In GSSA Communication Director Nils Stolpe’s column on  research in this issue, he writes about the benefits that can come back to the industry from investing in better science and why the industry should both encourage and help pay for that research. I agree with him completely, as should every person reading this who works in or deals with the commercial fishing industry.

As a response to the growing need for solid data on our important fisheries and the growing inability of the responsible governmental agencies to deliver that data, GSSA, the Cape May Seafood Producers Association and several recreational fishing groups have been lobbying the New Jersey legislature in Trenton for the creation of a state funded fisheries research center at Rutgers University. Our intent is to have an in-state capability to answer basic questions dealing with fisheries issues and to provide state-of-the-art research to support fair and equitable fisheries management.

That isn’t going to be enough. Rutgers is a large, prestigious institution with tremendous capabilities in fisheries and oceanographic research. But a publicly funded program at Rutgers isn’t always going to be able to provide the kind of research support that the industry needs in the time frame that is required. For that we need the ability to react quickly. We have to identify the researchers with the background and the ability to do the work and the reputation to “sell” it to the managers, and we might have to bring them on board quickly. We have to identify the labs, the boats and the equipment we need and we might have to do it in a week, rather than going through a funding cycle, putting out a request for proposals, complying with all sorts of administrative requirements and waiting a year to get in gear. And, consistent with the requirements of “good science,” of course, we have to be able to chart the course the research is taking. For all of this we need an industry funded and industry controlled mechanism.

The Garden State Seafood Association is proposing that we establish such a mechanism in New Jersey, established and operated under the auspices of the Garden State Seafood Association and funded by an assessment on the value of all fish and shellfish products landed in New Jersey. We reviewed the total New Jersey landings from 1994 to 1998 (from the NMFS commercial fisheries statistics database), and they average roughly $100 million a year. An assessment of ¼ of 1%* would provide $250,000 annually for a New Jersey commercial fishing industry research war chest. This would provide us with the ability to track management plans at the state, federal and regional levels, identify research needs before they became critical, and either on our own or by working with the managers, fill in the research gaps that are costing our industry far too much. And our system could serve as an example that would encourage the industries in other states to start similar programs.

It should be obvious to everyone involved in the domestic fishing industry that our future is totally dependent on an effective system based on a level of science far better than that supporting our management decisions today. It should be our responsibility to provide as much of that science as we can afford, and to provide the political impetus for our management agencies to provide the rest. Within the next month I will be organizing meetings in each of our major ports to talk about how we can get this program started, but its success is going to be up to you.

*This would work out to four cents a pound for $5/lb scallops, an eighth of a cent a pound for $.50/lb whiting, and a quarter of a cent a pound for $1/lb fluke.  
 

Sincerely,
Jeff Reichle
Lund's Fisheries, Cape May, NJ