During the August Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council Meeting the Council and ASMFC Board set specifications for summer flounder. Confident in the latest assessment, which indicated a robust, and recovering stock they adopted a TAL of 30.3 million pounds for 2005, and 33.0 million pounds for 2006, the highest summer flounder TALs ever to be recommended. They also feel strong enough to set TALs for two years at a time, 2005 and 2006.  The commercial fishery minimum size of 14 inches and cod end mesh size of 5 1/2 - inches remain unchanged in 2005.  In addition, there would be no change in the small mesh exemption programs for 2005. The research set-aside for 2005 would be as needed up to 3%.

The latest assessment for black sea bass shows a slight increase in biomass but with two years of below average recruitment.  As a result, the Council and Board chose to adopt a slight increase of 200,000 pounds, for the 2005 TAL making it 8.20 million pounds.  The Council and Board recommended no changes in the minimum size of 11 inches. Despite a recommendation from the Monitoring Committee that would have raised the minimum mesh requirements to 5 1/2 - inches for the cod end of a black sea bass trawl the Council chose to remain at its current size of 4 1/2 - inches.  The Committee made this recommendation citing information from the observer program that indicated high discards. This information was somewhat contradictory and GSSA has submitted a data request to look into this issue in depth. It took the practical knowledge and a lengthy demonstration by Jim Rhule and some testimony to oppose the mesh increase and convince the Council that the industry had legitimate concerns and that there was not enough net specificity tests to quantify the impacts of such a larger mesh size.

The scup TAL for 2005 has been set at its current limit of 16.5 million pounds.  There were significant changes made to the commercial possession limits. Federal possession limits for the Winter I period would be 30,000 pounds per two- week period with states implementing a two-week landing limit of 30,000 pounds. It is not clear at this time how this will be implemented by the individual states. GSSA will be working on this at our state level hopefully resolving this for this coming season. This trip limit would be reduced to a 1,000-pound trip limit when 80% of the quota is projected to be reached.  The Winter II trip limit is recommended at 1,500 pounds per trip.  The minimum mesh requirement has been increased to 5 inches, by eliminating the 41/2-inch portion of the cod end.  We hoped the Council and Board would consider changing the commercial minimum fish size of 9-inch fish to be lowered to 8 inches but our attempts to do so failed.

SOUTHERN GRA

After a thorough review of the finfish survey data by MAFMC staff the Council approved the recommendation of the Monitoring Committee and voted to move the entire southern GRA three longitudinal minutes to the west.  The data indicates that this adjustment of the Southern GRA would have no significant impact on bycatch of important species during the directed fishery for Loligo. This boundary change allows for the goals of the GRA to be maintained while allowing access to our historical Loligo fishing grounds. We feel the NMFS believes that the appropriate  analysis has been completed and this change will not negatively impact the goals of the Southern GRA. It is our hope that they will implement this change and make it effective January 1^st 2005. I have relayed the industry’s gratitude to those involved for their hard work and consideration of this very important issue.

In the bluefish fishery, the Council and Board approved a TAL of 30.86 million pounds with 10.5 million pounds allocated to the commercial fishery as a quota, and 20.36 million pounds allocated to the recreational fishery as a recreational harvest limit.  Possession limits in the recreational fishery would remain unchanged at a bag limit of 15 fish.  Under the research set-aside program, up to 3% of the TAL for bluefish would be provided to fund research activities.

The National Marine Fisheries Service has proposed regulations under Framework 16 to the Scallop Fishery Management Plan (FMP) and Framework 39 to the Northeast Multispecies FMP (Joint Frameworks), that if approved, would allow access to the groundfish closed areas. However, NOAA Fisheries does not anticipate that

the decision to approve or disapprove the Joint Frameworks will be made in time to publish a final rule by September 15, 2004. Therefore, effective September 15, 2004, vessels will be allocated additional days-at-sea as specified in the table below. Additional DAS specified in the table below may not be used prior to September 15, 2004.

Limited Access Scallop Permit Category	Increase to 2004 DAS Allocation	Total 2004 Open Area DAS (excluding carryover DAS)
Full Time	20	62
Part Time	8	25
Occasional	5	9

However, due to a provision proposed in the Joint Frameworks, vessel owners should carefully consider whether or not to use the additional DAS.

If approved, a final rule for the Joint Frameworks would be published after September 15, 2004. As proposed in the Joint Frameworks, if scallop fishing is ultimately allowed in the proposed portions of the groundfish closed areas in the 2004 fishing year, any scallop vessel that has used any of the additional 2004 DAS specified above would be prohibited from fishing in the proposed access areas in the 2004 fishing year. Vessels that do not use any of the additional 2004 DAS would be eligible to fish within the proposed access areas, if approved under the Joint Frameworks.

NOAA Small Entity Compliance Guide 08/24/04

The scallop fleet won an important victory when a Federal Judge in Washington, DC ruled that she didn’t have jurisdiction to grant a preliminary injunction requested by Pew-funded Oceana in their suit of the Secretary of Commerce to shut down the southern range of the Atlantic sea scallop fishery because of sea turtle interactions. Judge Huvelle went on to detail the reasons why she would not have granted the injunction, which would have shut the fishery down immediately, even if she had jurisdiction. While the suit will go on, this was a significant victory on several levels. It established that the Magnuson Act’s prohibition on injunctions of fisheries management plans takes precedence in suits brought under other federal laws. It also, obviously, allows the fishery to remain open. Finally, it provided a “preview” of what the Judge’s views of the merits of the Oceana suit might be. I had the opportunity of attending the hearing with a few industry members. We were all encouraged by the hard work of the Fisheries Survival Fund.

Subsequent to Judge Huvelle’s ruling on the injunction Pew was ruled against again. Another Federal Judge Richard Leon turned down Oceana’s request for an injunction which would have shut down the pelagic longline fishery, again for turtle interactions. The Judge in this instance ruled as well that he didn’t have jurisdiction, but if he did he would have not granted the injunction.

Addendum XII to the Black Sea Bass FMP

The Commission’s Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Management Board approved Addendum XII to the Fishery Management Plan for Black Sea Bass. The Addendum extends the current state-by-state black sea bass commercial allocation system for the 2005 – 2007 fishing years.

Addendum XIII to the Black Sea Bass, Summer Flounder and Scup FMP

Amendment 1 to the Winter Flounder FMP

During the ASMFC Meeting the Winter Flounder Management Board reviewed public comments and selected options for final approval of the plan. Jim Lovgren provided written testimony as well as input at the Advisory Panel to provide options that would have allowed for NJ and western NY to have their stock of flounder managed separately from the Southern New England stock and to identify it as a separate Mid-Atlantic Stock.

GSSA provided written comments and testimony illustrating the drastic reductions in DAS for the vessels fishing from NJ and that those reductions should be considered as an overall reduction in commercial effort and fishing mortality.

Unfortunately we were unsuccessful.

Commercial management measures will be developed. We will monitor this closely and continue to provide comments.

Research Set Aside Programs

The NFI – Scientific Monitoring Committee was notified that our research proposal to test larger mesh sizes in the Loligo fishery was approved.

If you have access to e-mail you could send me your contact information or you could call me at my office.

I hope to meet all of you in person and will arrange a time that is convenient for you.Please do not hesitate to call me regarding fisheries issues. I would like to have the opportunity to receive your input and communicate the status of the issues that GSSA are working on.

Sincerely,

Greg DiDomenico

The Garden State Seafood Association is a statewide organization of commercial fishermen and fishing companies, related businesses and individuals working in common cause to promote the interests of the commercial fishing industry and seafood consumers in New Jersey. The Association’s primary goal is to assure that our marine resources are managed responsibly and that all of the people in New Jersey, whether as anglers or as seafood consumers, will be able to enjoy the bounty of New Jersey’s rich coastal and offshore waters for generations. This is our pledge to those who catch fish as their livelihood, to those who go fishing for recreation and to the millions who enjoy eating seafood in restaurants and at home.

The Garden State is also one of our nations largest harvesters of seafood. In fact the value of New Jersey’s landings rank us in 4th place out of the 14 East coast states. The states commercial fishing fleet annually harvests 195 million pounds of fish and shellfish, with a dockside value of $100 million, generating revenues of $600 million. Cape May and Atlantic City are two of the East Coast’s largest fishing ports. Their combined fleets harvest $60 million worth of seafood every year. The ports of Belford, Point Pleasant, Barnegat Light and Point Norris have active fleets engaged in the full spectrum of inshore and offshore fisheries.