Editor's note: The JCAA is apparently encouraging anglers to submit copies of these same letters to these legislators.

From an edited email from the Jersey Coast Anglers Association
on 3/18 :

The following are two letters that were approved at the last JCAA General Meeting.  Please read both letters with care since we are asking for different actions.  The letter to the Governor deals with the issue of reallocation of fluke and the role of NMFS and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in this decision.  The letter to our Congressmen not only mentions the situation pertaining to fluke but also deals with winter flounder and John Bullard's outrageous action in the distribution of fisheries disaster funds.  When calling or writing the Governor or the Congressmen, please use the specific information included in the letters since the actions requested will be different.

Paul Haertel,
JCAA President

LETTER TO THE GOVERNOR

The Honorable Chris Christie
Governor State of New Jersey
PO Box 001
The State House, CN-001
Trenton NJ 08625-0001

Dear Governor Christie:

As you may be aware, New Jersey was unfairly treated by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission in the recent decision on summer flounder.  The decision forced New Jersey to regionalize with New York and Connecticut on summer flounder.  This will greatly decrease the number of summer flounder (estimated 41,000 fish or more and at least seven fishing days this year) that could have been caught by New Jersey anglers.  The economic decrease for the recreational fishing industry of New Jersey could be in the millions of dollars. 

This decision was made under the guise that regionalization would be fairer and more equitable to everyone but in reality this was a reallocation of quota from New Jersey to New York and Connecticut.  This was unprecedented because the battle for reallocation was led by John Bullard who is the Administrator for the Greater Atlantic Region of NOAA Fisheries. Since he is relatively new to his role as Administrator, New Jersey's Governor's Appointee to ASMFC, Tom Fote, reminded him that the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had always refrained from lobbying or voting on allocation issues.  It was never the role of the services to advocate for a particular state at ASMFC meetings.  Not only did the Administrator ignore Mr. Fote's advice, he made a joke of it.  He then proceeded to become an advocate for the state of New York in this allocation battle.  In fact, on the motion by Mr. Fote to maintain the status quo for 2014, Mr. Bullard made a speech advocating a "no" vote and both services voted "no".  The final vote was 7 no votes to 4 yes votes.  Before Mr. Bullard's speech, there would have been enough "yes" votes to carry the motion if the services had abstained.  It should also be noted that the ASMFC accepted comments and held hearings in various states along the coast in regard to the proposed regionalization plan. An overwhelming majority of groups and individuals favored continuing state-by-state conservation equivalency and were clearly opposed to the regionalization plans. In fact those who attended the hearing in New Jersey were unanimously opposed to the plan. Despite that, Mr. Bullard spoke defiantly against the will of the public.

Dr. David Pierce, Chairman of the Summer Founder, Black Sea Bass and Scup Board, was so greatly concerned about this decision that he wrote a letter to all the members of the ASMFC Board.  Dr. Pierce's letter concluded that this regionalization may well cause the region to go over its quota because New York will be able to reduce its size limit.  The New Jersey delegation has made the same prediction before the vote but it was ignored by Mr. Bullard.  Even if the anglers in New Jersey do not exceed their target quota, we may need to take a significant cut in 2015.  The economic impact could be disastrous.  This could also have a negative impact on the summer flounder stock by going over quota. 

New Jersey's Commissioners to ASMFC have always felt that the services should be ex-officio members without the opportunity to vote.  They should provide information and funding but should not be voting members.  That is how the original compact was written.  Given the recent behavior, it is time to renew this call and direct your Commissioners to make a motion at the Policy Committee for ASMFC to take away the voting rights of the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  In addition to directing your Commissioners to take this action, we are requesting that you write a letter to Louis Daniels, Chairman of ASMFC, demanding this motion be placed on the agenda for the next Policy Board Meeting.

New Jersey's bipartisan Congressional Delegation has written letters to the Director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  NOAA is the agency that directs NMFS.  Their letters express their outrage at the actions of Mr. Bullard and call for immediate action to remedy this situation.  The letters also ask the Director to require Mr. Bullard to act in a more nonpartisan manner. 

Respectfully submitted,
Paul Haertel, President

CC:  DEP Commissioner Bob Martin

Letter to Congressmen or Senator

Dear Congress Representative  or Senator

The purpose of this letter is to bring to your attention the recent actions of John Bullard, Administrator of the Greater Atlantic Region of NOAA Fisheries.  These actions will have a negative impact on New Jersey, our recreational anglers, our recreational fishing industry and the resource. 

As you may be aware, New Jersey was unfairly treated by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) in the recent decision on summer flounder.  This decision forced New Jersey to regionalize with New York and Connecticut on summer flounder.  This will greatly decrease the number of summer flounder (estimated 41,000 fish or more and at least seven fishing days this year) that could have been caught by New Jersey anglers.  The economic decrease for the recreational fishing industry of New Jersey could be in the millions of dollars. 

This decision was made under the guise of regionalization but in actuality this was a reallocation of quota from New Jersey to New York and Connecticut.  This was unprecedented because the battle for the reallocation was led by John Bullard. Since he is relatively new to his role as Administrator, New Jersey's Governor's Appointee to the ASMFC, Tom Fote, reminded him that the services (National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) had always refrained from lobbying or voting on allocation issues.  It was never the role of the services to advocate for a particular state at ASMFC meetings.  Not only did the administrator ignore Mr. Fote's advice, he made a joke of it.  He then proceeded to become an advocate for the state of New York in this allocation battle.  In fact, on the motion by Mr. Fote to maintain the status quo for 2014, Mr. Bullard made a speech advocating a "no" vote and both services voted "no".  The final vote was 7 no votes to 4 yes votes.  Before Mr. Bullard's speech, there would have been enough "yes" votes to carry the motion if the services had abstained.  It should also be noted that the ASMFC accepted comments and held hearings in various states along the coast in regard to the proposed regionalization plan. An overwhelming majority of groups and individuals favored continuing state-by-state conservation equivalency and were decidedly opposed to the regionalization plans. In fact, at the hearing in New Jersey, the regionalization plan was unanimously opposed.  Despite that, Mr. Bullard spoke defiantly against the will of the public.

Dr. David Pierce, Chairman of the Summer Founder, Black Sea Bass and Scup Board, was so greatly concerned about this decision that he wrote a letter to all the members of the ASMFC Board.  Dr. Pierce's letter concluded that this regionalization may well cause the region to go over its quota because New York will be able to reduce its size limit.  The New Jersey delegation had made the same prediction before the vote but it was ignored by Mr. Bullard.  Even if the anglers in New Jersey do not exceed their target quota, they may be forced to take a significant cut in 2015.  The economic impact could be disastrous.  This could also have a negative impact on the summer flounder stock by going over quota. 

In another decision, John Bullard allowed fishing for winter flounder in the EEZ.  The ASMFC had restricted winter flounder catch in state waters to a near moratorium level.  Some states do have a moratorium.  There was a moratorium put in place in place in the EEZ which is Federal waters by the former regional director.  The reason was that the stocks are at dangerously low levels.  The 2014 stock assessment report shows no recovery at all.  This did not stop Mr. Bullard from opening the EEZ to 5,000 pound trip limits on a stock that is fully depressed.  There is no scientific justification for this action.  He did this to support the ground fish fishery located in New Bedford and surrounding areas.  He did this without consulting the ASMFC which has the management responsibility for winter flounder in state waters.  With this decision, a commercial fisherman can land 50,000 pounds in 10 trips in Federal waters.  New Jersey's recreational anglers landed only 40 pounds of winter flounder in total in 2012.  With these figures, it would take New Jersey's recreational anglers 1,250 years to catch the same amount of winter flounder as the commercial fishermen will catch in 10 trips.  All the commercial fyke net fishermen in New Jersey's state waters collectively landed about 7,000 pounds of winter flounder in 2012.  It would take them more than 7 years to equal one commercial fisherman's 10 trips in federal waters.  There is no evidence that he considered the rebuilding of the winter flounder stocks in this decision.  He ignored conservation. 

In addition, with regard to the allocation of fisheries disaster money, Mr. Bullard was able to determine how that money would be allocated for the Greater Atlantic Region.  He ignored the damage done by Sandy to both New York and New Jersey and allocated the 33 million dollars to the ground fish fishery in New Bedford, Massachusetts and surrounding states and allocated only 3 million dollars in total for New York and New Jersey.  Mr. Bullard is the former mayor of New Bedford.  This is clearly a partisan decision.  Mr. Bullard is apparently ignoring the 107 million dollars of damage that the recreational fishing industry in New Jersey lost as a result of Sandy.  Remember, the ground fish fishery had no reported damage as a result of Sandy. 

New Jersey's Commissioners to the ASMFC have always felt that the services should be ex-officio members without the opportunity to vote.  They should provide information and funding but should not be voting members.  That is how the original compact was written.  Given the recent bias behavior of Mr. Bullard, the NMFS and the USFWS, it is time to renew this call and write a letter to Dr. Louis Daniels, Chairman of ASMFC, demanding a motion be placed on the agenda for the next Policy Board Meeting that would respect the compact and deny a vote to NMFS and USFWS.

We are also asking New Jersey's bipartisan Congressional Delegation to write letters to the newly confirmed Director of NOAA and the new Director of NMFS.  (NOAA is the agency that directs NMFS.)  The letters should express outrage at the actions of Mr. Bullard and ask the Directors to require him to act in a more nonpartisan manner.  He should be told to represent all the states in the Greater Atlantic Region and not just do what is best for New Bedford. The NMFS should be told to focus on conservation and not get involved in allocation issues between states or favoring one state over another. 

Respectfully submitted,
Paul Haertel, President
Jersey Coast Anglers Association

Back to Top