By Mark Marquez II
Posted 1/23/08

The fight to prevent a moratorium on summer flounder fishing, a realisitic threat from the government, is the most important issue that New Jersey anglers ever faced, Greg Hueth, a board member from the Save the Summer Flounder Fishery Fund, said at a public meeting of the organization on Monday in Manasquan.

Anglers are inevitably going to see drastic cuts to the state's bag limit for summer flounder or fluke once again this year.

And a moratorium on fishing for fluke, or a rediculously low catch limit that is essentially a moratorium, will likely take place in 2009, unless anglers can prevent it.

Preventing it is the SSFFF's goal.

This is real, folks. This will happen if you, the reader, do not help.

No fishery is more important than fluke fishing to New Jersey's anglers and recreational fishing industry.

For example, the majority of fishing reports on this site from spring to fall, most of the year, are about fluke fishing.

Jersey's charter boats, party boats and tackle shops do more business involving fluke fishing than any other type of angling. Fluke fishing is the most popular type of saltwater fishing in the state.

If fluke fishing is closed, many of those businesses will surely close, and many anglers will surely hang up their rods, sell their boats, cancel their shore vacations and so on. Someone at the meeting appropriately pointed out that fluke cuts not only affect businesses directly related to fishing, but they also affect many other businesses, such as hotels, restaurants, convenience stores and so on.

This fight is not between the recreational and commercial fishing communities, because the commercials are also opposed to the government's fluke catch limits for both recreationals and commercials.

In a nutshell, and without becoming overly complicated, the government established a goal of rebuilding the fluke population to a certain number and imposed an inflexible deadline to do so. The government has determined that the goal is far from being reached on time, and therefore is establishing drastic limits on fluke fishing for both recreationals and commercials. If you want details, look it up.

The SSFFF and the recreational fishing industry in general says that the government is basing these decisions on highly faulty surveys of the fluke population, the population is healthy and the inflexible deadline should be changed.

It's no secret that the government's Marine Recreational Fishing Statistical Survey, the survey that the government uses to determine the population, is seriously flawed, and in fact the government has determined that it needs to be fixed.

It's also no secret that plenty of fluke could be caught by recreational anglers in recent seasons, including last year. Even fisheries officials from the government have noted that such drastic cuts are unnecessary but that their hands are tied unless anglers fight to get the law changed.

The SSFFF's goal is to fund a survey of fluke to prove to the government that the current fluke data are wrong, so that the law is changed. Commercial fishermen did this with scallop fishing and were successful.

The SSFFF said lobbying the government could be an avenue to win this fight, but the problem with lobbying is that it takes many years to establish. Anglers cannot afford to wait years, or the damage will already be done.

Capt. Ron Santee, an SSFFF board member and owner of the party boat Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands, said this fight is not only important for fluke fishing but is also important to set a precedent that shows the government that anglers are not going to tolerate such actions with any fishery in the future.

Other board members agreed that the government will repeat such actions with other fisheries if this fluke fight is not undertaken and successful.

Congressman Frank Palone (D-N.J.), a longtime supporter of recreational anglers, attended the meeting and noted that one reason why the inflexible deadline, a deadline established by the Magnuson-Stevens Act, is going to be difficult to change is because Congress recently reauthorized the Act, and Congress is reluctant to revisit such issues so soon.

But the consensus among officials who spoke at the meeting was that the fight is possible to win.

Another important aspect is that organizations that support environmental groups, such as Pew Charitable Trusts, are fighting against the changes to Magnuson-Stevens with huge financial backing.

The SSFFF is a new organization formed by people such as tackle shop owners and recreational boat captains and is spearheading this fight. Board members at the meeting said they are volunteers and accept no funds from the SSFFF, including funds for such things as hotel visits, meals and travel.

This year is going to be the year of the fluke fight. The bag limit is going to be drastically cut this season, and anglers are going to notice. There's going to be lots of talk about a fluke moratorium in 2009 if this fight is unsuccessful.

If the moratorium happens, even this web site might have little fishing to report most of the year and therefore no purpose.

This fight is impossible to win without the support of you, the angler. I hear lots of complaints about fishing bag limits from the public. That's reasonable and good, but it is unreasonable if you, the angler, are not doing your part in the fight.

I also hear lots of complaints from captains and tackle shop owners, including fears they have about this. They should be afraid.

One captain who attended the meeting asked the SSFFF why South Jersey businesses and anglers seem to be less involved in this issue and such issues than North Jersey anglers usually are.

I want to take this opportunity to echo part of that opinion. I probably talk with as many of the South Jersey business owners as anyone, and I do hear complaints from them about these issues throughout the year. But for some reason fewer of them appear to contribute to the fight compared with North Jersey owners.

If that's the case, then South Jersey captains, fishing business owners and employees probably should listen up. All people whose livings rely on the state's fishing businesses need to act, or they might lose their jobs this time.

Consider again what the board members said: Even if you do no fluke fishing, other types of fishing are next, if the battle for fluke is lost. Tog fishing was one example given.

Other organizations such as the Recreational Fishing Alliance are also involved in the fight.

Whether you are an angler or a fishing business owner, take a look at the SSFFF's web site, and consider donating your money and efforts.

You must decide for yourself whether contributing to the SSFFF is the way you want to help.

But do something to help with this emergency.

Again, this is real, folks.

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