January 6, 2015 — Balancing commerce and nature along the Jersey Shore is never easy.
Commerce – especially and ironically the commercial-fishing industry and the marinas and bait-and-tackle shops that cater to recreational fishermen – is often at odds with efforts to enhance and maintain the coastal ecosystem.
It's hard, if not impossible, to make everyone happy.
But in the debate over rules to protect winter flounder, Ernie Utsch, co-owner of Utsch's Marina in Cape May Harbor, is right.
Utsch, other marina owners and the owner of the Lund's Fisheries commercial-fishing dock in Cape May Harbor are fighting a designation that makes the manmade harbor an "essential fish habitat" for winter flounder, a separate species from the better known summer flounder or fluke.
The New England Fishery Management Council sets winter-flounder rules from New England to the Mid-Atlantic. The rules prohibit dredging, some beach-replenishment work and other marine projects from Jan. 1 to May 31, when winter flounder are laying eggs on ocean and bay bottoms.