Legislator Contests Imposition of Emergency Ban on Recreational Anglers
Senator Sean Kean introduced a Senate resolution opposing the federal six-month ban on black sea bass fishing beyond three miles of shore. As of October 5, 2009, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has imposed a ban on the recreational fishing sector harvest in response to a report release by the Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey that suggested the 2009 federal quota for black sea bass would be surpassed.
“It is unfair to take such a drastic measure and restrict fishermen when other conflicting reports show that the quota for black sea bass will not be exceeded,” he said. “Local anglers should not be punished as a result of this flawed data.”
The 2009 federal quota for black sea bass, which was established by NMFS in 2008, was based on the condition that black sea bass were overfished and that overfishing was continuing to occur. Although the approved stock assessment, published in 2008, reported that stocks of black sea bass were, in fact, not overfished, and that overfishing was not occurring, NMFS did not raise the 2009 quota in response to this new information.
In addition, the most recently approved stock assessment, published in 2009, has again reported that stocks of black sea bass are not being overfished and it indicates that the black sea bass stock has been at or above target levels for the entire past decade.
“The harvesting of black sea bass is essential to our state’s recreational fishing industry as well as to the state’s coastal economy,” said Kean. “The federal ban on recreational black sea bass fishing will create unnecessary and significant economic hardship for New Jersey’s fishermen and will increase unemployment rates.”
Black sea bass is currently one of the few fish available to recreational fishermen during the fall, winter, and spring seasons and 96 percent of New Jersey’s harvestable black sea bass are located in federal waters, from 3 to 200 miles offshore.
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