Cut in sea bass quota based on bad information
BY John Geiser • STAFF COLUMNIST • August 8, 2008
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Almost obscured by the euphoria surrounding an increase in the summer flounder quota for 2009 was the shocking blow fisheries management dealt the recreational sea bass fishery.
The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's summer flounder, scup and black sea bass board voted Wednesday to slash the sea bass quota by almost half.
Capt. Tony Bogan, president of the United Boatmen, said the decision to cut the quota from 4.22 million pounds this year to 2.3 million pounds next year was terrible. "This is an utter disaster," he said. "And the tragic part of it is the decision was not based on sound science."
The council and the commission acted on the flimsy evidence that the National Marine Fisheries Service's trawl survey did not turn up many sea bass.
"This survey is made on open bottom," Bogan pointed out. "Even the monitoring committee did not want to make a recommendation based on this information."
Bogan emphasized what every bottom fisherman knows: sea bass live on rocks, reefs, wrecks and other broken bottom. They are found in the open only when migrating from one preferred habitat to another.
Robert "Dusty" Rhodes, former vice chairman of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, reminded that this is the strategy that the council and the commission have followed for years.
"It's not right," he said. "But this is the way it has been done in the past. It's about time the scientists recognized the problem, but you have to wonder what were they thinking before?"
The biggest problem with this management approach is timing. NMFS prides itself on trawling in the same area at the same time every year for a year-to-year comparison.
The difficulty is that the sea bass swim to their own tune. They migrate when the water temperature is comfortable in season, not on May 18 or some other date decided in Woods Hole, Mass.
If they do not happen to be in the area the survey is made, this does not mean the stocks have collapsed. In fact, sea bass fishing has been good this summer, and the little scrappers helped augment meager fluke catches in June and July.
John Toth, president of the Jersey Coast Anglers Association, said he is very concerned about the deep cut in the sea bass quota and the probable impact next season.
"I was sitting with Bruce Freeman (former research scientist with the state Division of Fish and Wildlife) at the meeting, and we were shocked at the decision," he said. "Anglers are suffering; the JCAA cannot support decisions like this.
"This was done with no solid information," he added. "This is horrendous. This is turning fisheries management into a dart game."
Toth reminded that the recreational sector has not overfished its quota in 10 years.
Capt. Francis Bogan, skipper of the Paramount from Bogan's Basin, Brielle, has counted heavily on the sea bass since the fish migrated inshore, and he is still catching some bass, though ling are composing the bulk of his catch.
