The Fishing Line: Baby It’s Cold Outside

Fishing is slower than usual at this time of year so I’m hoping you’re getting caught up on holiday preparations. Check out the marinas for gift ideas for your favorite fisher. In the meantime let me fill you in on some news and updates.
This news has a lot of folks talking: “NJOA: It’s official: NY after NJ fluke quota.” It seems that Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) would introduce a fluke act that would likely take from New Jersey’s fluke quota. Bill S.1757 has now been introduced in the U.S. Senate. A copy of the bill is available at http://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th/senate-bill/1757/ (The original article was written by Mark Harrington for Newsday.) “Schumer vowed to push a bill through Congress that would do away with what he said was the faulty data and uneven quota system on which New York’s small share is based…”
The so-called Fluke Fairness Act would require that federal fisheries managers use up-to-date research and data to set quotas, which now limit New York’s share of the commercial fishery to 7.6 percent of the federal allotment. For recreational fishing, Schumer said, New York anglers’ 17 percent quota means they can keep fewer fish than even neighboring states such as Connecticut and New Jersey whose boats may travel into New York waters. New Jersey anglers fishing in season can keep five fluke of 17.5 inches compared with New York’s four fish at 19 inches. A regional approach Schumer and others have pushed would make the three states’ recreational quota the same. Stay tuned for more on this quota debate.
From the Senate record: S.1757 — Fluke Fairness Act of 2013 (Introduced in Senate – IS) To provide for an equitable management of summer flounder based on geographic, scientific, and economic data and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, November 21, 2013 Mr. SCHUMER (for himself and Mrs. GILLIBRAND) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
A BILL To provide for an equitable management of summer flounder based on geographic, scientific, and economic data and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the `Fluke Fairness Act of 2013′.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. Congress finds the following:
(1) Summer flounder is an important economic fish stock for commercial and recreational fishermen across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic United States.
(2) The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.) was reauthorized in 2006 and instituted annual catch limits and accountability measures for important fish stocks.
(3) That reauthorization prompted fishery managers to look at alternate management schemes to rebuild depleted stocks like summer flounder.
(4) Summer flounder occur in both State and Federal waters and are managed through a joint fishery management plan between the Council and the Commission.
(5) The Council and the Commission decided that each State’s recreational and commercial harvest limits for summer flounder would be based upon landings in previous years.
(6) These historical landings were based on flawed data sets that no longer provide fairness or flexibility for fisheries managers to allocate resources based on the best science.
(7) This allocation mechanism resulted in an uneven split among the States along the East Coast which is problematic.
(8) The Fishery Management Plan for summer flounder does not account for regional changes in the location of the fluke stock even though the stock has moved further to the north and changes in effort by anglers along the East Coast.
(9) The States have been locked in a management system based on data that occurred over a decade ago and the summer flounder stock is not being managed using the best available science and modern fishery management techniques.
(10) It is in the interest of the Federal Government to establish a new fishery management plan for summer flounder that is based on current geographic, scientific, and economic realities.
NJDEP: Nearly 800 landlocked salmon, averaging more than 14 inches in length, were recently stocked in two Sussex County lakes. The stocking is in addition to 1,000 salmon stocked earlier this year and continues a program begun in 2006. Wawayanda Lake was float-stocked with 550 salmon, and Lake Aeroflex was float-stocked with 225 salmon. In late May, 2013, salmon averaging 8.5 inches in length were stocked with Waywayanda Lake receiving 720 salmon, and Lake Aeroflex getting 280. Another 200 salmon remain at the Hackettstown Hatchery for a future first time stocking at Tilcon Lake (Morris County). The lake will be designated a Holdover Trout Lake in 2014 to provide a trophy-class salmon fishery there. For more details on the recent stocking, including photos of the salmon, visit http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/news/2013/salmon_stock13.htm
(2)NJDEP Division of Fish and Wildlife is partnering with the New Jersey State Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs and the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ to host the next NJ Wildlife & Conservation Conference, June 6-8, 2014 in Atlantic City.
To help develop the agenda, you are invited to complete an online survey at phibetagib.wufoo.com/forms/preconference-survey The brief survey should take no more than 10 minutes to complete.
Be sure to check out next week’s column on the Heroes on the Water Project which is teaching wounded vets how to kayak and fish. The Fishing Line runs year round (short hiatus in January) so keep sending your reports and pictures to cmiller@cmcherald.com.
Column and pictures are posted online at www.capemaycountyherald.com and on Facebook. Keep them coming.