Division gets pots off of the reef ...

[njdiver]

Division gets pots off of the reef

Friday, July 11, 2008

BY AL RISTORI
Star-Ledger Staff

Dave Chanda, Director of the Division of Fish and Wildlife, had very good news for anglers at yesterday's Marine Fisheries Council meeting. Pat Donnelly of Point Pleasant called at press time to report Chanda has changed the Division's compromise proposal that would have left pots on the reefs half the year. Instead, the Division will administratively eliminate the pots from the artificial reefs that were built with federal Wallop-Breaux Funds that can be used only for sportfishing purposes -- and with donations from anglers and divers.

If not vetoed by the Council, that will eliminate the need to carry on a lengthy and expensive legislative battle to accomplish the same protection for the public that's being pushed off the reefs by strings of pots that fish 24 hours a day and make both drifting and anchoring difficult.


http://www.nj.com/columns/ledger/ristori/index.ssf?/base/columns-0/1215750970298080.xml&coll=1