April 6, 2010 - In a rule to be published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, April 7, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is expected to "extend the prohibition on recreational fishing for black sea bass in the EEZ beyond the expiration of the initial closure period." Set to expire on April 12, 2010, the closure will now be in effect through May 21, 2010, an extension of the original 180-day closure by 39 days.

"The extension was not unexpected," said Capt. Adam Nowalsky, Chairman of the Recreational Fishing Alliance's New Jersey chapter (RFA-NJ). "Most states have already implemented a 2010 opening date of May 22, consistent with the recommendation of both the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council (MAFMC) and Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC)," added Nowalsky. The RFA-NJ Chair has been extremely active at both the state and federal levels in pursuing actions which would keep the recreational black sea bass fishery open.

While additional closure is never welcome news for anglers, the RFA-NJ points to some potential good news for anglers that can be read from the notice in terms of the positive impact that grassroots efforts can bring to the fisheries management process. "During the winter, the very real threat loomed that coastal anglers would only have a two-month season of June and September for sea bass fishing, but as evidenced in last week's official notice from New Jersey, the 2010 recreational black sea bass fishery is expected to last for almost four full months, from May 22 through September 12," said Capt. Tony Bogan, a representative of both the United Boatmen and RFA-NJ. "We're still hopeful that the season can last even further into the fall through continued lobbying efforts."

After having the 2009 recreational black sea bass season closed in the EEZ last October, recreational anglers learned in December they were facing a 66% reduction in 2010 sea bass landings, resulting in a short, 60-day summer season. Grassroots efforts spearheaded by the RFA-NJ were successful in getting the 2010 black sea bass quota reconsidered, which led to a NMFS emergency rule in February to increase this year's allowable landings by 60%. Management bodies then approved a near doubling in the length of the proposed 2010 season for both federal and state waters.

The RFA continued to fight the 44% required reduction, sending letters to the MAFMC and NMFS highlighting the fallacies of the projections used as a proxy for estimating black sea bass landings in the fall of 2009. These projections estimated a 100% increase in landings during September - December over the same period the previous year, despite the fishery being closed for three of the four months and the Mid-Atlantic experiencing historically inclement weather. Nowalsky said landings data from Wave 5 (September - October), originally slated to be released in December, is still pending due to what NMFS called "Issues related to sampling size and the telephone survey frame." NMFS expects Wave 5 landings sometime this month, at which time they expect to "fully evaluate the 2009 Wave 5 data."

Meanwhile, citing landings from the Marine Recreational Fishing Statistical Survey's (MRFSS) 2009 Wave 6 (November - December) data as being 75% lower than landings in the same period the previous year, NMFS concludes "it appears likely that the percent reduction in landings from 2009 levels necessary for 2010 may be less than 44 percent."

"The RFA-NJ has been fully involved in the fight for the recreational harvest of black sea bass, a fully rebuilt stock in the Mid-Atlantic, since last summer," Nowalsky said, adding "we successfully fought for a reconsideration of the quota, and we remain optimistic our challenging of the projections that have resulted in a limited 2010 season will be equally successful, resulting in additional fishing days for anglers later this year."

A proposed rule is anticipated this month, with final rulemaking anticipated for June.