From August 12-15, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC) will meet at the Westin Hotel in Philly. It will be the first time in 9 years that New Jersey is not represented by Capt. Adam Nowalsky who has termed out and is no longer eligible for reappointment having served three consecutive 3-year terms.
Capt. Nowalsky did yeoman’s work on behalf of the recreational fishing community (and commercial for that matter, though I’m sure those folks might disagree), serving as chair of the Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Committee and vice chair of the Ecosystem and Ocean Planning Committee. He also chaired the Collaborative Research and Research Steering Committees during his MAFMC tenure.
I would personally like to thank Capt. Nowalsky for all his dedicated work, particularly for helping shepherd through the council process a new management approach called the Recreational Harvest Control Rule which is aimed at providing greater stability and predictability in recreational measures from year-to-year while accounting for scientific variability in stock assessment and management data. The new process allows managers to consider biomass compared to targets, and recent recreational harvest estimates compared to future harvest limits, in help determine if regulations must change, and if so, by how much. At the time of enactment, Capt. Nowalsky called this new approach “a major step forward in recreational management that better accounts for recreational catch variability and considers stock status.”
I’m no fan of the way our recreational fisheries are managed under the rigid and uncompromising language written into our federal fisheries law (Magnuson-Stevens Act), coupled with the “fatally flawed” recreational data collection methods employed by NOAA Fisheries. But Capt. Nowalsky – who will continue to serve as legislative proxy to New Jersey Senator Vin Gopal at the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) – did an incredible job of navigating congressionally bound legal-ease to help incorporate an alternative to the same old.
As for who fills Capt. Nowalsky’s rather enormous shoes at the MAFMC, I’m happy to see someone with rather large feet is getting the nod. In late June, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced the appointment of 22 new and returning members to six of the regional fishery management councils; included in that list of new appointees is Greg Hueth of the Big Mohawk out of Belmar. For anti-Jersey folks thinking that Adam’s departure would make their lives easier, well, all I can say is you better buckle up buttercups!
Hueth has literally been around the New Jersey docks since childhood, and has been ever-active in various facets of recreational fisheries management. In the early 2000s he was one of the primary movers and shakers behind the Save the Summer Flounder Fishery Fund which worked successfully on inclusion of sex-specific mortality data used in stock assessments on summer flounder, playing a critical role in averting potential shutdowns of the fishery.
I’m often (ahem) critical of New Jersey’s governor, Phil Murphy, but I must offer my sincere thanks and gratitude on behalf of the recreational fishing community on this one. The U.S. Secretary of Commerce chooses appointments for open council seats from each governors’ lists of nominees, and Hueth’s name was atop Governor Murphy’s list sent to Washington DC. So yeah, thank you guv’nor!
I should note that Governor Murphy also tabbed Hueth – along with Monmouth University’s John Tiedemann – to fill respective vacancies at the New Jersey Marine Fisheries Council. The New Jersey senate is expected back in session sometime in August, at which point the hope is that the Senate Judiciary Committee will take immediate action on these appointments in time for the council’s next meeting on September 5.
Best of all, Hueth (MAFMC) and Nowalsky (ASMFC) will have a lot of good work to do in the future, together, at both branches of the coastwide fisheries management process. Good times, for a change!
