COURT HOUSE — A group of anglers pounded the North Main Street pavement outside the Legislative Office of state Sen. Jeff VanDrew, and Assemblymen Nelson Albano and Matthew Milam (all D-1st) on Sat., April 9 instead of enjoying the first day of trout season.
Some in the group were members of the New Jersey Outdoor Alliance and Reef Rescue Mission, were not thinking of freshwater species. They were angered over something out of sight, but not out of their minds: artificial reefs.
Carrying signs and banners, the message they sought to deliver to Albano was, “Give Us Back Our Reefs.”
They named Albano since he chairs the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, and hoped their united action would urge him to “stop blocking the democratic process and hear Bill A-1152, which will remove the traps off the reefs.”
A pamphlet they handed to a reporter stated Albano is “turning his back on hundreds of thousands of recreational anglers and divers who fund New Jersey’s Reef Management Program through excise taxes on gear while he provides protection to the 20 commercial trappers who pay nothing.”
The group also protested Albano’s “decision to defy federal Sport Fish Restoration Program which funds New Jersey’s Reef Program and mandates that reefs built for the public to use are for hook and line, and spear fishing only.”
According to another flier, given by Reef Rescue Mission, “The purpose of the protests and rally are to demonstrate the importance of this legislation to the anglers and divers of New Jersey and to urge Chairman Albano to stop blocking the democratic process and hear A-1152 in his committee.”
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