Tidal Fisheries Advisory Commission

March 21, 2002 MEETING SUMMARY

Legislation- Howard King provided an update on legislation that affects Fisheries Service. A list of legislation that affects DNR can be viewed at http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/regulations/legislativeupdate.html . Recent activities on some of the bills are as follows:

HB 94- passed the House with amendments; HB 331-ref. to interim study; HB 353- passed the House with amendments; HB 469- passed the House with amendments; HB 662- passed the House with amendments; HB 664- ref. to interim study; HB 747 -passed the House with amendments; HB1107 -passed the House with amendments; HB 1276- Unfavorable report; HB 1298- Unfavorable report.

Regulations- The Department is currently working on the following regulatory proposals:

Crew Limit: The proposal will prohibit any person licensed in accordance with Natural Resources Article, §4-701, Annotated Code of Maryland, to catch fish for commercial purposes during a trip for which fishing guide services are provided to a person for compensation. The proposal will also prohibit a person licensed in accordance with §4-701 from having more than 2 crew members assist with catching fish by commercial hook and line fishing and from having more than four individuals present on a vessel.

Flounder Size Limit: The proposal will set the commercial hook & line size limit for flounder to the same size limit as the recreational/charterboat fishery.

Striped Bass Filleting: The proposal permits filleting of striped bass on a licensed charterboat as long as the carcass is retained for enforcement purposes.

Striped Bass-

The remaining quota for the December gill net fishery was discussed, as well as the allocation percentage between the recreational and commercial fisheries. Also, the Committee requested gill net fisherman be allowed to carry more net on board than currently permitted.

Potential Recreational/Commercial User Conflict in December: December is generally a time when only the commercial fishery is open. However, this year the recreational fishery has been extended to December 15th. The Committee discussed three options to reduce user conflicts in the month of December when both fisheries will be open:

·         No recreational fishing in December

·         Draw a line in the Bay and restrict recreational fishing above that line

·         Give a gill net the "right of way" over a recreational fisherman. (§4-710(h) currently states "a person may not catch or attempt to catch finfish by the use of any stationary fishing gear, or set an anchor or mooring buoy, or in any way obstruct the normal taking of finfish by drift net from December 1 through April 1.")

Amendment 6 Update: A draft for public review is due out in May. Amendment 6 may be in effect for the 2003 season.

Crabs-

A response to an inquiry from the Chesapeake Bay Seafood Industries Association regarding possession of male hard crabs has been drafted from Natural Resources Police.

The Cooperative Blue Crab Research Project Proposal was introduced to the Committee. The Department proposes to institute a new cooperative research program to monitor commercial blue crab harvest in the Chesapeake Bay. The study would immediately assess the effectiveness and impacts of the new regulations on commercial landings to determine if the size limit changes are yielding projected results. The study could be continued in future years to monitor long term health of the blue crab population. The Department proposes to recruit and employ on a part time basis approximately 40 commercial crabbers to monitor catches through the course of the 2002 season.

Oysters-

The last 3 years have been dry. 2001 was the driest for the last 50 years. The 3-year drought has caused record high disease levels and increased mortality.

Areas that once had low mortality now have high. Areas that once were "safe" are now being impacted, like the Chester River and the Upper Bay and the upper Choptank.

As a result harvests have declined. The harvest will be slightly over 120,000 bushels. This will be the 2nd lowest on record. 1994 was the lowest, following a similar disease outbreak in the early 1990's.

Spat set was low in 2001 resulting in few productive Seed Areas. The amount of seed for this year is estimated at 120,000 bushels of which TFAC allocates 12,000 (10%). TFAC decided to divide the seed equally among the four gear types and to plant the same areas as selected by the oyster committees-

·         Dredgers (Six Foot Knoll)

·         Divers (Piney Point in the Chester)

·         Patent Tongers (Swan Point)

·         Hand Tongers (Cliffs, Bluff Pt in the Chester

Perch (added to the agenda)- Committee is requesting that a taskforce of perch fisherman be set up to review the mesh size permitted at certain times of the year. Currently, there is a minimum size of 8 inches and fisherman can set:

• during the period between March 16 through December 31, attended drift gill nets with a stretched mesh size of 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 inches;
• during the period between January 1 through March 15, attended drift gill nets with a stretched mesh of 3-1/8 to 3-1/2 inches.

MOTIONS

ACTIONS BY THE DEPARTMENT

Commercial fisherman must fill out harvest reports; recreational fisherman do not. The Committee wants another way to count recreational harvest rather than just MRFSS (i.e. tagging each recreationally harvested fish).

No action.