Morning Star Fish Report: September 2012

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Fish Report 9/23/12

Still Summer

A Taste Of Fall

Video

Question MRIP

*********

Summer Fishing of Flounder & Black Sea Bass continues. I don't think fishing will change significantly until we've had a heavy NE wind or worse. We're still targeting flounder over precisely the same reefs & wrecks where I've spent a lifetime targeting sea bass---except when sea bass bite better at those reefs which is happening more frequently but not predictably.. Sea Bass are absolutely fattening up for winter -- plump. We've seen signs of a fall bite a few times.

Usually sending participating anglers home with several dinners.

*********

Sea Bass & Flounder Fishing 7 to 3 Everyday - Longer on Saturdays - Now Fishing Sundays - Plenty Of Spots Open - Always Try To Leave Early & Stay Late - Reservations Required @ 410 520 2076 - Leave Your BEST Contact Phone Number In Case Of Weather Cancelation - We Obey Regulations Whether We Agree With Them Or Not - Bring Food & Beverage Plus A Cooler & Ice For Your Party's Fish - Cheap Styrofoam Coolers Rarely Survive A Day - A 48 QT Cooler Works Great - Dramamine The Night Before Is Cheap Insurance - Be A Half Hour Early, We Like To Leave Early, Rarely In On Time..

*********

2,757 Oyster Castle Reef Blocks By The Rail.

********

Hi All,

Here's Capt. Ted Green's latest u/w video from a pair of barges we sank over a decade ago; one of 3 locations targeted by MD's scuba community for u/w reef construction with oyster castle reef blocks. https://vimeo.com/49834503 (select, copy, then paste into the address block in your web browser)

Though well-grown in, I believe additional complexity (460 blocks & counting) will increase fishery production; That even good reef can be made better.

I also believe the flat horizontal expanses of these barges closely mimic our original sea bed; that here is what large areas of bottom looked like before industrial stern towed fishing gears were used; That here is what the nearshore Mid-Atlantic looked like in many multi-square mile areas of sea whip meadow before men discovered how to fill train cars & tractor trailers with fish & shellfish.

As evidenced by commercial sea bass landings of the 1950s being greater than all decades since combined, all sea bass weighed and sold by the pound--recorded; as evidenced by stories told to me of picking through piles of sea whip on deck to find fish: Where overfishing of today's remnant reef-fish populations has been poorly remedied by ill-found catch restriction, to truly restore those earliest reef-fish populations we must also restore that period's reef habitat footprint.

If we can do that, and we will, then there's no reason at all we can not engineer far higher populations.

**********

Will need another truckload of blocks soon..

**********

It is entirely possible that no one involved with fishery management believes those Mar/Apr NJ shore tautog estimates from 2010.

But those data, and every set like it, are still used by management as though a bank statement; Here's How Much You Took Out, Here's How Much You Can Take Out Next Year---The Precise Catch Estimate Is Used In Plug & Play Formula.

MRIP needs to -and should- estimate a more precise number; Management needs to -and should- have far more leeway in the estimates.

Instead, here come Accountability Measures & Annual Catch Limits..

Both written into the Bush era's Magnuson rewrite and supposed to came AFTER recreational data was improved; Soon recreational fishers will be held accountable for any statistical hallucination conjured on computer screen: Its certainly possible that an entire fishery could be closed for 'over-fishing' that never occurred -- its already happening, month by month, in sea bass.

Below you'll find a section from a fish report about MRIP. Those active in the fisheries need to ask (or re-ask) MRIP's outreach coordinator, their State Fisheries leaders & Washington representatives how recreational data can be so much worse in the 'new & improved' recreational catch estimating program and if it will be the source of Accountability Measures.

Adherence to delusional data is destroying the human side of fisheries while not doing a whole lot for fish.

Needs to get fixed.

Regards,

Monty

***********

From 8/11/12 Report:

Forbes Darby keeps asking if anyone has questions about the ne MRIP program. Forbes.Darby@noaa.gov

If you're curious, email him -- It's OK, this is his job.

Personally, I haven't gotten an answer.

*************

MRFSS = old recreational catch estimating system; Marine Recreational Fishing Statistics Survey. (we say Murfs - they say MurFis)

MRIP = new system mandated by congress by 2009, Marine Recreational Information Program. (not Murfs Rest In Peace)

*************

NOAA claims to be on-path to fulfilling its Congressional requirement to improve recreational fishery data by 2009.

MRIP is now "Statistically Rigorous" they say.

"They" are, almost every one, people I know & trust; but somewhere there's a bug in the system that needs to come out.

***********

I have many questions about the validity of MRIP's newly revised catch estimates - below is a single example. There are many, many more examples in every species I target.

The old MuRFSS estimate for March and April 2010 for New Jersey's shore-bound tautog fishermen was 71,000 tog boxed-up and taken home in those two cold-water months. This value, fantastically above the mean for New Jersey's shore fishery, represents more jetty & pier fish than all US for-hire party/charter boats caught from 2004 to present in all waters during the same cold-water wave period.

Its a very unlikely estimate; but an estimate that contributed to new, tighter regulations nonetheless.

The new MRIP model now has these same fellows fishing along New Jersey's jetties & piers; These same fishers who never-ever caught what NJ's For-Hire boats alone will catch, nevermind what ALL US party/charter boats landed -- these fishers are now said to have caught 173,092 under MRIP. That's One Hundred Thousand more tautog in March & April, 2010 than even MuRFSS gigantic error.

So, Under The New & Improved MRIP Model NOAA's Catch Assertion Now Reads Thusly: New Jersey Jetty Fishers Caught More Tautog In Late Winter/Early Spring 2010 Than ALL For-Hire Party/Charter Fishers Put Together In March/April PLUS What All US Commercial Effort Landed All Year -- BY A WIDE MARGIN!

Statistical Validity Indeed..

********

MRIP, like MRFSS before, can assert any amount of catch and turn it into Recreational Overfishing with always-subsequent greater catch restriction.

MRIP Team: Where's the head-count? Where are the statistical stops to prevent wild flyers in the data?

Please don't tell us you actually believe NJ shore fishers caught incredibly more tautog in two months than all our commercial fishers caught all year..
*************

I know its an election year and they're all very busy; maybe your Congressional Representative & State Senators have staff that handle fisheries issues.

Ask them why reef plays no part in any reef-fish management plan too.

Ask them how Accountability Measures can be employed using catch data with no accountability..

Ask them why the new and improved data is sometimes much worse..

Regards,

Monty

Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservation Line 410 520 2076
http://www.morningstarfishing.com/

Monday, September 10, 2012

Fish Report 9/10/12

Precise Ambiguity

A Fishery's Pulse

********

Summer Fishing of Flounder & Black Sea Bass continues. Hurricane Leslie, now far off our coast & leaving, has probably kicked-in a bit of fish instinct with her long-range ground swell, but I don't think fishing will change significantly until we've had a heavy NE wind or worse. We're still targeting flounder over precisely the same reefs & wrecks where I've spent a lifetime targeting sea bass---except when sea bass bite better at those reefs: Happened Once This Week In A Downpour.

*********

2,400 Oyster Castle Reef Blocks By The Rail.

********

Hi All,

Only fished a couple days; heavy weather's been keeping the fleet in.

Did have a crowd fish right through some ridiculously heavy rain. Probably 3 or 4 inches; Sea bass seemed enthused (although flounder were not!) which had a lot to do with people fishing in a downpour.

Sun came out when we got in.

Another day a flattie pushing 7 pounds came up on the first drop. Didn't see many more keeper fluke, did nick enough sea bass to stink a pan..

If you're in dire need of filling a freezer I'd advise Sam's Club

..but if you want to box a few fish up for dinner we're here to help - just can't promise which species

*********

..except Sunday, Sept. 16th, 2012, I'm going long.

Really Long.

Sea Bass, Not Flounder.

Pain of summer-Sunday traffic now past, maybe some will want to come fishing..

Sea Bass - 5:30 AM to 4:30 PM - 21 Sells Out - $150.00 - Yes, we count & measure on these trips too. Magic Rulers, where every fish is a keeper, don't work on my boat.

**********

So There.

**********

One of the barges our SCUBA community is building coral castles on has over 400 blocks for them to Tinkertoy into habitat. A long-time reef supporter also found concrete planks these SCUBA reef builders can use to create better lobster habitat.

Sure is nice of them to think of the lobsters.

Fellow's been diving nearly 40 years tells me oyster castle blocks will make better bug habitat with concrete planks - I'm listening.

**********

Hey NOAA, Easiest way to double a population of reef fish is by using management to promote early spawning & double their habitat.

Same formula can take a reef fish population up 10-fold.

**********

Do you think?

Naww...

Coral-schmoral; They're looking at catch data. But it really is as easy as rolling rocks off a barge. You can't stop corals & fish from colonizing.

**********

Because we can't afford bargeloads of rock we build with pallets of reef blocks..

Google OC Reef Foundation if you're of a mind to help.

**********

Or write a letter to Pew.

Only thing they see is these Overfishing Demons too.

I can't imagine what reef habitat would look like in 20 years if fishery restoration's 800 pound brachiating biped decided catch-data was full of cage droppings; Decided the data was misleading all involved..

Google "Pew Fisheries Policy" for contacts. The gorilla really doesn't like overfishing. They don't like to write back either but you can try..

*********

Speaking of writing back, Forbes Darby - MRIP's Outreach Coordinator - still hasn't written with any discussion of the NJ shore tog estimate.. He advertised for questions on the New & Improved catch data. Didn't like mine I guess..

*********

When Massachusetts private boats' catch-estimates rocketed from an acceptable 4.5% of the recreational spring cod catch to 96.3 percent; When they're catch shot from two thousand to 1.5 million--despite the region's for-hire fishers thinking March and April's private-boat/for-hire split is greatest, that private boats would never-EVER catch even 5% of Massachusetts' cod during that time of year; When on computer screens an astronomical rise in catch despite ever more restrictive regulations appeared, MA anglers saw their estimate rise from 2,663 cod in Mar/Apr 2004 to 1.5 million in 2010: People trained only to find over-fishing did not see cage droppings.

***********

If there were a method to spot likely errors in the data before they saw light of day perhaps management could ponder, "How does habitat fidelity factor into fisheries management?"

When we bore in on THAT and gain finer focus on local fish production we'll be on our way..

Fishing can be engineered better than ever before. Pretty sure we could have 10x as many sea bass along our coast simply by focusing on the percentage of fish in the spawning population--then double that new population of fish each time the habitat footprint were doubled.

**********

Wonder if my diving friends are onto something with lobster..

They're the ones who do the hillbilly hand fishing thing, not me.

People who put anchors down & hands in dark, eel-filled crevices probably have worthwhile observations to offer.

**********

Those who only watch a computer screen for upticks in catch miss a wealth of indicators. Even downticks such as MD party/charter's dramatic slide from 160,000 cbass to 130,000 to 14,000 between 2002 & 2004 are thought completely irrelevant in a system hunting only over-fishing.

**********

If private boaters' percentage of catch climbs from 10 to 20% -- That's A Double, A 100% Increase.

Without reality-check MRIP has NJ's private boats climbing from 26.5% of that state's sea bass catch in 2003 to 75.4% in 2010.

I bet that's not true.

Nor is it for Massachusetts or New York.

**********

Though a violent example; there's a surveillance video on True TV where a motel clerk is being beaten with an old-fashioned desk-top phone; "Stop, Stop! You're Killing Me!"
Clerk was right.

So am I.

This witch-hunt has to end.

*********

Fishery restoration is best accomplished with a balance of habitat restoration & protection; by maximizing spawning production & exercising realistic catch control.

*********

Some good weather coming.

Have a fish-fry soon.

*********

Regards,

Monty

Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservation Line 410 520 2076
http://www.morningstarfishing.com/

Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Fish Report 9/4/12

Mostly Flounder

Except When It Ain't

Gathering Storm

*********

Summer Fishing of Flounder & Black Sea Bass continues. I don't think it will change until we have a significant storm. Mostly targeting flounder over precisely the same reefs & wrecks where I've spent a lifetime targeting sea bass, except when sea bass bite better at those reefs: Will target what's biting.

Below is an idea of what the fishing's really like..

*********

***********

2,352 Oyster Castle Reef Blocks By The Rail.

***********

Hi All,

Catching flounder after we drop blocks; at least most days. Sometimes its more about cbass.

Just a couple blocks shy of 500 at Jimmy's Reef. Interesting footprint. Be 1,000s before we're done. (Google Image search "Oyster Castles" if unfamiliar with these reef blocks)

They're very toggy. Coral & sea bass will certainly take to 'em too.

Usually we stitch 3 or 4 blocks together with heavy wire-ties and slide them over the rail.

Divers, however, are building with single-block drops on two different barges. (video here of an u/w dive project, deeper - http://vimeo.com/47653646http://vimeo.com/47653646 )

Buy some blocks, Build some reef.

( http://www.ocreeffoundation.com/ click "Join" for the donate button or send a check - Could Really Use Some Help)

*************

Here's what the flounder fishing's really like:

Flounder George, creator of the "ten minute limit" and quite accustomed to heading up the catching, stepped aboard a few weeks ago & was out-fished first by a pair of rental rods, then the rest of the boat; The Great One nearly goose-egged on a wonderful day of catching. Last week he bounced back and again took everyone's pool money..
Ken hooks eleven keepers; his boys helped wind them in. This is no accident, Ken's good at it. Two days later he nearly snags a donut hole while lady angler Tina, fishing next to him, closes the cooler lid on a fat limit plus a couple for her son & the pool.

Another day Team USA Women's Flounder Squad (3 gals) are up on twenty-some men for the first 45 minutes before the catch started to equal out. Couple guys were getting pouty in a testosterone crash..

Big Dave creams everyone aboard--no contest for the pool. Two days later Big Dave gets creamed.

I catch my 3 in three drops. Next day an 11 year old hands me my head; I have to stop at the grocery store for chicken..

Now I'm-a Guarantee, This Flounder Fishing's Hard To Figure.

Any fishing really.

Sending folks home with a good fish fry - mostly.

***********

Looking forward to fall fishing, to when when cbass start to knot-up & move off, when they fatten up and move mid-shelf or deeper. With the coming of big weather the water will start to mix, start to trigger fall migrations.

Before the 25 fish creel limit was enacted in 2002, high-hook in Nov/Dec would be pushing 175, sometimes 200 -- that even with the 9 & 10 inch size limits in place. (our sea bass population grew like crazy from 1992 to 2003)

When the 25 fish limit first came we often had time on fall fishing trips for a Boat Limit of sea bass PLUS a Boat Limit of croakers.. (25 in MD)

Regulations much tighter now via shortened seasons and an extra 1/2 inch size limit; Had spawning production from early management kept pace, officials would now have to close beaches for all the cbass amidst bathers' feet.

Instead, fertilized egg production has tapered dramatically. Boat Limits of sea bass this fall are not at all likely, though I surely hope individual clients will have grabbed the brass ring, will have "limited out."

We'll soon be accused of overfishing again. Unfortunately, there may be no fall season.

An "Emergency Closure" is now only one MRIP/MuRFSS over-estimate away..

While I still haven't heard back from MRIP Outreach Coordinator, Forbes Darby, about the Mar/Apr NJ shore tog estimate particulars; A far more pressing issue arises in the MRIP data. Churchill might have called it a "Gathering Storm."

In Maryland, private boats always account far less than 20% of black sea bass (bsb) landings -- always. Yet now MRIP is asserting our more adventurous Grady Whites and custom 3 engine screamers have managed to catch several thousand more sea bass than MD party/charter in 2012.

There's no possible way.

This is absolute statistical fantasy

..but also statistically insignificant in the sea bass management plan because the numbers, though wrong, are small.

Massachusetts private boat catch estimates, however, are very high. So high they have almost singlehandedly caused the past few bsb closures - including one that very nearly destroyed my life's work a few years ago.

Skippers who go everyday in Massachusetts are telling our shared clients there's "no way" private boats even catch as many sea bass as the For-Hire fleet, let alone several times more..

When I showed a group of Massachusetts party/charter skippers the MuRFSS private boat catch estimates at a meeting in Baltimore - they actually, physically & audibly Laughed Out Loud.

Not a typical result from sound data.

MA had a 10 fish creel limit this year with excellent enforcement I hear.

Yet for 2012 MRIP has Massachusetts' private boats outfishing all New England, Mid-Atlantic & South Atlantic For-Hire Party/Charter Fleets Combined..

But Massachusetts' own party/charter fishers doubt their private boaters even catch as many sea bass as they do.

These Grady Whites & Boston Whalers below Cape Cod (but not in RI, poor fellows there had a statistically terrible spring) MA's private boats caught more bsb than every skilled for-hire skipper from Palm Beach, FL to Portland, ME combined.

Entire Atlantic Coast Party/Charter Fleet: 246,973 sea bass through May/June 2012.

Entire Fleet of Private Boats Below Cape Cod (but not in RI) 275,657 -- all in May/June 2012.

That's NOT a Statistically Valid Claim.

The only reason NOAA's overfishing klaxon is not sounding yet is because NY & NJ private boat estimates are more tempered this year. The estimates for July/August will set it off though. Some state's outboards will have managed to outfish the entire coast's For-Hire fleet - again.

We're Very Close To An Emergency Closure, Close To Losing November & December Plus Who Knows How Much More Spring Season.

***********

Forcing management to act as though they believe each MRIP/MRFSS estimate were perfect -despite no method of statistical stop- fails to benefit fishers or fishery restoration.

MRIP's accusations of Overfishing are no more sound than a Salem Witch Pricker's pronouncement to have found the devil's mark. Results, however, can be quite similar with these unfound accusations.

As before, new regulations will be enacted to further restrict recreational sea bass catch to prevent further overfishing. Now we also have Annual Catch Limit (ACL) language from the 2006 re-write of the Magnusson Stevens Act (MSA) plus Accountability Measures which will hold us responsible for PAYING BACK our overquota overfishing.

At the time of the re-write's passing, RFA's Jim Donafrio & President Bush's own NMFS head, Bill Hogarth, were jumping up and down, shouting: Hogarth even predicted --quite correctly-- that ACLs & Accountability Measures would be a "train wreck."

Makes no difference if the overfishing is real or not; Makes no difference that repairs to MRFSS, due in 2009, have only grown worse in MRIP; Makes no difference at a Council meeting that ACLs & AMs were envisioned in regulatory timeline as coming after the 2009 deadline for better recreational data; That ACLs & AMs were vital to the 2006 re-write's strength, a strength borne in accurate catch estimates.

I believe Magnuson's authors intended recreational catch would FIRST be measured more accurately--that catch estimates would be brought under control first; THEN recreational participants would be held accountable for overfishing.

***********

This summer many fluke (summer flounder) have been caught on the very same bottoms, the very same corals, where my clients catch sea bass.

We sometimes catch live squid over these same bottoms and often see squid in the flounder we're cleaning.

I hold that, for several months a year, summer flounder are an inshore reef fish. (use reef in winter too but one step at a time)

Trawling has been the preferred method of commercial flounder fishing for many decades--almost a century now.

Just as oystermen worked most of their bottoms -literally- to death, so too have large areas of less-robust ocean reef been completely lost -- especially in overlapping zones where surf clams were abundant.

I believe reef restorations are vital to fishery restorations.

However, because management MUST accept any recreational catch estimate, our reef fish regulations are a 'whack-a-mole' hodgepodge of reaction to delusional data. Its no wonder habitat production remains a dim & distant hypothetical, just something to work on later; Something to "get to" as soon as these overfishing scoundrels have been reigned in..

***********

For several months of the year ships are now able to navigate the NW passage around North America. Didn't used to be that way. First Magellan, almost a century later Hudson too would have become fabulously wealthy & more famous had there been a route through the ice at the top of our continent in their time.

No matter how you fall on climate change; That Summer Ice Is Gone -- Its Warmer.

Massachusetts has commercial sea bass landings in fluctuation from the 1950s. They bottomed in 1966 at under a ton, rose to about 200 tons in the 1980s, dropped like a stone in the early 90s and have risen since to a seeming average of 200 tons..

In the period when sea bass management was first being created, Massachusetts commercial fishers had landings of under 20 tons. Recreational estimates show a similar 1990s lull in that state's catch.

Now Massachusetts' commercial fishers catch their sea bass quota quickly - its a big share. Their recreational fishery, though I believe grossly over-reported, has also strengthened significantly since sea bass management's earliest days.

Ice melt sinks, it settles low and is captured by the Labrador current running south along our east coast.

I believe cod we now catch off Maryland's coast, even some in August, demonstrate ice melt's cooling effect in deeper water.

I also believe sea bass have expanded into now-warmer & very rocky shallow waters of Massachusetts; that sea bass populations there have benefited both from management & from warmer surface waters.

**********
But I don't believe for a second that Massachusetts' private boat fleet caught 200,000 more sea bass than scup in 2010.. However, that's what MRIP data tells us.

MRIP even tells us these doers of evil, these overfishing rapscallions in their plastic boats below Cape Cod caught almost 100,000 more sea bass than the entire US Party/Charter fleet in 2010.

Uh Hu.

Yup.

That's the REAL face of overfishing - Bad Statistics.

**********

Just as I assert building new reef off our coast allows for population expansion of reef fish, so too does warming water expand their range northward. Pushing well into the granite coast, warming shallow waters have created a significant increase in suitable habitat for sea bass -- all those scup have to share. Its important to note that in sea bass there is no simultaneous contraction of their southern range; even Florida has large landings of this smallest member of the grouper family.

I assert habitat fidelity--where nearly all species either return to their natal habitat or place of first spawning to spawn again--habitat fidelity is irrefutable in black sea bass owing to tag return data. From the very first tags at Woods Hole, results from Virginia Game Fish Tagging, my own personal +-6,000 ALS tags, and the federal 16,000 tag study in the early 2000s: Assertions Of Spawning Site Fidelity Remain Uncorrupted.

Massachusetts' cbass will never be found off Maryland's coast in summer. Indeed, Delaware's Site 11 cbass will never be found at our Great Eastern Reef.
Where time & again I have asserted "Reef Restoration Makes Fishery Restoration Simple" -- It's also true that remaining ignorant of habitat expansion's role can make restoration more difficult.

Massachusetts wasn't really a player when black sea bass quotas and management were being devised in the mid-90s -- now failure to recognize the stock's expansion cripples valuable fisheries to their south.

These fish live & spawn in eco-regionally separate populations. Management must take that into account.

**********

We fishers will suffer under "New & Improved" MRIP recreational catch estimate data. We will endure Accountability Measures enacted because NJ's shore-bound tautog anglers are said to have gone from a truly impossible 72,000 tautog in Mar/Apr 2010 under MuRFSS --this representing more fish caught than the entire US For-Hire sector in Mar/April-- to now MRIP's insane guess of 173,000 tog for the same two cold months.

That's more tog from NJ's winter jetties than the entire annual US commercial catch and US For-Hire fleet in Mar/Apr.

No Fisherman I've Met Believes This Estimate -- Not One.

I doubt any scientist does either..

But that's where management stems from.

These good & often brilliant people: Why isn't the Science & Statistical Committee demanding accountability for the data it uses, Why aren't Monitoring Committees standing on their chairs demanding better data to use, Why are State Representatives seemingly unconcerned with data's accountability when errors are so simple to see; Why Is The Federal System Destroying Fisheries With Unsound Data?

None should believe the private boat sea bass estimates.

All should re-study basic ecology -- habitat matters.

They should really look into Fishery Management's most basic ideal, that some fishing promotes surplus production -- excess production is found in increased spawning: Because age at maturity in sea bass has increased by 2 years we now have a smaller spawning stock than before management began.

*********

Our reef habitat in the Mid-Atlantic remains unvalued, undiscovered, unmanaged & unprotected while vacuous accusations of impossible catch create an aura of "Overfishing" that management must address.

No wonder fishery restoration is such a challenge.

*********

Regards,

Monty

*****

Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservation Line 410 520 2076
http://www.morningstarfishing.com/

Morning Star Fish Report

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Fish Report 9/23/12

Monday, September 10, 2012

Fish Report 9/10/12

Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Fish Report 9/4/12

Blog Archive