requires states to implement a one fish recreational creel limit, 100 pound commercial trip limit, 100
pound commercial bycatch limit during closed seasons, and 100 undersized fish per trip allowance for
the finfish trawl fishery. All other management measures previously adopted to conserve the stock and
reduce bycatch remain in effect.
The Board’s action comes in response to the stock status of weakfish. A recent peer-reviewed
assessment found the weakfish stock to be depleted, with spawning stock biomass estimated to be three
percent of an unfished stock, well below the 20 percent threshold and 30 percent target reference points
also approved by the Board as part of Addendum IV. The decline in biomass reflects a sustained rise in
natural mortality after 1995, rather than fishing mortality which has been modest and stable over the
same time period.
“The Board received a significant amount of public comment supporting a coastwide moratorium. In
recognition of this, it chose to implement measures that would discourage directed fishing, limit bycatch
mortality, and ensure that critical sampling programs remain on track,” stated Board Chair Roy Miller.
While the decline appears to have resulted from a change in the natural mortality of weakfish in recent
years, it is further exacerbated by continued removals by commercial and recreational fisheries.
However, given the high mortality levels, the stock is also unlikely to recover rapidly. The Addendum’s
measures are intended to reduce the level of harvest without creating a large amount of discards.
Addendum IV will be available via the Commission’s website at http://www.asmfc.org under Breaking News
by November 15. For more information, please contact Nichola Meserve, Fishery Management Plan
Coordinator, at (202) 289-6400 or nmeserve@asmfc.org.
###
of coastal fishery resources. The Commission serves as a deliberative body of the Atlantic coastal states, coordinating the conservation
and management of nearshore fishery resources, including marine, shell and anadromous species.
1444 Eye Street, N.W. — Sixth Floor — Washington, D.C. 20005
(202) 289-6400 (phone) (202) 289-6051 (fax) http://www.asmfc.org
The water is clean,north west wind,water temperature today is 65 degrees. I fished from the beach for the last hour of the out going tide today I caught a few small blues. I jumped in my boat and headed to a favorite spot for the top of the incoming tide looking for speckled trout. No luck. A group of local sharps have a combined 250 hours of hard fishing with very little success just small blues and short stripers. All conditions are good with the exception of water temperature which is border line high.
By Dewie Whetsell, Alaskan Fisherman
As posted in comments on Greta’s article referencing the MOVEON ad about Sarah Palin
The last 45 of my 66 years I’ve spent in a commercial fishing town in Alaska. I understand Alaska politics but never understood national politics well until this last year. Here’s the breaking point: Neither side of the Palin controversy gets it…It’s not about persona, style, rhetoric, it’s about doing things. Even Palin supporters never mention the things that I’m about to mention here.
1- Democrats forget when Palin was the Darling of the Democrats, because as soon as Palin took the Governor’s office away from a fellow Republican and tough SOB, Frank Murkowski, she tore into the Republican’s «Corrupt Bastards Club» (CBC) and sent them packing. Many of them are now residing in State housing and wearing orange jump suits. The Democrats reacted by skipping around the yard, thro wing confetti and singing «la la la la» (well, you know how they are). Name another governor in this country that has ever done anything similar. But while you’re thinking, I’ll continue.
2- Now with the CBC gone, there were fewer Alaskan politicians to protect the huge, giant oil companies here. So, she constructed and enacted a new system of splitting the oil profits called «ACES». Exxon (the biggest corporation in the world) protested and Sarah told them «don’t let the door hit you in the stern on your way out.» They stayed, and Alaska residents went from being merely wealthy to being filthy rich. Of course the other huge international oil companies meekly fell in line. Again, give me the name of any other governor in the country that has done anything similar.
3- The other thing she did when she walked into the governor’s office is she got the list of State requests for federal funding for projects, known as «pork . She went through the list, took 85% of them and placed them in the «when-hell-freezes-over» stack. She let locals know that if we need something built, we’ll pay for it ourselves. Maybe she figured she could use the money she got from selling the previous governor’s jet because it was extravagant. Maybe she could use the money she saved by dismissing the governor’s cook (remarking that she could cook for her own family), giving back the State vehicle issued to her, maintaining that she already had a car, and dismissing her State provided security force (never mentioning—I imagine—that she’s packing heat herself). I’m still waiting to hear the names of those other governors.
4- Now, even with her much-ridiculed «gosh and golly» mannerism, she also managed to put together a totally new approach to getting a natural gas pipeline built which will be the biggest private construction project in the history of North America. No one else could do it although they tried. If that doesn’t impress you, then you’re trying too hard to be unimpressed while watching her do things like this while baking up a batch of brownies with her other hand.
5- For 30 years, Exxon held a lease to do exploratory drilling at a place called Point Thompson. They made excuses the entire time why they couldn’t start drilling. In truth they were holding it like an investment. No governor for 30 years could make them get started . This summer, she told them she was revoking their lease and kicking them out. They protested and threatened court action. She shrugged and reminded them that she knew the way to the court house. Alaska won again.
6- President Obama wants the nation to be on 25% renewable resources for electricity by 2025. Sarah went to the legislature and submitted her plan for Alaska to be at 50% renewables by 2025. We are already at 25%. I can give you more specifics about things done, as opposed to style and persona . Everybody wants to be cool, sound cool, look cool. But that’s just a cover-up. I’m still waiting to hear from liberals the names of other governors who can match what mine has done in two and a half years. I won’t be holding my breath.
By the way, she was content to to return to AK after the national election and go to work, but the haters wouldn’t let her. Now these adolescent screechers are obviously not scuba divers. And no one ever told them what happens when you continually jab and pester a barracuda. Without warning, it will spin around and tear your face off. Shoulda known better
ASMFC Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Board Takes No Action Regarding Projected Recreational Overages Washington, DC – The Commission’s Summer Flounder, Scup, and, Black Sea Bass Management Board (Board) met via a web-based conference call yesterday and decided to take no action regarding potential overage in the 2009 recreational fisheries for black sea bass, scup, and summer flounder. The recreational fishing community should be prepared for considerably reduced fishing opportunities next year due to anticipated large overages in the 2009 harvest of scup and black sea bass. “The take away from yesterday’s meeting was the clear message from the Board that 2010 recreational size limits, possession limits, and/or seasons will be significantly restricted for the 2010 recreational fisheries,” stated Board Chair A.C. Carpenter. Last month the Commission’s Interstate Fisheries Management Program Policy Board had unanimously directed the Board to take action prior to September 1. The Board was presented with recreational harvest projections for black sea bass that indicated the harvest target could be exceeded by 86% to 165%. Based on these projections, the Board considered and rejected a motion to close the black sea bass recreational fishery on September 30, 2009. The motion failed with four votes in favor (Virginia, North Carolina, National Marine Fisheries Service, and US Fish and Wildlife Service) and seven votes in opposition (Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland).
I was out scouting in the back bay today. I found pods of mullet with stripers feeding on them. The water was on th dirty side. The water temperature was 71 degress.
no matter what happens with the peer review in June
the board needs to remember that weakfish is in a
depleted condition, a depressed state. We can’t agree
with that particular panel on why it is there. One of
the main things that they said was that predation may
be maintaining the population at low levels without
having contributed to the original decline in the
stock.
We agree that overfishing was the problem in the
eighties. We have used management to get the stock
started back in an increasing mode during the early
nineties and mid-nineties, and then all of a sudden it
dropped back down. Now, we definitely agree that it
was overfishing early on. We’re saying the split
happened in the early thousands that predation is the
main focus of a problem out
out there, and it is
continuing to maintain those levels and we can’t
seem to break through it to move forward. That’s it
for me. Like I said, I tried to do this real quick.
Ken's Dock 