CCA Maryland needs your help and participation now more than ever. Remember the recreational poacher that was caught with 228 undersized striped bass? The trial date was rescheduled for this Friday. Did you know that there is a strong push in the legislature to open up the Upper Bay to oyster dredging? CCA Maryland is requesting a Call to Arms for the hearing. Dredging the Upper Bay goes against all available science and will destroy valuable fish habitat.
We also have multiple events coming up. There is the Baltimore Chapter meeting at Tochterman's Fishing Tackle on Saturday February 22, and the Greater Washington Banquet on Thursday, February 27. Things don't slow down in March either. Lefty Kreh Tie Fest will open the month on March 8 followed by our new event, Light Tackle and Kayak Fest on March 22. Tie Fest and Light Tackle and Kayak Fest will have free seminars this year. A schedule will be available via the links above.
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A call to arms
We need your help on Friday, February 28th
Oyster beds in the Upper Bay are once again under attack. There are bills moving through both the House and the Senate that would allow unfettered power dredging of oyster bars above the Bay Bridge. This comes at a time when the area is already threatened by pollution, poor water quality and increased harvest of valuable fish species. The Bay's oyster resource was recently estimated to be 0.3 percent of historic levels. Seventy-five years of data show that oyster reproduction above the Bay Bridge is low to absent, and not capable of sustaining the efficient harvest gear like power dredges. If this bill passes, critical striped bass, perch, croaker, and redfish habitat would be leveled or removed. It is becoming obvious that some of our elected officials are thinking more about commercial interests than the varied user groups and critical ecological role oysters play in the Bay. This year the commercial industry has refined its legislative efforts by hiring several outside lobbyists. We need to stand strong in the face of this increased opposition. The only thing that can stop this effort is showing up to the hearing. It's time to get mad and fight back. If you fish the Upper Bay or care about the basis of life for the Chesapeake Bay show up in Annapolis on Friday, February 28th and tell our representatives that recreational anglers count too!
The House version of the dredging bill, House Bill 1155, will be heard by the Environmental Matters Committee on Friday, February 28th. Please come and support CCA Maryland's testimony on this bill. Even though the hearings for the day begin at 1:00, the hearings for this bill will likely occur sometime after 3:30 in the Committee's hearing room located on 2nd floor of the House Office Building on Bladen Street in Annapolis. Please understand it's never certain at which point in the proceedings an individual bill will be heard. After entering the building from Bladen Street, pass through security (bring a picture ID) and walk straight back to the stairs and go to the second floor. The Committee hearing room will be on your left off the circular atrium.
There is a second bill being heard the same day, House Bill 1148, that would waste critical time, money, and resources for no other reason than to poke the eye of recreational anglers. CCA Maryland strongly supports fisheries management decisions based on sound science, not political posturing. Based on our review of the facts and science underlying the issue, this bill wouldn't advance the scientific methods that are already in place and we plan on using this opportunity to testify about what is possible in the coming years. This is a great opportunity to tell legislators about the role we play in the stewardship of our shared resources
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Accused poacher goes to trial
 On August 31st, NRP Officer Jeff Beshore, stopped a boat returning to Sandy Point State Park Marina. After receiving permission to check the coolers aboard the 14-foot recreational vessel, Beshore found 228 striped bass under the legal minimum of 18 inches. The officer also found about 30 pounds of white perch in the coolers. No one on the vessel had a fishing license.
Hervino Nunez-Aleman, the owner and operator of the boat, received a citation for possession of undersize striped bass.
Mr. Nunez-Aleman is scheduled to appear in court on Friday, February 21. We are asking our members to stand up for the fishery by sending the Anne Arundel County State's Attorney an email asking for all available resources to be brought to bear on Mr. Nunez-Aleman. The contact information for the AAC State's Attorney is listed below along with some talking points for the case.
Read the original account on the NRP blotter
Read CCA MD comments on Criminal Case No. 5Y66191655.
Contact for States Attorney office: [email protected]
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Angler's Night Boat Yard Bar and Grill
The Annapolis Chapter in conjunction with the Boatyard Bar & Grill will host the second of three Angler's Nights Tuesday, March 25, at 7 p.m. at the Boatyard. An added bonus to this event will be our guest speaker, Wes Adams, candidate for Anne Arundel County State's Attorney. Wes will give a brief presentation and meet with anglers interested in enhanced poaching enforcement. This week's film is Predator, which features stunning slow motion footage of wild back-country New Zealand trout, leaping billabong barramundi, and hot-to-trot popper-chasing Queenfish in Northern Australia." Come early and order from the Boatyard's acclaimed menu and discuss fishing with colleagues.
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Greater Washington Banquet
 The Greater Washington banquet is scheduled for February 27, 2014. Want to bonefish the Bahamas? Maybe fishing for pelagics in Costa Rica is more up your alley? You can bid on all of these items plus many more local hunting and fishing trips with top notch guides and CCA supporters. We have an incredible line up of auction items, fantastic menu, and full bar all on tap for our supporters. We need your support at these events. Not only is it a great way to meet other fishermen in your area but it keeps CCA Maryland moving forward. So buy your tickets online today
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CCA MD completes a successful fund-raising year
 CCA Maryland set a goal for 2013 of raising $50,000 through direct donations and life membership sales. We are pleased to announce that we were successful in this endeavor. We were able to raise nearly $45,000 toward our goal. Considering it was our first undertaking of this sort, we are happy to claim success, coming as close as we did. This fundraising effort was an essential and substantial component of CCA Maryland's total annual operating budget. Only with adequate funding, can CCA Maryland continue its efforts to protect fish and other marine resources, improving recreational angling in our coastal area. To help reach our fundraising goal, CCA MD encouraged current and prospective new members to become life members. To incentivize perspective life members, we were able to offer a multi-year payment plan, which several members took advantage of. All tolled, twenty-nine people became life members in 2013, setting a new record for life membership sales for CCA MD. CCA MD now enjoys almost 100 Life Members in total. Thank you to all of our Life Members. Another key component of our fundraising campaign came in December 2013, when we launched a year-end appeal to all members to consider a tax-deductable direct donation to CCA MD. We are happy to have raised nearly $16,000 toward our $50,000 goal in this manner. Thanks to all those members that contributed as part of this year-end appeal. Your contributions really helped to make this a successful campaign. Based on the success in this first year and the need to make CCA Maryland as powerful a voice for marine resources and recreational anglers as possible, the association has again set $50,000 as a direct donation/life membership fundraising goal in 2014. You can make a big difference in the Bay and your fishing by participating in this campaign. Please consider renewing as a life member in 2014 and/or making a direct donation. Information on both can be found on the CCA MD website, www.ccamd.org. There will be another year-end appeal, but there's no need to wait until December to make your tax deductible donation. Those who joined as Life Members in 2013 include: Marc G. Bunting, John Christensen, Sawyer M. Davis, John Cogar, Rachel Dawson, Robert W. Fantom, Keith Fraser, Tony Friedrich, Charles Hayes, Alan W. Hunter, Erika Jaeggli, Nelson Jaeggli, Larry Jennings, Shawn Kimbro, Erica Kirby, Franziska Lorden, Patrick Lorden, Greg A. McCrickard, Scott A. McGuire, Louis Moravec, John Ogle, Jack C. Saum, David Sikorski, Joey S. Sikorski, Henry Trentman, Frank Tuma, Dan V. Wolf, Skip Zahniser, and Trent Zivkovich.
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Sincerely,
Tony Friedrich
Coastal Conservation Association Maryland |
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BATON ROUGE, La. (KNOE 8 News) - A new gelatin-like bait using shrimp waste could improve the way blue crabs are caught along the coast of Louisiana and add value to the state's shrimp processing industry.
Julie Anderson, a crustacean specialist with the LSU AgCenter, is working on a crab bait that could replace Atlantic menhaden, the current bait used.
The menhaden, also known as pogy, is shipped from the East Coast, Anderson said, but stocks are declining. The Atlantic State Marine Fisheries Commission put a limit on how much menhaden can be caught. Anderson said this is driving up the price of Atlantic menhaden.
Menhaden also is caught in the Gulf of Mexico, but it is rarely used for bait.
"Gulf-caught menhaden is valuable as its own separate fishery," she said. "There are some fishermen that used to sell it as bait, but it is more valuable to use as Omega-3 oils - fish oils - that it is just not worthwhile to sell as bait."
Anderson worked on a project manufacturing baits at the University of Delaware. She was trying to find a replacement for horseshoe crabs used as bait in eel and whelk fishing.
She is applying the same techniques to develop a blue crab bait that can replace menhaden.
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