Category Archives: Conservation

Beach Access Public Meetings

February 17, 2017Beach Access, Conservation, Events, Legislation and Regulation, Service Eventsinternet@plumislandsurfcasters.org

Newburyport City Councillor Sharif Zeid has contacted the club to alert us to upcoming public meetings on beach access at the north end of Plum Island. The City has applied for and received a grant to look at beach access and erosion on the Northern End of Plum Island.

You may be familiar with the fencing and signs that have appeared at the north end of the island recently.

Meetings are being held with residents and other interested parties to gather information and feedback on path usage and what’s important to people in that regard. As a fishing club, PISC has interest in both protecting the sand dunes from erosion and ensuring access to the beach for fishermen.

We encourage everyone to stay on the marked paths and to participate in public meetings to ensure that the fencing permits easy access to the river and oceanfront.

The meetings will be:

Town Meeting
Thursday, March 2, 2017
6:30 pm
PITA Hall
8 Plum Island Turnpike
Newburyport, MA

Map

Public Site Visit
Sunday, March 5, 2017
1:00 pm
Plum Island Northern Lot
Newburyport, MA

Map

Scholarship Program

December 11, 2016Conservation, Service Eventsinternet@plumislandsurfcasters.org

The Plum Island General Scholarship Fund

Plum Island Surfcasters offers one scholarship each year to a deserving family member of our club. Please read about the program below. The application deadline is April 30, 2017.

The purpose of this scholarship fund is to assist recipients who will consider studying in a field that involves fisheries, environmental studies or wildlife management, but is not limited to those areas. Anyone is eligible to receive this award regardless of their field of study. This scholarship will be awarded to one deserving individual annually regardless of race, gender identification or religious affiliation. The following are requirements of the application process:

1. Applicants must be a child, grandchild or great grandchild of a current, paid member of Plum Island Surfcasters.

2. Applicants must be entering a higher education institution by the following school year upon receiving scholarship.

3. Application must be received either by mail or electronically by April 30th of current year for review and approval. Scholarship will be awarded by June 30th of that year.

4. Decisions will be made by the Plum Island Surfcasters Executive Board upon review of applications. All decisions are final.

Application

CPR (Catch-Photo-Release) Fishing Tournaments

September 7, 2016Conservation, Tournamentsinternet@plumislandsurfcasters.org

Our club’s year-long tournament has rather old-fashioned rules for the “Catch & Release” division. The current form calls for having your fish witnessed by another person–rather a hindrance if you are out fishing alone and catch a fish that might win you that prize! We want to move towards “Catch, Photo, and Release.’ This strategy is used by the MSBA and other sport fishing clubs. At the September club meeting, there will be a presentation on how this works. We want to start using this submission method for the “Die-Hard” tournament this fall and use it widely for next year’s “Year Long” tournament.

The process is:

1. Catch a fish.

2. Photograph your fish.

Take a photo of the fish alongside a measuring stick or measuring tape (pulled out nice and tight). Do not drape a measuring tape over the curve of the fish from head to tail–it must be pulled tight along a flat surface underneath the fish. Here are two acceptable photographs for submission.

Metal tape measures (as shown here) lie nice and flat. They work better than paper or plastic tape measures, which can curl up. If you use a tape measure that curls, pull it out straight and taught for your picture.

Unacceptable Photographs

The tape measure on top of the fish is unacceptable. It curves and exaggerates the length of your fish.

The picture must show both ends of the tape measure alongside the fish.

Sometimes the fish just doesn’t cooperate and you have to take another picture.

Some of these photos come from the MSBA Facebook page, where the rules are explained for MSBA members.

3. Release your fish!

Send it back into the breeding stock of our beloved striped bass. (Photo of Justin Innes from On the Water.)

4. Submit your photos to the Tournaments Director

Submissions can be via email or with an online submission form (coming soon.) At the September meeting you will hear how to do this in more detail. Paper submissions will continue, but anyone with a smartphone (or tablet or computer) and an email account will be able to submit entries without the old paper affidavits. All you need is the proper digital picture of your catch and internet access.

We hope this method will make it easier for you to submit entries. Submissions done this way will speed things up and make it easier for us to keep track of entries and put up a running tally of entries and current leaders on the website. A prime objective is to have an up-to-date leaderboard on the website so that you can check where you stand in the tournament.

Many of you may like this new system for submitting entries. Anyone preferring to stick with the old paper slips can still do so. Just catch your fish and submit your entries for the tournament.

We will discuss the new process at the September meeting and finalize rules then or shortly thereafter.

The Scale Program

May 20, 2016Conservation, Service Eventsinternet@plumislandsurfcasters.org

The Sportfish Angle Data Collection Team is the official name for the “scale program.” Kimberly Trull of Marine Fisheries visited Plum Island Surfcaters on Tuesday, May 17th.

Her presentation covered all the information you need on how to participate. Audio starts around the 1 minute mark on this video.

Interested anglers measure the length of a fish, collect several scales (even catch and release fish can be sampled), record the species of fish, and note the area where caught. Scales and information are sent to Marine Fisheries to use in determining the age of each fish. Watch the video for all the details and find out how long it takes those fish to reach legal “keeper” size.

Read the official description of this program from Marine Fisheries here. More information can be obtained from Kimberly Trull at kimberly.trull@state.ma.us.