Why Artificial Reefs Are Important to Rhode Island Think JOBS • Improved Recreational Fishing • JOBS • Improved Tourism • JOBS • Improved Habitat • and JOBS
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
6 Arnold Road, Coventry, RI 02816 www.RISAA.org 401-826-2121 OCTOBER, 2010 Representing Over 6,500 Recreational Anglers Why artificial reefs are important to Rhode Island Think JOBS • Improved recreational fishing • JOBS • Improved tourism • JOBS • Improved habitat • and JOBS o why do we need This is because they provide Sartificial reefs in Rhode areas for fish to hide and Island? We have plenty of areas on all sides of the rock piles, why make a few structure that will be more? colonized by marine fouling Artificial reefs are much organisms. more than just a rock piles. Concrete "reef balls" (left) provide new structure and Rock piles are great When properly constructed eventually a new environment for sealife (right) fishing spots and do provide out of structure such as ships, good habitat compared to military tanks, or reef balls, all with cavities, they provide open bottom, but properly constructed artificial reefs are much much more biological carrying capacity than just a rock pile. better. (to page 26) Poacher arrest update Last month we reported that Albert Reeves of Rehoboth, MA was arrested by RIDEM's Enforcement Division in August for illegal possession of striped bass. Reeves had also been charged in 2003 for the same offense. As a result of this arrest, the U.S. Customs Service has seized his boat because the vessel was used for transporting illegal goods in a hidden compartment through federal waters. RISAA will continue to monitor this case. R.I.S.A.A. / October, 2010 Record weather affected 2010 fishing Oct 4 • 6:00 PM Saltwater license sales report R.I. Marine Fisheries Council meeting Fall, my favorite time of year, is finally "The bay was actually cleaner, bacteria- Oct 12 • 6:30 PM here. I'm always glad when summer is over. wise," said Torgan. "The water quality RISAA Fly Fishing Committee meeting I hate hot and humid weather. If it wasn't was decent and fewer beach closures." at River & Riptide Anglers, W.Greenwich for growing tomatoes and fishing, there He said much of that washed away Oct 16 • RISAA Event would be nothing worthwhile for me in July relatively quickly and things returned to Dinner With The Hypnotist and August. I know - I'm the only person normal and cited "good fishing from May who feels that way. to late June." But then the heat arrived. Oct 18 • 6:30 PM But spring and fall has always provided Torgan spent the first two weeks of RISAA Education Committee the best fishing and the best weather. July doing surveys of the Bay with the at 6 Arnold Road, Coventry My favorite of the two is the fall. That EPA. They found rising temperatures and always meant hungry bluefish (fun!) and a bay with very little life. By the end of Oct 19 • 6:30 PM cold weather tautog fishing (my favorite). July bay temperatures had reached 80 RISAA Board of Directors meeting The springtime meant catching river degrees. Oct 19 • 6:00 PM herring (no more) and pogies that were That was not a comfortable temperature RIDEM Public Hearing sure bets for spring stripers. Every bait for stripers, fluke and other species. URI Bay Campus, Narragansett fish in the boat would usually equal one This wasn't unique to Narragansett striper. It was also the time that the fluke Bay, he said. Buzzards Bay was had the Oct 25 • 7:00 PM season was getting started. same problems this year. RISAA Monthly Seminar - See page 22 Unfortunately, this year the spring and As of this writing near the end of summer fishing in the Bay was September, Torgan said the bluefish Oct 27 • 6:30 PM disappointing. There wasn't as many bass seemed to be returning and are popping RISAA Legislative Committee meeting held at 6 Arnold Road, Coventry and bluefish that in the past have been up all around the bay. everywhere. Nov 1 • 6:00 PM Nearly every day, anglers in our SNESA Rhode Island's Rec License R.I. Marine Fisheries Council Meeting fishing group would complain about the First year results Corless Auditorium, URI Bay Campus lack of good fishing. The common thread was always that it's DEM's fault, the pogey Since sales of Rhode Island's new Nov 9 • 6:30 PM boat's fault, government's fault, commercial recreational saltwater fishing license are RISAA Fly Fishing Committee Meeting just about done, the results for the year to at River & Riptide Anglers, W.Greenwich fishermen's fault. The only one they left out was blaming the dog catcher. date aren't likely to change. While it's easy to place the blame on I spoke with Bob Ballou, Chief of the Nov 10 • 6:00 PM Division of Fish & Wildlife, about the RIDEM Public Hearing easy targets (government and commercial fishermen), we need to think back about results. Here's what we have: Nov 10 • 6:30 PM the weather of 2010 (so far). 15,468 -Rhode Island licenses RISAA Kayak Committee Meeting The 2010 spring was the wettest on 33,682 -RI'ers registered federally location to be announced record and summer was the hottest on 49,150 TOTAL record since record-keeping began in 1932. The 15,468 licenses brought in Nov 16 • 6:30 PM approximately $70,000 in revenue. RISAA Board of Directors Meeting I think this had a major effect on the conditions of the bay, and subsequently So, for the first year, that's better than on fishing. I expected. I figure that only about 50% of Nov 16-18 people who fished this year actually New England Fisheries Council To confirm my ideas, I called John registered or bought a RI license. Ocean Edge Resort, Brewster, MA Torgan of Save The Bay, who spends his life on the water in Narragansett Bay. He Many still don't know about it. I have Nov 29 • 7:00 PM said it definitely had an effect. received calls every week asking about the RISAA Monthly Seminar (see page 23) The spring rainstorms flushed a lot of license. Many just didn't bother, knowing fresh water from the rivers into the upper that the law wasn't going to be enforced Nov 30 • 6:00 PM bay, and actually helped to clean and flush this first year. I expect that total number RIMFC Menhaden Advisory Panel to double in 2011. (to page 24) URI Coastal Institute, Narragansett bay waters. - 2 - R.I.S.A.A. / October, 2010 The purpose of the Membership Committee is to contact new The Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association is a member members, welcome them to the Association and answer any organization of the International Game Fish Association questions they may have about RISAA and its activities. Did you know?* Welcome to the new members who The difference between traditional spaghetti tags and satellite joined last month tags is – although the later is more expensive, they have the Bob Coupe Henry Krupa ability to provide significantly more data and do not require recapture of the fish. Cumberland, RI Newport, RI Pop-up satellite tags are small Peter Iascone Robert Monahan devices that represent a marriage Portsmouth, RI Pascoag, RI of archival (recording) tags and a satellite transmitter. The tag is Peter Iascone, Jr Abigale O’Donnell Satellite tag inserted with a barb beneath the Portsmouth, RI Coventry, RI skin near the base of the dorsal fin while the body of the tag is outside the fish. Billfishes and tunas Alessia Johnson Herve Pelland are the recipients of most pop-up tags. These tags log temperature, Middletown, RI Woonsocket, RI depth and light intensity, and can be used to calculate latitude and Luke Johnson YOUR NAME longitude. After a predetermined Middletown, RI should be here amount of time, the tag releases from the fish, floats to the surface and uploads its data to the There are no strangers in the Rhode Island A satellite popup tag on a ARGOS satellite system. Saltwater Anglers Association striped marlin Because satellites can only Only friends you haven't met yet. transfer 32 bytes of data at a time, the data must be compressed before transmission, following which it is transferred via e-mail to researchers. The only disadvantage of the pop-up tags is that they are Share the Wealth! relatively expensive ($5,000 each) and data transmission is limited. BRING A FRIEND TO To learn more, contact: Michael L. Domeier, Ph.D., Marine THE NEXT MEETING. Conservation Science Institute at www.MarineCSI.org. RISAA members can bring a guest to the *Published in the IGFA International Angler monthly seminars, at no charge, during 2010. Sportfishing aboard the Fishing Photos PROWLER Fast 42 foot Custom NC Express CAPT. TOM PELLETIER Captain Al Anderson with a 9 lb tautog IGFA Representative/RI that he landed on a IGFA Certified Capatin green crab in early November last year 401-783-8487 while fishing off [email protected] Narragansett. www.ProwlerChartersRI.com Member - 3 - R.I.S.A.A. / October, 2010 ASMFC & Mid-Atlantic Council approve 2011 total allowable landings for summer flounder, scup, black sea bass and bluefish The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) and the Mid-Atlantic fisheries Council have established increased 2011 Total Allowable Landings (TAL) for summer flounder and scup and reduced TAL for black sea bass and bluefish. The ASMFC will be forwarding its recommendations to NOAA for final approval. The table below summarizes those recommendations (TALs and recreational harvest limits are in millions of pounds). Summer Flounder Black Sea Bass The ASMFC and Mid-Atlantis Council approved an increase A TAL of 3.6 million pounds was set for 2011, a decrease of in the summer 100,000 pounds less flounder TAL by 7.35 than 2010.