Final Sea Bass and Blackfish Proposals
Below are the options that are expected to be voted on at the next meeting of New Jersey Marine Fisheries Council. It will be held on the 2nd Thursday, May 10, 2012 at 4:00 p.m. at the Galloway Township Library, Jimmie Leeds Road, Absecon, NJ.
At the JCAA meeting last night our member clubs voted unanimously to support option 2. Our opinion on each option is as follows:
Option 1 - Leaves the inshore fishermen little to fish for after fluke season concludes on 9/28.
Option 2 - Though we lose the period from 9/4 - 9/22, this option allows us to fish from 9/23 - 10/14. Therefore we have something to fish for after fluke season closes. Federal waters are also currently scheduled to be open through 10/14. (We are hopeful that NMFS will not alter the season that was previously approved by the MAMFC)
Option 3 - We would only gain 11 days in the Sept/Oct
period for giving up all of November and December.
Option 4 - It would be nice to be able to fish well into the fall but the problem is that from 10/15 - 10/31 we would be restricted to fishing in state waters as federal waters will be closed during that period.
Sea Bass Proposals
All options include 12.5-inch size limit and 25-fish possession limit.
Options Open Season # Days Open
2011 Regulations May 28 through September 11 and
November 1 through December 31 168
Originally approved 2012 option May 28 through October 14 and
November 1 through December 31 210
1 May 19 through September 25 and
November 1 through December 31 191
2 May 19 through September 3
September 23 through October 14 and November 1 – December 31 191
3 May 19 through October 6 141
4 May 19 through June 17;
July 1 through September 3 and
September 29 through December 31 189
Regarding blackfish this is the only option expected to be voted on and it is an improvement from the regulations that had previously been set.
Blackfish Proposal - 15" size limit with all portions of the season
1/1 - 2/29 - 4 fish
3/1 - 3/31 - closed
4/1 - 4/30 - 4 fish
5/1 - 7/16 - closed
7/17 - 11/15 - 1 fish
11/16 - 12/31 - 6 fish
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