02-21-2004, 02:44 PM
According to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, plenty of weakfish are available and the population is improving steadily. The only problem is that very few fishermen found them last summer and fall.
As most readers are well aware, there wasn't any Raritan Bay run in 2003, and that was pretty much the case everywhere from Delaware north. Weakfish are the most important species in Delaware Bay, but their fishery has been going straight downhill for three years whereas Raritan Bay was very good until last year.![[Image: spacer.gif]](http://www.nj.com/images/spacer.gif)
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[/url] Bruce Freeman, of the Division of Fish and Wildlife, said he's had similar poor reports from all along the migratory path. Barnegat Bay may have been the best spot, but even there weakfishing was way off in volume. It appears that many areas had a good early shot of large spawners, with weakfish of 10 pounds or more being reported regularly. As always, those fish left after spawning but weren't replaced by the quantities of 3- to 5-pounders we've come to expect in the summer.
That lack of weakfish contrasts with the rosy projections of the ASMFC, though there doesn't seem to be any concern at headquarters about what suddenly looks like the period when I was a kid and the sight of anything other than a juvenile weakfish was a cause for celebration.
Over the past century there were several periods when weakfish were superabundant, after which they just as suddenly virtually disappeared. Anglers wrote them off as being cyclical, but overfishing was a more likely cause. As a commercial fisherman once noted that other fish run away from the disturbance of a gillnet, but weakfish run for it.
Biologically, there shouldn't be any reason for such disappearances since the species matures in a year, is relatively long-lived and spawns in a great many locations all along the coast. It appeared management was going to provide us with consistent weakfishing, just as it has in the case of striped bass, bluefish (also previously considered cyclical), fluke and sea bass, but last year's results may be a sign of unanticipated problems.
The ASMFC Weakfish Management Plan controls commercial fishing only by seasonal closures and other restrictions, rather than with a hard quota. It has transformed a primarily recreational fishery into one that is two-thirds commercial, and when last year's figures are tallied, I suspect that percentage will be much greater. Freeman noted that weakfish stock assessment has been running three years behind, which means the plan is working on little more than speculation. Forcing the ASMFC to investigate this problem should be a high priority.
Al Ristori appears regularly in The Star-Ledger
[signature]
As most readers are well aware, there wasn't any Raritan Bay run in 2003, and that was pretty much the case everywhere from Delaware north. Weakfish are the most important species in Delaware Bay, but their fishery has been going straight downhill for three years whereas Raritan Bay was very good until last year.
[url "http://ads1.advance.net/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/www.nj.com/xml/story/star_ledger/s/scolris/1451430742/StoryAd/NJONLINE/CONTAIR02NJ03/Cont_FebControl_250x250.html/34303063363034663430333736646130?1451430742"][/url] [url "http://ads1.advance.net/RealMedia/ads/click_nx.ads/www.nj.com/xml/story/star_ledger/s/scolris/@StoryAd?x"]That lack of weakfish contrasts with the rosy projections of the ASMFC, though there doesn't seem to be any concern at headquarters about what suddenly looks like the period when I was a kid and the sight of anything other than a juvenile weakfish was a cause for celebration.
Over the past century there were several periods when weakfish were superabundant, after which they just as suddenly virtually disappeared. Anglers wrote them off as being cyclical, but overfishing was a more likely cause. As a commercial fisherman once noted that other fish run away from the disturbance of a gillnet, but weakfish run for it.
Biologically, there shouldn't be any reason for such disappearances since the species matures in a year, is relatively long-lived and spawns in a great many locations all along the coast. It appeared management was going to provide us with consistent weakfishing, just as it has in the case of striped bass, bluefish (also previously considered cyclical), fluke and sea bass, but last year's results may be a sign of unanticipated problems.
The ASMFC Weakfish Management Plan controls commercial fishing only by seasonal closures and other restrictions, rather than with a hard quota. It has transformed a primarily recreational fishery into one that is two-thirds commercial, and when last year's figures are tallied, I suspect that percentage will be much greater. Freeman noted that weakfish stock assessment has been running three years behind, which means the plan is working on little more than speculation. Forcing the ASMFC to investigate this problem should be a high priority.
Al Ristori appears regularly in The Star-Ledger
[signature]