JCAA Updates

Tom Fote has always been diligent in keeping us anglers informed as to the happenings concerning our fisheries and the laws and rules being forged as well as the battles being fought. I thought I would show my appreciation by posting the many updates he sends right here so those of you who are not on the mailing list can see them. Tom Fote and the Jersey Coast Angler's Association have been involved in NJ's fisheries management and conservation since before many of us caught our first striped bass. The JCAA is a unique NJ only organization that is made up of around 75,000 members and dozens of NJ sportsman, fishing and outdoors organizations. Tom has been responsible for many great victories over the years regarding recreational angling in NJ. Sometimes I personally feel that in protecting NJ's resources, he sometimes argues that to mean making sure NJ anglers can kill as many fish as possible. It's not my personal philosophy but so long as that philosophy is represented by a majority of the members of the JCAA, then the organization is doing what it is designed to do. I believe the JCAA is probably one of the few organizations that members can truly make a difference by speaking up and for that they should be congratulated. If you live and fish in NJ and would like to have some part in the way NJ's fisheries are managed, I would encourage you to join the JCAA and make yourself heard. If you are a member of a fishing or ourdoors club, find out if they belong to the JCAA - if they do not, perhaps you can bring up membership at your next meeting. The JCAA is only as strong as their membership and their direction only as representative of NJ's anglers desires as their membership expresses to them.

**Note: While I agree in principal with all the efforts of the JCAA, I do not necessarily agree with what is said in the text of the JCAA Updates listed above as I may or may not have read them and certainly have not edited them in any way. The views on those pages are not mine. Please do not assume that I had, in any way, anything to do with them other than in presenting here for others to see as I feel that it is important for fishermen to see how the processes involving fisheries management work. I do in fact feel strongly that the JCAA is on the right track, they are stubbornly fighting a battle than many of us can only guess as to what is involved. My confidence in what they are doing is reflected in the fact that I will post any updates I receive from them here, without, in any way, altering their content. I am not responsible for the content.