The commercial guys have ruined the fishing in all species and will continue until they are stopped, the state isn't doing anything so I guess that leaves ???

Stan: We're sure you mean well, but the problem isn't so simple and isn't all about commercials, and we don't agree that many of the fish populations, such as the fish at the wrecks that were talked about, are suffering. Some populations certainly are, but some certainly aren't.

You're correct that the state or government isn't really effective. An example is that NOAA Fisheries' latest proposed budget reduces money for surveys of the fish populations, and highly flawed and irresponsible surveys is the root of the problem. How they could do anything but spend more money on better science should make an angler speechless.

If the government isn't stepping up, who does that leave to solve the problem, you ask? Well, you, and us, recreational anglers. Nobody else.

Until individual anglers become outraged enough to influence the government to do a responsible job, this is going to get worse. Are you going to the Anglers Rally in Washington, D.C., at the Capitol on Wednesday? If not, why? Support as much as you can the angler organizations that are fighting this problem.  

Have you noticed the ridiculously poor fisheries management lately? Things like: the impossible fluke size limit; the winter flounder two-fish bag limit; the closure of the sea bass fishery, devastating to recreational fishing this winter, followed by the government's admission that the sea bass population is not overfished, they made a mistake; and the recent declaration that N.J. is out of compliance on sharks, a threatened moratorium on sharking?

You call that management? What is left to fish for? We call that mismanagement. Hard to believe the management could get worse than it was.

Do something about it, Stan, if you're not already.

Again, who does that leave, you ask? You and all of us recreational anglers, and nobody else.--FRN

2010: free
2011: $5
2012: $10

JCAA Press Release:
NOAA Unfairly Shuts Down Black Sea Bass
October 1, 2009

NOAA announced on September 30th that they were going to close the black sea bass fishery for 180 days starting October 5th. The stated reason is that preliminary data suggests that the recreational sector will over harvest the 2009 quota. What the NOAA release failed to state is the fact that the quota in 2009 was set too low and they are allowing the same low quota to be in place for 2010.They set the original quota in 2008 believing the stock was being overfished and overfishing was taking place. They raised the recreational size limit to 12 ½" to implement the smaller quota.

In 2008, after the new stock assessment was published and it stated that the stock was not overfished and overfishing was not occurring, NOAA did not raise the quota in response to this new information. Instead they kept an arbitrarily low quota that guaranteed overharvesting since it did not take into consideration that the stocks were larger than the they estimated. They did leave the higher 12 ½ inch size limit in place.

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