There will be a fishing contest/beach cookout this coming Sat,  July 12, on East beach.  Lines in the water at 4:00PM and food will be served at 5:30PM.  Lure prize for the largest bluefish and bass landed.  The club will provide grill food.  Please bring along a salad or desert to share as well.  Don will have the new club t-shirts for sale at the outing.

The official ribbon cutting ceremony for the Oak Bluffs fishing pier was held on June 19th, at 11:00 a.m. It has been a long process to get the pier off the ground, built and completed but it is ready for public use now. Special thanks to Dave Nash and everyone else involved in driving this approval process to completion. Everyone will get to enjoy their hard work for the future.

Come check it out and take a few casts. You never know, you might just catch the fish of a lifetime!

Thanks to Phil Horton for this picture of the ribbon cutting ceremony. Click on the link below.

Pier Ribbon Cutting.doc

The Oak Bluffs Fishing Pier is now complete and ready to kick off the 2014 fishing season. There will be an official ribbon cutting ceremony at the fishing pier on Thursday, June 19th, 2014 1t 11:00 a.m. Come join in on the festivities with your fellow fishermen for this historic event.

Thursday, June 19th, 2014 at 11:00 a.m.

Seaview Avenue Extension, Oak Bluffs, Martha’s Vineyard

(Adjacent to the Oak Bluffs Steamship Authority Pier)

The May 2014 edition of the MVSA Newsletter has now been released. There is all kinds of great information which include fishing reports, OSV beach reports, bird nesting areas, calendar of MVSA events and so on.

It is attached here. Click on the link below to download and view the newsletter.

2014 May MVSA Newsletter.docx

Enjoy!

Kiramati-Christmas Island-Peter Sliwkowski awed those present at the May meeting with a terrific power point presentation about his January fishing trip to Kiramati Island which sits 1300 miles south of Honolulu. Peter described fishing for bonefish on the flats and casting to Giant Trevally, Yellowfin Tuna, and Doarado in 1000 feet of water right from the beach. Peter said it was beautiful place and an awesome experience. It’s also described it as reasonably inexpensive and intends to return again next winter.
 
Check out the attached presentation about Peter's trip! Click on the PDF below.

Trip to Kiritimati [Autosaved].pdf

For additional information about a trip to Christmas Island, contact Peter at psliwkowski@gmail.com           

ASMFC Spring Meeting Update & Release a Breeder Club
Stripers Forever, Brad Burns, May 19, 2014


At the annual meeting of the ASMFC last fall MA State Director Paul Diodati told his fellow commissioners that one didn't need to be a fishery scientist to see what has happened to striped bass. They simply weren't there in the numbers that they had been, and that when he looked at the current data, it was apparent to him that action should have been taken to reduce harvest years ago.  In fairness to the managers, the data keeps changing and the statistics didn't look as bad years ago as they really were.  Under the new "models" that are supposed to more accurately estimate the population, the true condition of the fishery is now thought to be more accurately reflected, and it is not a pretty picture.  Fishermen's reports, which are referred to as  "anecdotal data", have displayed warning signs for the last 7 or 8 seasons, so it turns out that they were more accurate than the scientific data.  Diodati suggested an immediate 40% cut across the board for the 2014 season - just the kind of sensible thing that our members would agree should have been done, but his recommendation failed.

There was substantial pushback to Diodati's proposal, mostly from commercial fishing states, but even from some recreational commissioners, who in our view hold the outdated view that people value harvest more than conservation. They wanted to go more slowly and look at the matter again in subsequent meetings.  That is the scenario that has played itself out in the last two meetings.  The ASMFC Management Board gave the can a gentle kick down the road by asking the scientists to come up with some options to reduce harvest by about 31% beginning in 2015 - a calculation designed to keep the spawning stock biomass from slipping into the overfished category.  This ignored the scientists having told them that a 31% cut would not be enough.

Since the Winter meeting resistance stiffened behind party lines with Chesapeake Bay commercial fishermen insisting that they caught the smaller, non-migratory Bay fish and not the increasingly scarce coastal cows, and of course they played the old commercial sympathy card, complaining about how much they needed these fish to pay their bills, and how a 31% cutback would ruin them.  A story in a Maryland newspaper that recently aired this viewpoint showed a gillnet full of stripers on a commercial boat; every one of them that could be clearly seen was a large female full of eggs.  Also not mentioned was that the Chesapeake Bay area Young of the Year index over the last few seasons is a shadow of those in the 1990s and early 2000s which produced today's larger fish.

So that is how the battle is shaping up.  Recreational fishing and environmental groups are calling for stronger conservation measures - SF went on record as asking for a 50% cutback - and commercial fishing groups along with a few old-school members of the recreational community want a go-slow approach, with the 31% cut to be phased in over three seasons and not to take effect until 2015.  This delaying tactic is designed to give them time to claim that no cutbacks at all are necessary.  If it all sounds a bit confusing, it should, because there is very little direction to the plan at all.  Here is the ASMFC press release on the meeting.  Stripers Forever will be making comments to the ASMFC commissioners prior to the August summer meeting, and doubtless we will advocate then for complete catch reductions to begin with the 2015 season.

In the meantime, Stripers Forever encourages recreational fishers to do their share to conserve large striped bass.  A month ago we introduced our Release A Breeder Club program This program recognizes and rewards both guides and individual anglers who release striped bass 36 inches and larger.  The RBC page explains our free program and has links to the online forms for individuals and guides to enter. Their names and catches will be listed on our website and they will receive decals and certificates decorated with Alan James Robinson's terrific striper artwork.  

Check out these awesome photos taken by Skip Bettencourt and his drone helicopter. The MVSA would like to thank Skip for these latest photos showing the ever changing landscape and seascape out on Wasque Point. It even looks like the Swan Pond is reforming.

Check out these awesome photos in the attached file.

Wasque 041714 .doc

February 13, 2014

 

              REPORT ON BEACH ACCESS MEETING IN DENNIS ON FEB. 12, 2014

 

The meeting was scheduled by Dennis selectman Wayne Bergeron, Chatham selectman Sean Summers and Orleans Selectman John Hodgson, all of the Regional Beach Coalition, at 4:30 at the Dennis Senior Center.

 

In attendance were also selectmen from Truro, Sandwich, Barnstable, Plymouth and Wellfleet, the two town counsels from Barnstable, a representative from Nantucket Seal Abatement Coalition, the three founders of the Martha’s Vineyard Beach Access Coalition, Southeast Regional Director from TTOR, TTOR Property Manager Chris Kennedy from M’sV, the president and about 12 members of the Mass Beach Buggy Association, a reporter from the “Cape Cod Times”, and a reporter from radio station WXTK. Eastham, Falmouth and Duxbury were not represented by a town official but the hope is that each will have one at the next meeting.

 

The goals of the meeting were the following:

·         To meet one another.

·         Learn about the beach access issues facing each town.

·         Hearing the reports of any progress from the three hosts.

·         Plan how to move forward.

 

Shared issues are

·         Long periods of unnecessary beach closures over the years mandated by state bureaucrats citing the federal and state Endangered Species Act.

·         Finding ways to influence new policies that will insure the coexistence of birds and beachgoers instead of excluding people.

·         Loss of revenue for the towns. In M’sV case, it is mainly TTOR and the county who have lost revenue.

·         The lack of cooperation from state and federal officials re: “Take Permitting”, permits allowing beach enrichment and other erosion preventive measures, and reviewing and modifying existing regulations.

 

Moving forward

·         The next meeting will be held in two to three weeks. The Coalition has invited the Director of Mass Fish and Wildlife to discuss the need to streamline and simplify the permitting process.

·         Other issues that the group will address are

1.      Ways in which to pressure state and federal officials to review regulations, interpretation, implementation and enforcement in order to reach the goal of including the public in that process, i.e. gaining a voice in determining access to and management of our beaches.

2.      Ways in which to increase the numbers in the coalition, and to encourage more town officials and additional towns to join.

Mass.Gov Marine Fisheries
February 2014

Hello, Anglers!

Happy 2014! Even though it’s only February, we already have fishing on the mind. That means that the 2014 Massachusetts Saltwater Recreational Fishing Guide is now available.

Click here to go to the MA Marine fisheries website and Saltwater Fishing Guide.