Immediate Action Needed Marine Fisheries Reform

[Gerry Zagorski]

If you're frustrated by the way our fisheries are regulated and managed, I would strongly encourage you to get involved right here right now and support the efforts underway by the RFA and ASA to make some much needed changes.

A meeting/webinar will be held on Monday 3/28 at 6 - 8 PM discussing Marine Fisheries Reform and alternate means of managing our fisheries into 2023 and beyond. It includes the potential for multiyear regulations instead of doing it one year at a time and taking stock status and other key indicators into consideration when setting regulations.

Right now the regulations are set each year by comparing the previous year’s catch to next year’s quota. MRIP data is used to measure the catch and it's then compared to the quota. If the catch data exceeds your quota you get more restrictive regulations, if it's less you get more liberalized regulations. However, the current system does not take stock status into account. Take what recently happened with Black Seabass... A fishery that has been totally rebuilt and yet because of last year’s highly speculative MRIP data we were are forced to take more restrictive measures this year. Fluke on the other hand had lower MRIP catch numbers compared to our quota but is not totally rebuilt and yet we're looking at a liberalization this year.

Kind of screwy right? Stock status need to be figured in so decisions can be made based in some part on the health of a fishery and we should be able to set regulations for multiple years rather than make knee jerk reactions every year based solely on last year’s data.

ACTION ITEM 1 Register to attend the 3/28 meeting here https://register.gotowebinar.com/rt/1135657394291955982 select the 3/28 meeting from the drop down and support the efforts of the reform

ACTION ITEM 2 Sign this petition developed by the ASA in support of the reforms https://keepamericafishing.org/actio...3101%2fRespond

ACTION ITEM 3 Share this post with others by copying and pasting this link https://www.njfishing.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=117879

So here is an abbreviated version of the 5 options that will be discussed. If you'd like to read more about each you can find that here in an overview http://www.asmfc.org/files/PublicInp..._March2022.pdf. There is also a Decision Tree developed by the ASA and the RFA which is meant to help people like you and I understand each of the options and make a more informed decision https://keepamericafishing.org/wp-co...ndum-Final.pdf

A) No change and keep managing as we have in the past with no consideration given to stock status which includes other key measures.

B) A plan that will consider both quota/vs MRIP and stock status

C,D and E) Rely on model approaches that are still under development and set different tiers/bins of measures of which take stock status into account but also use some combination of other measures like, recruitment, fish mortality, MRIP catch data etc to determine regulations. While that might sound great, the process has been defined in all these options but the measures that result after the process have not been defined and that is cause for concern. One of the proposed models that could be used in all 3 options for determining measures is highly dependent on MRIP so these options could reform the process but the devil could be in the details.

Just so you all know, the RFA is supporting option B because of the current uncertainly in C, D and E.