In 2008, a joint effort between NJOA (CF) and state legislators created the state’s first caucus for fishing, hunting, and conservation matters. The caucus is open to New Jersey’s 120 legislators, as well as policy makers, and conservationists as an educational forum for conservation issues. Experts from the fields of biology, science, wildlife management, and other areas address important topics such as forest health, the plight of Barnegat Bay, pine beetle infestation, wildlife management challenges, and other environmental and conservation concerns.
The newest endeavor of the NJOA (CF) council is educate legislators and policy makers about the Marine Fisheries Bureau, an entity that helps support a $2.5 billion recreational and commercial industry, but is critically understaffed and underfunded – a condition that may ultimately result in fisheries closures.
Below is a recap of a recent New Jersey Angling and Hunting Conservation Caucus by John Toth, representative from the Jersey Coast Anglers Association. Thank you, John.
Our legislators have established a New Jersey Angling and Hunting Conservation Caucus to hear firsthand the input of anglers and hunters about the issues that are important to them. This caucus enables our legislators to help them understand these issues and ask questions about them so that they can possibly draft legislation or take action to improve fishing and hunting in New Jersey. On June 6th, a caucus was held in NJ’s State House Annex. The first order of business was to introduce legislators to the meeting’s attendees and they included: Senate Democratic Chair, Donald D. Norcross, and Senators James W. Holzapfel and Christopher Bateman.. On the Assembly side, Alison Little McHose, Assembly Republican Chair, John J. Burzichelli, Assembly Democratic Chair and Caroline Casagrande.
The Issue: Member clubs of the New Jersey’s Outdoor Alliance (NJOA) and other fishing associations have identified the lack of funding for the Bureau of Marine Fisheries and its shrinking number of staff as a major problem making this Bureau increasingly unable to effectively manage our state’s fisheries despite its important multi-billion dollar industry for our state. Without additional funding, New Jersey will also lose its competitive edge to other states that are well funded and staffed and they are always seeking to take more of our state’s fishing quotas from us. This issue was requested to be on the agenda of the caucus by NJOA’s Legislative Liaison, Tom Connors, and this issue was the main focus for this caucus.
The first speaker was Brent Miller representing the National Assembly of Sportsmen’s Caucus and he touched upon the economic importance of fishing and hunting in New Jersey to our state’s economy. According to statistics compiled in 2011, 794,000 anglers and hunters (resident and non-resident) fished or hunted in New Jersey and spent more than $1.26 billion while doing it. This spending supports 16,905 jobs and generates over $151 million in local and state taxes, including $176 million in federal taxes.
The second speaker was David Chanda, Director, NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife who told legislators of the increasing challenges he faces in trying to do more with less staff in managing our state’s fisheries. His staff has to respond to the fishing management plans required by our federal management officials and he does not have enough staff to adequately respond to them. For example, in the case of blackfish (tautog) his staff could not do the necessary research to support the position that our state’s stock of blackfish was healthy enough and did not need any reduction to its quota. Consequently, our state had to have its blackfish season reduced even though this action was most likely unnecessary. This same example applies to river herring, sharks and winter flounder. The Bureau of Marine Fisheries has to respond to almost 20 federal management plans that require staff and time to do the stock assessments and technical research necessary to adequately respond to them. Staff members who retire are not replaced. We could possibly have better fishing in our state with possibly increased quotas for winter flounder or blackfish, but our Bureau of Marine Fisheries does not have the funding or staff to help us reach this goal.
The Bureau of Marine Fisheries receives $900,000 from state appropriations and with license fees and other sources of revenues it has a current budget of $4.1 million. In contrast to New Jersey, other states like New Hampshire or Massachusetts have budgets in the $20 million range and even have twice the number of staff in comparison to our Bureau staff.
The third speaker was Chris Zeman, member of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery management Council, who made the very eloquent but pointed remark "lack of data means less fish". Chris indicated that our state needs better technical data to defend its stock assessment of its fisheries and our Bureau of Marine Fisheries does not have the resources to do it. He told our legislators that each state is going after our quota for each fishery and it is a tough fight to defend our fishing quotas allocated by the federal management. Chris represents our state in this constant battle with other states that have better funding and staff to define the status of their fisheries and to make a case to federal management officials that they should have some of our fishing quotas. Data is necessary to defend what quotas we have and our state is having an increasing problem in handling this issue. Chris said that our river herring season may have been unnecessarily closed recently because we did not have the necessary data to indicate to federal management that it should stay open. Chris asked for an additional $ 1.2 million of state funding for the Bureau with more funding over the years to follow.
Jersey Coast Anglers Association’s Legislative Chairman, Tom Fote, made the important point to legislators that in the 1980’s, the Bureau of Marine Fisheries had a budget of $3 million dollars. It should at least be funded to a level of up to $5 or $6 million to start with and increased each year thereafter. We all know that our state has budget problems, but this is an important economic industry for our state and its importance should not be diminished due to the lack of funding by only several millions of dollars when it generates so much revenue for our state. He also pointed out that our Marine Fisheries is not attending important technical committees that help to determine fishing stocks and other related matters due to lack of staff. We need to be involved in these technical committees to keep abreast of the latest fishing issues or we will not be able to shape or respond to them due to our lack of participation.
The last speaker was Ed Markowski, President of NJOA’s Environmental Projects, who made brief remarks about upcoming hunting legislation. Ed commented that New Jersey’s hunting associations are very mad about the proposal to replace firearms identification cards with a driver’s license endorsement and it should not even be considered.
Assemblywoman McHose pointed out to the legislators present that the Division of Fish and Wildlife is the only branch of NJ’s government that has to pay rent to the state for its facilities and for the benefits of its staff.
The legislators thanked all of us who attended this hearing, as well as the NJOA for organizing it. They also indicated that they will use the information generated from this caucus in determining the next budget for the Bureau of Marine Fisheries.
Members of NJOA Conservation Foundation:
Saltwater/Freshwater Angling Organizations
Jersey Coast Angler Association
Trout Unlimited
NJ Beach Buggy Association
Hudson River Fishermen’s Association
Reef Rescue
Greater Point Pleasant Charter Boat Association
Jersey Coast Shark Anglers
Beach Haven Marlin and Tuna Club
Hi-Mar Striper Club
Round Valley Trout Association
Berkeley Striper Club
Raritan Bay Anglers Club
Sandy Hook Bay Anglers
Hunting/ Trapping Organizations:
New Jersey State Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs (also "Fishing")
United Bowhunters of NJ
NJ Trappers Association
National Wild Turkey Federation
Ruffed Grouse Society
United Blood Trackers
Sunrise Rod and Gun Club (also "Fishing")
NJ Fur Harvesters
New Jersey Waterfowlers Association
Forestry Organizations:
New Jersey Forestry Association
Society of American Foresters
Animal Welfare Organizations:
National Animal Interest Alliance