N.J. Admin. Code § 7:7-16.2
Activities that may interfere with marine fish and fisheries include blockage of diadromous finfish spawning runs, reduction in the critical capacity of estuaries to function as finfish nursery or spawning areas, reduction of summer dissolved oxygen level below 4 ppm stimulating anoxic phytoplankton blooms, introduction of heavy metals or other toxic agents into coastal water, rise in ambient water temperature regime especially during summer and fall periods, unacceptable increase in turbidity levels, siltation, or resuspension of toxic agents, excavation of marine substrate to obtain sand resources or to install submarine cables and pipelines, and introduction of effluents from domestic and industrial sources.
Water presently condemned for the harvesting of shellfish may not be directly or immediately important to human economics although these areas have been used for resource recovery programs, relay and depuration, and as source areas. These areas, however, serve for restocking fishable areas through production of motile larvae. Shellfish in condemned waters also are not lost to estuarine ecological food-webs, but serve as a food source to other species of wildlife.
Sand mining for the purpose of beach nourishment has the potential to impact marine fish and fisheries by altering the contours of the water bottom (bathymetry) within borrow areas or by covering fishery resources and/or habitat through the placement of sand, thereby reducing the productivity of these areas. Measures to minimize and compensate for impacts to marine fish and fisheries may include, but are not limited to, modifying the location and dimensions of proposed borrow areas, creating and/or enhancing habitat at or near the borrow site, requiring timing restrictions on sand mining activities, limiting frequency of borrow activities, and reducing allowable sand mining volumes.
Shorelines lost due to erosion eliminate intertidal habitat, reduce the amount of sandy beach, and decrease the amount of organic matter necessary to maintain tidal wetlands. This erosion results in the degradation of the coastal environment through impacts to natural habitats, such as tidal wetlands and spawning grounds. Coastal states are seeking natural solutions, such as the creation of living shorelines, to address erosion as an alternative that adds diversity to other shore protection measures. Living shorelines are a shoreline management practice that addresses the loss of vegetated habitats by providing for their protection, restoration or enhancement.
Fishery Management Plans are developed by the Regional Fisheries Management Councils, National Marine Fisheries Service and Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission in accordance with the Federal Fisheries Conservation and Management Act of 1976, P.L. 94-265, as amended or the Federal Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act, P.L. 103-206, as amended. Fishery Management Plans are also developed by the Department pursuant to the State's Marine Fisheries Management and Commercial Fisheries Act, N.J.S.A. 23:2B-1 et seq. Fishery Management Plans are intended to prevent overfishing of marine fish and to achieve optimal yield from each fishery on a continuing basis. These Plans are adopted on a regional basis and provide for long-term viability of marine fish and fisheries. This rule provides the Department the ability to ensure that Fishery Management Plans, as well as developmental and other activities, will not adversely affect New Jersey's recreational and commercial marine fisheries.
N.J. Admin. Code § 7:7-16.2