Purse Seine Boats in Raritan Bay
 

Today I saw 7 purse seine boats working just inshore of the Reach Channel West of Earle. I read bait like crazy on my machine and these guys appeared to be taking them all. They were packed together in a small area with their nets filling up with bunker. I watched one guy for several minutes and his net was pretty full.

The lack of bait in the Bay has resulted in a difficult Spring for many of us. Now, when the bait has arrived, it's quickly netted up for fertilizer & pet food.

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When you have Party Boats cancelling their night trips due to lack of bait. Now we know why....... :eek::eek:

Re: Purse Seine Boats in Raritan Bay
 

They are likely to be bunker bait boats so what they catch gets used for bait for lobster traps and the like. The big reduction boats that used to do most of the damage that catch bunker for dog food or fertilizer are no longer allowed in NJ state waters.

Here is an old article I found where they were trying to restrict the number of licenses for the bunker bait boats as well... Not sure where that sits but will try and find out.

http://www.nj.com/shore/blogs/fishin...r_bait_bo.html

Re: Purse Seine Boats in Raritan Bay
 

Gerry I believe I saw an article last week that omega was granted a permit to fish our waters in nj again .

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This is true Jerry but? They are strictly bait boats but why Raritan Bay? The answer is New York does not allow it but New Jersey does. They can't escape in the bay and the "Bait'' boats are working in tandem.We have been trying to get them out of the bay for years to no avail.When i was in the Hi mar club we got some restrictions passed as to how close to shore they can net. We need them to stay in the ocean.The Belford fleet has done enough damage to our fishery over the years.The whiting and ling have been raped by them and now the bunker.Bunker are the most important fish in the ocean.The whales are here and guess what they are eating? You bet ya good old bunker!When will the NJdiv. of Fish And Game do someting about this? When will the new jersey politicians that say"we have your back'' do someting about this?It would really our fishery from stripers to blues weakfish and fluke not to mention peanuts bunker in the fall.No bait no fish is not that hard to understand.:mad:

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All bunker boats should be banned from bays and harbors.

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Not good! They should not be allowed to harvest any fish in the bay and I am sure they are getting more than bunker in them nets. Saw them years back working off of Keansburg with a spotter plane. It just got me angry! I wish there was a way to stop this!

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Correct.

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Not surprising under the current deregulation era. Absolute shame that big $$$ gets to harvest a main forage species that every game fish depend on.

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So apparently back in 2011, fisheries management got involved in the bunker bait harvesting situation. In 2012 they got a 25% quota reduction.

Seems that there was also some sort of handshake agreement between recs and commercials in the Manasquan area to lay off the bunker during the spring Striper run. I remember being in the Point Pleasant beach area one summer and watching them off load bunker onto 2 semi trucks that were stacked 2 Boner boxes high and 2 boxes wide. Apparently that load was headed to Maine for lobster bait.

That would really suck if Omega got approval to fish in our state waters again. One of these reduction boats can do way more harm then several bait boats.

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regulations are always born because bad things happened... The boats were regulated because the raped the bait population.

When you here deregulation remember this. Banks were regulated because the housing market crashed.... Wall Street was regulated because everyone lost their pension.....

Things become deregulated so a few people can make money

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I think we are in agreement.

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bet they are getting some nice big weakies too.

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I don't think it is a matter of deregulation. It is more like political influence.
This is a quote form a Dec. 2015 article about Omega in Chesapeake Bay:

“Because depletion of the juvenile population in the inshore nursery areas has dire consequences for the ecology of the bays, every Atlantic state, from Florida to Maine, except Virginia, bans purse seining for menhaden in its inshore and near-shore waters,” says William Tabor of the Chesapeake Bay Defense Foundation. “The result is that Omega Protein, the sole industrial menhaden reduction fishing operation, catches nearly its entire Atlantic quota in Virginia waters, with fully half its quota taken inside the Chesapeake Bay.”

The article also mentions how much Omega contributes to political campaigns in Virginia, with particular mention of contributions to Governor Terry McAuliffe.

Re: Purse Seine Boats in Raritan Bay
 

Thank you.

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Absolutely deplorable. What great progress was made in recent years in menhaden conservation, and now this? :mad::mad::mad: Last week I could not find any at all to net up or snag in the places where I usually get them. Those reduction boats suck the life out of the area. Probably tens of thousands of arguably the most important forage fish in the area...gone. I think I remember filling out an atlantic states marine fisheries survey on menhaden last year. Wonder what happened with that?

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Not one governor or US senator from NJ cares about the bunker depletion in Raritan Bay. They never did and Christie could care less! Even the politicians that say there behind us accomplish nothing.Time for a change not only with NOAA but the life long politicians of New Jersey.How hard could it be to pass a law forbidding purse sieners in our bays?

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Spot On Capt Sal!!! Just picture how many Bass, Weakies, Fluke, etc etc are sucked up in those nets. Mortality? 100%!!!!
Changing the subject but...didnt exactly see a lot of coverage of the two White Sharks(two that we are sure of) killed in gill nets(by locals) in the past several weeks nearby, along the beach. Crickets!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Watched these jerks from Belford make a set off Keyport #1 buoy .They killed more Bass and giant weakfish with one set than we catch in 5 seasons.They got crushed on the deck and because they can't keep them they threw them overboard. Looked like the mud hole with ling and whiting floating for miles1 Nope i have no respect for the Belford fleet.By the way the crew was laughing there heads off while throwing the stripers back!

Re: Purse Seine Boats in Raritan Bay
 

Captain Sal,
You probably are aware of this...there is supposed to be a marine conservation officer monitoring these guys. If you have any pics you could report them although I guess they have a permit to net the bunker. Just disturbing, obviously

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FYI-I started this Thread.
While I saw watching these boats, I called the USCG Offices in Bayonne, Staten Island and The Battery. No one was able to give me info about legality etc. Another call to the NJ State Police Marine Unit was no help either. They suggested I contact NOAA Enforcement. I was disappointed because I figured...."they can check for short fluke but not a few boats wiping out tons of bunker in a few hours".

When I got home I called the NJDEP Fish & Game Enforcement Unit in Nacote Creek, Port Republic, NJ regarding bunker purse seining boats. I was told it is legal for purse seiners to operate from 0.6 to 3.0 miles from shore in NJ. The woman told me that the purse seiners were required to report to the Nacote Creek Office the locations where they plan to fish each day. She informed me that they had an Enforcement Officer who was expected to be in that area to observe this activity.

I told her it made me sick to watch these guys take all the bait that just arrived in the Bay. She said she understood but it's legal.

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Here is what I tracked down on the ASMFC website,6.45% increase in 2017 http://www.asmfc.org/species/atlantic-menhaden

In response to concerns that the 6,000 pound per vessel bycatch allowance in Amendment 2 does not support cooperative fishing, the Board approved Addendum I in August 2016. The Addendum modifies the bycatch provision by allowing two permitted fishermen working on the same vessel using stationary multispecies gears to land up to 12,000 pounds of menhaden per trip per day. The practice of two permitted individuals working together on the same vessel allows fishermen to pool resources of fuel and crew, and primarily occurs in the Chesapeake Bay pound net fishery.

In October 2016, the Atlantic Menhaden Management Board approved a 2017 TAC of 200,000 mt, a 6.45% increase from the 2016 TAC. According to Technical Committee analysis this increase has a zero percent probability of resulting in overfishing. The TAC will be made available to the states/jurisdictions based on the state-by-state allocation established by Amendment 2.

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I just came across this article about Omega Protein and menhaden:

http://www.mondovacilando.com/someth...-reedville-va/

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No more phone calls - we have a winner!

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Vote em out every last swinging d#$%.

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By law if there are stripers in the net they can not lift them from the small boat pulling the net to the big boat.If they lift them and drop them like the bunker you have a bunch of dead stripers and big breeder weakfish. I have watched them do it and it made me sick.If they come in to the bay in April and May and take all the bunker from the NJ side the NY side still has bunker.The bass are on the NY side following the bait.It can ruin the striper run!It is ridiculous that the same body of water has different laws.Tell me the NJ politicians give a rats ass about bunker!As far as how close they can go to shore was changed years ago and you can thank the HI-Mar club for that!!!

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Many years back in late 50's Belford creek housed a good size fleet of these bunker boats like pictured in the photo in your story about Omega !
If memory serves there were about 20 or more operating out of this facility , folks that worked on boats were housed in cottages adjacent to fish plant .
They have been decimating these important bait fish for years with all complaints falling on deal ears for most part !
It seems with this new administration it may allow us the opportunity to limit this bunker devastation , after all they were after change at all levels .
It seems that publicity on the Tyson front thru media reports might grab some newsworthy issues & lay out this bunker dilemma ,NY got it done .
It's really commitment on all our parts to attack this issue now & head on , social media , sites like these etc all good places to start . NJ congressman we should all ask them why this is allowed, but we already know the answer to this ? , money , however it seems to do little for the NJ economy it all goes into another states treasury ,WTF ! Wake up people time to rearm against this issue not when it may be too late !