It’s been said that a good compromise is one from which all parties leave equally dissatisfied.
While New Jersey fluke anglers had hoped to keep the five fish at 18-inch size limit and 128-day season for another summer, a final deal proposed this week in Alexandria, VA may allow New Jersey anglers to fish that same 18-inch size limit, while giving up two fish in the bag and losing about three weeks at the tail end of the season.
While painful to lose available fishing days, most should agree it’s still better overall than the three fish at 19-inch limit that had been on the table for the past few months.
Pending approval by the Atlantic states Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) Technical Committee and Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Management Board, starting on May 25, New Jersey’s coastal anglers would be allowed three fluke at 18 inches. As part of the proposed deal at the ASMFC hearings in Virginia this week, the season would be cut back to 104 days with an end date of September 5.
While not all anglers fishing the Garden State will be thrilled to learn the fluke season could be truncated to a Memorial Day to Labor Day stretch, this new deal will also allow New Jersey to manage a three fish at 17-inch size limit west of the COLREGS line in the Delaware Bay, with a special two fish at 16-inch limit for surfcasters at Island Beach State Park.
Comparatively speaking, when ASMFC originally presented a set of four options for public input, the only other equation that would’ve provided an 18-inch size limit for New Jersey would’ve allowed just 59 days of fishing and a two fish bag limit. The final proposal approved by ASMFC in February and the so called “Option Five” selection would put New Jersey in a collective region with Connecticut and New York adhering to a three fish at 19-inch size limit and 128 days of allowable fishing to start sometime after the second week in May.
Because the plan will also allow South Jersey anglers to transport 17-inch summer flounder through Cape May Canal and up the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) as far north as the Route 47 (George Redding) Bridge, so long as all gear is stowed and fishing activity is done for the day, it allows those fishing on either side of the Delaware/New Jersey line to fish on the same, 17-inch size limit which should come as welcome news from Salem to Cape May.
As the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) had argued in their appeal of the original ASMFC vote in February, larger size limits like the 19 inches proposed in February not only impact angler opportunities this season but it would also harm the long-term health of the summer flounder stocks. “If we go forward with these regulations mortality rates of the fish returned to the water will be higher than those that are harvested,” NJDEP Commissioner Bob Martin said earlier this year, explaining that it would be “the first time in the state’s history that this will happen.”
Martin, who testified before the ASMFC on May 11, said New Jersey’s plan allows anglers a better opportunity to catch a keeper fish this season while also keeping overall mortality rates down.
A unanimous 17-0 vote by ASMFC officially postponed New Jersey’s official appeal until the next meeting of the Interstate Fisheries Management Program (ISFMP) Policy Board; this allows New Jersey time to get the required approval of the three at 18-inch option at the ASMFC while keeping the potential of an appeal alive should any problems arise. NJDEP however expected the new proposal to go through the process without any problems, and they expect to have the new regulations implemented during the week of May 15.
However, before breaking for lunch on the morning of May 11, the ISFMP initially voted New Jersey out of compliance giving them until May 21 to adopt the original options. The Technical Committee would still need to come up with a finding as well.%page_break%
At issue for the state of New Jersey and a key component of ongoing scientific research supported by the Save the Summer Flounder Fishery Fund (SSFFF) is a noticeable trend strongly suggesting that size limit increases mandated by NOAA Fisheries may in fact be contributing to lower recruitment and a lower spawning stock biomass. At issue are the regulations which force anglers to target brood stock fluke, and the resulting discard mortality on undersize catches.
“Any regulation that reduces the discard mortality of spawning size female fluke is a welcome one,” said Nick Cicero, a board member at SSFFF and sales manager of the Mahwah, NJ based Bimini Bay Outfitters and Folsom Corporation. “That’s not to say I’m delighted with a three fish bag or the loss of fishing days, but I believe the smaller size limit will be better for the species overall.”
“We are disappointed in the loss of days in the season, but so is the Commissioner and staff,” said Ray Bogan, legal representative of the United Boatmen of New Jersey, Marine Trades Association and the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA). “It will hurt, particularly in light of the lack of other species that can be fished for in this time frame. They recognized, however, that in order for New Jersey to have the best season that could be enjoyed by the most recreational fishermen, the season had to be shortened.”
“They wanted, and worked for, more days, but this was the best possible compromise,” he added.
While many in the fishing community felt that New Jersey would either be faced with a 19-inch size limit or be forced out of compliance with federal requirements, NJDEP is hoping to get what local fishing groups called “the best compromise possible.” As RFA executive director Jim Donofrio explains, the compromise itself is much more than just a one-shot deal.
“New Jersey DEP and the Christie administration have started a mini revolution inside the fisheries management process,” Donofrio said. “We think it was a necessary battle that hopefully takes off in every region and carries out to the other councils where problems are occurring in other fisheries.”
A coalition of national groups is currently working to support federal legislation called the Modernizing Recreational Fisheries Management Act of 2017 to provide fisheries managers with greater flexibility to apply alternative management measures like this one to recreational fishing; the supporting organizations include RFA, the American Sportfishing Association, National Marine Manufacturers Association, Center for Sportfishing Policy, Coastal Conservation Association, Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation, International Game Fish Association, The Billfish Foundation and Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.
Donofrio said the various groups are working collectively in Washington DC to provide better management tools for various councils and commissions, and praised Commissioner Martin and the Christie Administration for helping carry the message to those on Capitol Hill.
