[loligo]

Striped Bass Anglers in New Jersey are the First to Report Recreational Data Online

WASHINGTON, January 25, 2007 ? Anglers participating in New Jersey?s Volunteer Striped Bass Bonus Fish program are now able register and report their daily landings data online. They may do so using the Standard Atlantic Fisheries Information System (SAFIS), a web-based reporting application originally developed for commercial fishermen and dealers on the Atlantic coast. This automated reporting capability is new to the recreational fishing industry, which has only been able to register and report volunteer data using paper applications and logbooks.

?This system is an exciting addition to SAFIS because it can be easily replicated for other natural resource management agencies that are interested in automating their recreational volunteer logbooks? said ACCSP director Mike Cahall.

In addition to providing anglers access to their catch records so that they can view their logbook history, the electronic system provides real-time monitoring of the bonus program quota. This enables the New Jersey Department of Fish and Wildlife?s (NJDFW) biologists to analyze catch data more quickly and accurately. It also frees NJDFW staff to devote more time toward collecting and analyzing harvest data for striped bass and other species.

Under current striped-bass recreational size limits set by the New Jersey Legislature, anglers can harvest two fish at 28 inches or greater daily. The New Jersey Striped Bass Bonus Fish program enables anglers with a bonus permit to keep an extra striped bass each day.

The application was developed and integrated into SAFIS by the ACCSP, a state and federal partnership for Atlantic coastal fisheries data collection and data management, at the request of the NJDFW.

For more information on the ACCSP, please visit www.accsp.org. For more details on New Jersey's striped bass bonus program, visit
http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/bonusbass.htm or contact Tom Baum, New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife Principal Biologist, at 609-748-2020 or www.accsp.org.

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Ellen C. Lovelidge
Program Coordinator
Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistical Program
Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission
1444 Eye St. NW, Ste. 410
Washington, DC 20005
http://www.accsp.org
http://www.asmfc.org
PH: 202.216.5690
[email protected]

This post edited by loligo 05:00 AM 01/26/2008

 

[LooneyTunes]

Not sure this is such a good thing.

As a New Yorker I really don't like this too much. New York our regs are 1 at 28" and another over 40". New Jersey is 2 at 28" NOW they get a 3rd fish if they are in the Bonus program.

In all honesty, 1 @ 28" is pretty sufficient. What would somebody do with 3 stripers? Not that being able to take a second at 28" every now and then wouldn't be nice.

The other problem I have is the actual reporting. How will the statistics be manipulated? Do these guys know what they are signing up for.

It will be interesting to see. If it works, maybe it can be applied to other fisheries.

LooneyTunes
Dave

PS> This may actually backfire on Jersey fishermen.

 

[CaptTB]

Looney, not saying good or bad, just saying.

The bonus program in NJ has existed for years. The only thing new about this is the on-line reporting aspect.

In the past you had to send in your logbooks at the end of the year (plus send in your tags as you used them in order to get more) if you wished to participate in the program for the next year.

The data from the bonus program has been used repeatedly over the years. There are also scale samples you send in with the tags as well as fish size/etc. information.

The biggest beef about the bonus program has not been so much the third fish, but the fact that it comes from the commercial quota. Obviously NJ commercial fishermen want their quota back. When NJ passed a law making the sale of Stripers illegal the state then had thousands of pounds of stripers they were given (and still are) by the ASMFC. Many have said "let it swim" many have said "let us catch it like we do" and many have said "give it back to the commercials."

I am not posting this to debate those points, but to point out the program has been used successfully for a long time now and the fish coming out are anticipated to be harvested by the science anyway since they are part of the allowable commercial quota each year.

Lastly, according to the program the quota has never come close to being landed in any given year.
Just some FYI

This post edited by CaptTB 04:43 AM 01/26/2008

 

[loligo]

Successfully?

To do what?

Deny the commercial fishermen in The Garden State of what is rightfully their's???

NJ F&W wrote:
BACKGROUND

New Jersey is allocated a commercial harvest quota of striped bass under the Striped Bass Interstate Fisheries Management Plan as administered by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC). Since New Jersey does not allow netting or sale of striped bass, this quota was transferred to the recreational fishing sector resulting in the origin of the SBBP.

This post edited by loligo 06:32 AM 01/26/2008

 

[MakoMike]

I hope its more succesful than the phone in program for recreational bluefin tuna fishermen.

 

[LooneyTunes]

CaptTB wrote:
Looney, not saying good or bad, just saying.

The bonus program in NJ has existed for years. The only thing new about this is the on-line reporting aspect.

In the past you had to send in your logbooks at the end of the year (plus send in your tags as you used them in order to get more) if you wished to participate in the program for the next year.

The data from the bonus program has been used repeatedly over the years. There are also scale samples you send in with the tags as well as fish size/etc. information.

The biggest beef about the bonus program has not been so much the third fish, but the fact that it comes from the commercial quota. Obviously NJ commercial fishermen want their quota back. When NJ passed a law making the sale of Stripers illegal the state then had thousands of pounds of stripers they were given (and still are) by the ASMFC. Many have said "let it swim" many have said "let us catch it like we do" and many have said "give it back to the commercials."

I am not posting this to debate those points, but to point out the program has been used successfully for a long time now and the fish coming out are anticipated to be harvested by the science anyway since they are part of the allowable commercial quota each year.

Lastly, according to the program the quota has never come close to being landed in any given year.
Just some FYI

Tony,

I never knew that the third fish bonus program was actually so well organized and thought out. You answered my unwritten question what does it do to the quota. Then you added the tidbit that there is a scientific benefit? When I read that the fishermen have to give scale samples and the fish come from the unused commercial quota, I am starting to come into agreement with the program and see that there is a benefit to it.

Looneytunes
Dave

 

[CaptTB]

loligo wrote:
To do what?

Deny the commercial fishermen in The Garden State of what is rightfully their's???

NJ F&W wrote:
BACKGROUND

New Jersey is allocated a commercial harvest quota of striped bass under the Striped Bass Interstate Fisheries Management Plan as administered by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC). Since New Jersey does not allow netting or sale of striped bass, this quota was transferred to the recreational fishing sector resulting in the origin of the SBBP.

As I clearly stated, it comes from the commercial quota. Secondly, looneytunes was concerned about how accurate the data would be...people filling out information etc.

I stated that the "program" (meaning the tags, scale samples, log books, weight and size info that has to be returned to the state) has been successful.

I also made a point to say that I was not debating the merits of the usage of the quota.

try doing a search on the various websites and you will see my own comments on the commercial quota. I will not go into that debate again, been there and done that.

Capt.TB

 

[loligo]

CaptTB wrote:


I will not go into that debate again, been there and done that.

Capt.TB


Tony-

Wasn't really trying to get you to debate anything, sorry if it came off that way.

 

[twofinbluna]

MakoMike wrote:
I hope its more succesful than the phone in program for recreational bluefin tuna fishermen.

Good point, MM.