[Nj_federation_alert] Lobster Trap Ban Article

[ap.maurosr at verizon.net]

FYI - This article was forwarded to me regarding the Pots Off the Reef Bill. We will discuss why this bill died, and what we can do to ensure success of bills supported by the outdoor community at the NJOA council meeting tonight.
Ant

Lobster trap ban dies in Legislature
By Kirk Moore • January 8, 2008

TRENTON — Legislation to ban lobster traps and other commercial fishing gear from New Jersey's artificial reefs died in the final hours of the 2007 Legislature, after supporters could not get enough votes in the state Assembly to bring the measure up for a final vote.

The bill's prime sponsor, Assemblyman Sean T. Kean, R-Monmouth, sought a vote on Monday only to see the lower house vote to table the measure 42 to 31. The legislation had passed the state Senate unanimously last Thursday and backers among the state's recreational fishing groups had hoped the Assembly version would pull through and go on to Gov. Corzine's desk for his signature.

"Sean Kean wanted a vote,'' said James Donofrio, executive director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance and an advocate of the reef bill. But the Garden State Seafood Association was successful in persuading Assembly leadership not to hold a vote, Donofrio said.

With the end of the 2006-2007 legislative year, the bill has now died and supporters need to decide whether to seek re-introduction in the new Legislature, Donofrio said.

Meanwhile, the state Department of Environmental Protection has proposed seasonal reef exclusion rules that would keep lobster and fish traps off the reefs from May to October. That measure is proceeding through the DEP administrative process and could take effect this year, state Division of Fish and Wildlife Director David Chanda said at last Thursday's meeting of the state marine Fisheries Council.

As planned by DEP officials, the rule would first apply to reefs within the state's three-mile territorial limit. But the agency also plans to ask the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, a quasi-government board with authority in federal waters, to apply the same rule to artificial reefs outside three miles.




Anthony P. Mauro, Sr.
Chairman, New Jersey Outdoor Alliance http://www.njoutdooralliance.org