Monday, November 10, 2014

Re: {Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} BEER TIE, BEER TIE, BEER TIE, TONIGHT!!!

To all BEER TIERS,

Could I ask one of our regular attendees to be the point of contact tonight for our guest, Dave Sikorski?  Most of the TPFR officers are out of town and Trent will not be there until the end of the evening.  No big responsibility to the job, just help him get set up with any display items he has at a dedicated table in the tying room and give him a shout out around 7:30PM to let him say a few words and call attention to where he can be found.  Thanks in advance to anyone who can field this, I'll get you a BEER or two at the next one!

Dan Davala

On Mon, Nov 10, 2014 at 9:03 AM, Daniel Davala <daniel.davala@gmail.com> wrote:
This is a quick reminder to all that the November TPFR BEER TIE is TONIGHT from 7PM-9PM at Whitlow's.  Details and directions to Whitlow's can be found on our events page here:  http://www.tpfr.org/events.htm

Doors to the "Sandbar" open at 6PM, so get there early for a prime spot and take advantage of Happy Hour through 7PM. 

I am presently in the Outer Banks celebrating 12 years of marriage (today) to my best friend on the planet, so I will not be in attendance and there will be no raffle tonight - just tie and have fun!

ALSO, BOTH ROB AND JIM ARE OUT OF TOWN SO THERE WILL BE NO OFFICIAL "LEARNING TABLE" TONIGHT.  Beer Ties are always great learning experiences though, so be sure to keep an eye out for newcomers and show them a thing or two.

And finally, we will have a special guest in attendance tonight who will be saying a word or two.  David Sikorski of CCA MD will drop by to talk to the group about some of the current management issues regarding American and hickory Shad which should be of interest to all of us.  Copied below is a message he sent out to other CCA chapters and it was passed on to me by TPFRer Ernie Rojas.  Please extend a warm welcome to Dave tonight and make him feel at home!

Have a great BEER TIE everyone.  See you at the next one!

Dan Davala

David's note to CCA chapters:

"I'm a long time volunteer here in MD and the current Chair of our Govt. Relations Committee, the Annapolis Chapter President, and the Vice-Chair of our MD DNR Sport Fisheries Advisory Commission.

As you know we've always worked hard to menhaden management issues.  Recently we've started tracking and working on River Herring and Shad management and other forage fish management actions which are happening at the Mid Atlantic Fisheries Management Council(MAFMC), a council that manages federal waters ( 3-250miles)

Just like Menhaden, River Herring and Shad are important forage species for popular gamefish, as well as other aquatic and marine species.  Each spring, River Herring and Shad are also the target of droves of rec anglers hoping to shake off the winter blues and get out and wet a line. 

River Herring and Shad( RH/S) are in moratorium in nearly every state governed by ASMFC in state waters, which are inside 3 miles of the Atlantic coast.  RH/S are currently caught as bycatch in the midwater trawl fleet, a fishery that targets mostly mackerel and sea herring.  The MAFMC recently took action to add a catch cap to the RH/S bycatch of 89 metric tons, an amount which represents an important portion of the remaining stock of these fish.  Unfortunately the cap is only effective if it is enforced, and the only way to enforce it effectively is to add federal observers to the vessels which catch RH/S to count the catch when at sea.  At this time MAFMC is struggling to figure out how to fund observer coverage and bureaucratic inertia is making a mess of what should be reasonable steps to protect what is left of the RH/S stocks. 

Another issues which is currently being discussed at MAFMC is a policy for "unmanaged forage fish".  These are stocks which are not really fished on at a measurable level, or fisheries management plans and their associated regulations and data don't exist for.  National Marine Fisheries Service ( NMFS) developed an unmanaged forage white paper recently to lay out more information on these various species and explain their life cycle, importance to the marine food web, as well as some potential management policies which could be used to effectively manage these unmanaged species to prevent a situation where fisheries pop up on stocks that we don't know much about, and/or to prepare the necessary data and plans if any commercial interests wished to start fishing on "new" species. 

I am preparing for the December meeting of MAFMC in
Baltimore on Dec 9-11th
by staying up to speed on the issues and spreading the word to as many rec angling groups and associations as possible. I have prepared a presentation on RH/S and unmanaged forage and have been taking it on the road to help educate folks on the issue. 

We need as many groups and individuals as possible to show up at the
Baltimore meeting to support strong and conservative management actions on RH/S and unmanaged forage.  It is my hope that if large contingency of rec anglers and groups provides input to MAFMC and shows up to the meeting, the MAFMC will begin to understand that forage fish management matters to rec fishermen in the Mid- Atlantic is important and the proper actions should be taken. 

So, what I'm looking for in VA are some contacts for any groups that might be interested in the issues and the opportunity to ask for their support of our efforts here in MD.  Leading up to the Dec. meeting I will be pushing for letters to be written to the MAFMC and articles to be published in popular fishing publications or digital media outlets.  It is also my hope that a good number of fishermen and the leadership of fishing groups will be able to show up at the meeting to be seen and be heard. 

If you have a chance in the near future please give me a shout to discuss this issues further, and give any input you can offer on what I can do to get the message out to folks in VA.


Thanks,

Dave Sikorski"


  

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