Posted 3/26/08

See also: NOAA Slams Down Tog Moratorium.

New Jersey's Marine Fisheries Council held an emergency meeting March 19 to try to head off a moratorium on tautog fishing that the NOAA Fisheries Service was threatening to impose in the state on April 1.

The council decided to propose to maintain the current 14-inch minimum size for tog, keep the four-fish bag limit through April, close the season from May 1 through June 15, keep a one-fish limit from June 16 through November 15 and a six-fish limit from November 16 through December 31, according to local newspapers that covered the meeting.

The only differences compared with last year would be the closed season, when previously the limit was one fish, and the six-fish limit, when previously the limit was eight, and the start of the six-fish limit on November 16, instead of the previous start of the eight-fish limit on November 15.

The council also proposed to close commercial fishing for tog from April 15 to June 4, while previously the commercial season was closed July 1 through November 1, according to the papers.

The federal government says recreational anglers land 90 percent of all tog that are caught, and commercials land 10 percent.

The council's proposal now goes to the state DEP's commissioner for review and the the New Jersey Office of Administrative Law. Then the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will decide whether the measures would reduce catches by 25.6 percent required by the federal government.

See the link at the top of this page for the reasons for the 25.6-percent cut.

If the ASMFC decides to approve New Jersey's plan, then it goes to the U.S. Department of Commerce, and that could stop the impending moratorium.

New Jersey originally rejected the need for the 25.6-percent closure based on the state's own data that showed the tog population was healthy enough to require no such cut.

But now the state is trying to head off the moratorium.

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