it's not time to be done it's beyond time to speak out. Aside from the fact that our restaurants and retail markets are being flooded with fish from foreign countries with potentially high degrees of toxins from being farm raised, no domestic stocks being commercially fished 12 months out of the year will survive. Fluke is a perfect example. They get absolutely pounded year round, especially during the winter months offshore by the commercials (NC in particular) , discard rates are through the roof and that's why every year we wonder why all those fish that just missed the legal recreational size limits by a quarter to a half inch the prior season never seem to reappear the following season. And the milder the winter, the more access commercials have to the biomass and the problem is compounded. It's been happening that way for 30 to 40 years and it'll continue to happen that way until the stock is beyond irreparable damage. Nobody will admit to the fact that we're very close to that point right now and policy decisions need to change if anyone is serious about the long-term prospects of this fishery.

And as Dan has alluded to many times on the site, get North Carolina and Virginia boats out of our waters, change their weight assignments used to quantify their catch to coincide with recreational weight assignments, reduce the percentage harvest they're allocated and reassign them to the northern states where the biomass is located and mandate that their harvest can't be taken exclusively during the winter. And for Christ sakes, protect the spawn by stopping commercial activities during that two month period for 3 - 5 years. NC and Va. collectively destroyed the southern biomass and now they're doing the same to the last remaining biomass off our coast and up through the Gulf of Maine. One state can't be allowed to **** up the striper and fluke fisheries for their own financial benefit while all the other states making up the Mid-Atlantic pay the consequences of their greed and corruption. It'll take a lawsuit just like New York State initiated against NMFS about 7 years ago to change allocations that are based on data from almost 50 to 60 years ago. It's time for another reauthorization of MSA to bring the provisions and terms current based on current data as opposed to what took place back in the '70s.