Posted by FYI Link: Asbury Park Press - Recreational fishermen to fight........
on 10/14/2009, 8:35 am
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October 13, 2009
Recreational fishermen to fight against black sea bass ban
By KIRK MOORE - TOMS RIVER BUREAU
Recreational fishing advocates are organizing a legal and fundraising campaign to overturn the government's six-month emergency shutdown of the black sea bass fishery.
In a letter to supporters, the Recreational Fishing Alliance says it, and a coalition of fishing organizations, are raising money for a legal challenge to the fishery closing ordered by the National Marine Fisheries Service, which forbids anglers from possessing black sea bass in federal waters more than three miles offshore.
The service shut the fishery down Oct. 5, saying that data from the ongoing Marine Recreational Fishing Statistical Survey indicate that sport fishermen will overrun their share of the alloted 2009 catch limit by as much as 200 percent.
The decision marked a turning point for the agency, which in past years had warned of a potential summer flounder closure when survey results showed heavy fishing.
This is the first time the service has taken such a step in the Northeast, and Alliance Executive Director Jim Donofio said advocacy groups and lawyers are discussing strategies, such as seeking an injunction in federal court so Shore party and charter boats can go back to taking their customers fishing.
Fisheries Service officials said they need to act on the survey trend because it's the only data they have on recreational fishing catches. But the National Academy of Sciences several years ago found the survey to be deeply flawed. Critics say it is living up to that reputation with findings that show a busy 2009 spring fishing season despite weeks of rain and poor sales among recreational businesses.
Meanwhile, a reassessment of the black sea bass population this summer estimated the stock of reproducing fish to be just more than the target for a healthy population, Fishing Alliance Managing Director Jim Hutchinson Jr. wrote in the letter to supporters.
Regulators at the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Council could actually increase the fishing quota for 2010, but they are proceeding cautiously with that new finding because their science advisers said the relatively data-deficient black sea bass stock is still not completely understood.
Angling groups should take a stand because federal officials, in the meantime, will use the statistical survey to close what appears to be a a rebuilt fish stock, Donofrio said.
Additional Facts
Regulators at the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Council could actually increase the fishing quota for 2010, but they are proceeding cautiously with that new finding because their science advisers said the relatively data-deficient black sea bass stock is still not completely understood.
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