by Bruce Smith

(from Jersey Coast Anglers Association January 2006 Newsletter)

Instead of going to the market to purchase some filets (from 14 inch summer flounder) for dinner, a New Jersey angler goes fishing.

Because he is a law-abiding citizen and because he agrees with the principles of conservation, he releases fish that are twice as heavy as the fish available at the market because that is the law.  The filets from many of the fish he releases would be twice as heavy as those available at the market. They would provide some really good tasting, nutritional meals for his family, but the law states that he cannot harvest them because they are, at 15-1/2 to 16-1/2 inches, too short to be taken by angling regardless of how thick they are. The fisheries management wizards have convinced him that it is good conservation of the resource to release these fish even if ten percent of them do not survive.  They call this fishing mortality.  If the angler catches eighty fish and releases all of them, the projected mortality is eight fish, a quantity equal to the limit allowed of fish greater than 16 ½ inches.

However, if the angler can catch no legal fish and if he is compliant with the law, he goes home with no fresh fish for dinner in spite of having caught the equivalent of several nice dinners.

He could return to the market and purchase, legally, fish that he that he could not harvest legally.  The thought of this is repugnant to him so he goes home.

On the way home he tries to come up with a story to explain to his family how he spent the dinner money on tackle, bait, fuel, ice, and lunch. He will tell them that he caught a lot of really nice fish but did not bring dinner home, that they have no money to go out, and that they are having cereal for dinner.

Under these circumstances, he finds it difficult, if not impossible, to explain to his hungry family concepts of fisheries management, “the best science available” and conservation but assures them that he is saving the resource for them and their children because he is, after all, a true conservationist.  He will do his best to convince them that NMFS stands for something other than  “Not Many Fluke Suppers.”

The angler tells his family to cheer up, things could be worse.  So they, with mock cheer, eat their cereal.  

The kids are smart enough to suspect that next year the wizards will probably declare the recreational quota exceeded, increase the legal length, recalculate the mortality probability, decrease the bag limit and /or season and will repeat the process yearly.  Soon all of the factors; catch, length (probably 20 inches minimum), bag, season will be exempted by the projected mortality resulting in a one 20 inch fluke limit with a one day season.

However, they are comforted by the knowledge that, if the family wants fluke for dinner, they will still be able to go to the market to purchase some choice filets from 14 inch fluke.

Bruce Smith     December, 2005    Bah Humbug!

          How much cereal can you get your family to eat?

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