June 7, 2012 – The Christie administration’s bid to win back an extra seat at the influential Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council is stalled over some fishermen’s opposition to the potential designee, Paul Eidman, a Monmouth County charter fishing guide and an outspoken advocate of doing more to reduce fishing pressure at the base of the ocean food chain.
“My main reason for doing this is I’m a forage fish guy,” Eidman said of his conservation efforts, which started with river herring rescue efforts to help spawning fish get around New Jersey river dams. “This particular seat is really important to New Jersey. It’s really important to all fishermen, recreational and commercial, to have a balanced council.”
But Eidman’s founding of the group Menhaden Defenders, part of a coalition that seeks further restrictions on commercial menhaden netting, has commercial fishermen alarmed. His nomination to take back a seat now held by New York is supported by three big recreational groups — the Jersey Coast Anglers Association, New Jersey Outdoors Alliance and the New Jersey Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs.
Eidman supporters make a case that New Jersey’s fishing economy is now three to four times larger than New York’s and worth $7 billion a year to the national economy, so by that measure New Jersey should have more representation. They warn, too, of New York’s lust for a bigger share of annual catch quotas, which could be taken away from New Jersey anglers.
Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press.