February 25, 2016 — Ray Bogan, who chose the law as his profession, rather than joining the famed family party boat business in Brielle, has been appointed as the U.S. recreational fishing commissioner to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).
Ray Bogan, whose law office is in Point Pleasant Beach and is also a captain, has been involved for many years in all aspects of fisheries conservation. He’s well-qualified to handle the new position as he’s been monitoring ICCAT activities for decades. In some cases, the overfishing of tunas in Europe and Africa may also impact local abundance. Though the title implies that ICCAT only manages tunas, they also develop conservation plans for other highly migratory fisheries. Since most of the rest of the world is only concerned with commercial fishing, ICCAT had to be dragged into protecting species with lesser commercial value. After being appointed to the first Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, I became that council’s representative to the Southeast Council in establishing tuna regulations within our then new 200-mile limit before the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) later took over highly migratory species management. At one meeting, an U.S. marine biologist said ICCAT wouldn’t do anything to conserve blue marlin until there were only two left – and both were males!
It’s not quite that bad now, but recreational fishing still takes a back seat at ICCAT. The bluefin tuna “conservation” regulations result in such minimal quotas for school bluefins that the cost of pursuing that recreational fishery can hardly be justified, while spawning giants are targeted with high commercial daily boat limits in order to fill quotas.