Gov't Regulation Bans Winter Dredging in New Jersey to Protect a Fish That Might Not Even Live There

Starting tomorrow, you can't dredge in Cape May, New Jersey, because of a government protection for a fish that might not even exist there.

A number of marina owners and commercial fishing dock managers are pleading with New England Fishery Management Council to revisit a two-decade-old rule banning dredging from Jan. 1 through May 31 of each year. The rule was originally established to protect the "essential fish habitat" of winter flounder fish, also known as blackback flounder.

Image source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association

But residents who have lived in the Cape May area as long as the dredging ban has been in place have cast doubt on whether the fish that the council says it's protecting even exist there, the Press of Atlantic City reported.

“I’ve never seen a winter flounder here. I’ve tried. I went fishing for them three times and never caught one,” marina owner Bob Lubberman said.

Ernie Utsch, who owns Utsch's Marina with his brother Charlie, told the outlet: “We’ve never caught a winter flounder. I’ve never seen one in my life."

Commercial dock owner Jeff Reichle said he's been in business 41 years and has yet to see anyone catch a winter flounder, though the fishery management council has mapped the area as one where the fish lays eggs during the cold season.

Cape May, New Jersey, has protection for a fish that may not exist there. (Photo credit: Shutterstock)

"We can’t dredge in the winter and have to dredge when the boats are in the slips, which is a huge problem for us,” Reichle said.

"You have to take the [egg] pilings out to dredge. We always used to dredge in January, February and March because there were no boats here,” Utsch added.

Jeff Kaelin, a government relations representative at a local commercial fishing dock who also serves on the council's habitat committee, said Cape May is the southernmost point in the section where winter dredging is banned. Kaelin is trying to get the committee to move the line north, but said he doesn't know how far it will go.

New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Larry Hajna said the number of winter flounder has been decreasing for years, and pointed to fishing, climate change and habitat changes as contributing factors to the decline. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, winter flounder live "from Maine to Virginia."

The New England Fishery Management Council's website says it is charged with conserving and maintaining fishery resources off the coasts of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.

Even so, Lubberman and other marina owners doubt that the winter flounder population will be impacted at all by moving the EFH line north.

“In Connecticut they don’t like the gooey mud. They like sand. The marinas have gooey mud. It’s just not what they like,” Lubberman said.

(H/T: Press of Atlantic City)

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