By John Koegler
(from Jersey Coast Anglers Association December1997Newsletter)
The most recent "recreational discard" hype being voiced by the commercial fishing industry is nothing more than a smoke screen being used in an attempt to cover up the uncontrolled commercial bycatch waste of so many of the important species they harvest. The amazing part is their enormous waste of fisheries resources has been documented only in those fisheries that presently require the reporting of dead discards. Many key commercial fisheries plans do not require the reporting of bycatch discards at all, so the waste in those fisheries goes totally unreported and unquantified. Please understand if dead discards are not required to be counted in a Fishery Management Plan (FMP) the chances of that plan accomplishing a recovery of the stock is greatly diminished, if not an impossible task. Just as bad for the recovery of a stock is the simple fact that those commercial discards that must be reported only include those fish thrown back dead. There is no requirement to count and document the survival rate of any fish released alive, even if the survival rate of those "live releases" is questionable. In all plans where recreational releases are charted, there is mortality rate attached.
For example, in the fluke plan, 25% of all the fluke released are considered dead and counted against the recreational quota. Most recreational releases have been documented historically to have a high survival rate. The North Carolina bluefin tuna pop-up tagging program has strongly indicated that the survival rate of those fish hooked, fought, tagged and release, is extremely high. In fact, the latest study indicates the survival rate to be over 95%. I believe a similarly high survival rate can be assumed for other released fish like other tuna species and billfish when caught recreationally.
Why is this blatant attack by commercial fishermen on the recreational release of gamefish, especially billfish, being mounted? Perhaps, to act as a smoke screen as commercial longliners make a move into fisheries that are historically 100% recreational, fisheries for species like little tunny and dolphin. Commercial overharvest and the enormous rate of dead discards and bycatch by commercial fishers have decimated key fish stocks they have targeted. This move to increase commercial harvest of little tunny and dolphin fish is sure to be met with a strong outcry from the recreational community, but by putting up a straw man argument about recreational discards, they are trying to divert attention from their own effort shift from commercial highly migratory species (HMS) to coastal migratory species (CMS). The effort shift has already been documented along the east coast and the result is woefully predictable! The recreational participants will see a drastic decline in their Catch Per Unit of and the stocks will decline.
Swordfish and large coastal sharks were an important component of the HMS recreational offshore fisheries for decades. These species have been so decimated that they must be considered recreationally extinct. That means a directed recreational fishery for these species is no longer viable and simply no longer exists! Add the pelagic sharks with the exception of blue sharks to this list. Short fins mako, a key recreational species has been reduced to a rare-event fishery, and most pelagic sharks are overfished commercially, like the Large Coastal species. Why do you think the even the commercial harvesters can not reached their Pelagic Shark quota? Because there were too many pelagic sharks or too few? Historically and scientifically, it has been documented that NO commercial shark fishery has ever been sustainable! Yet NMFS continues to allow it to exist in the face of drastic declines in key species knowing full well that any recovery, even if the commercial fishery is shut down completely tomorrow, will take decades!
The US report to ICCAT on 1996 catches of Coastal Migratory Species (CMS) is a shocker: King mackerel (7,02OMT); Spanish mackerel (2,558MT); dolphin (1, 148MT); little tunny (2,23OMT). All these catches represent major increases from their 1995 landings. At the same time the recreational fishery for all these species is starting to show signs of the commercial increases. The recreational quota for king mackerel is being tightened. Other species under regulation will follow suit quickly. This is all totally predictable! In short, commercial gear must be removed from the water if any of these coastal migratory species are to represent viable fisheries for any user.
After a protracted three year fight in Congress a new fishery management law was passed requiring real changes. Congress, upset with a poor results of management in the past, required new tough standards. The old Magnuson/Steven’s Act was rewritten into the "Sustainable Fisheries Act" and the new National Standard 1 is requires that fisheries no longer by managed to obtain Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY). The new and more restrictive stand is managing for Optimum Yield (OY). Optimum yield includes wording requiring that the fishery be managed for the "greatest economic benefit to the, nation." The question can now be raised…Is the greatest benefit to the nation to commercialize all remaining fish stocks?
Under the Sustainable Fisheries Act, Councils will be required to develop programs to end overfishing. This requires a revision of all current FMP’s to include overfishing definitions and, where required, stock rebuilding schedules. The NEW STANDARD is to provide stock levels that can produce MSY on a continuing basis! This is a major, major change. Most, if not all, current plans address only recruitment overfishing which is a much lower standard. Based on this new language, it is probable that many species that are currently not classified as "overfished" will be reassessed and declared overfished. Congress mandated the rebuilding programs must be as short as possible but not to exceed 10 years. All this is mandated to be completed by October 1998, A huge undertaking in a short time which will have major implications for all commercial and recreational alike. Just about all important recreational species have been classified as overfished!
A new three page report compiled by Dick Weber on white and blue marlin proves the commercial industries estimates of recreational marlin dead discards are totally wrong! This is a clear, accurate report proving beyond any doubt, that the recreational marlin mortality claims presented to NMFS in the National Fisheries Institute petition are pure bull. NFI is a commercial fishing lobby group that spends its time trying to justify the reprehensible record of species decimation by many commercial fishing practices.
The Massachusetts Audubon society has filed suit against NMFS to require a change in how the recreational bluefin tuna fishery should be managed. They are asking for a total shut down of the angling school fish harvest. How absurd! Bluefin tuna is the only fishery in the world where killing adult spawners is sanctioned and approved, many before they become sexually mature, and the suit desires to further restrict recreational catches. We have been reduced from our historic catch of over 300,000 bluefin in 1970 to a very tiny quota of less than 12,000 bluefin tuna for 1997. This massive recreational conservation sacrifice is unmatched anywhere in the world. Meanwhile, the slaughter of the spawners is permitted to continue and recreational are to be further punished for their conservation sacrifices over the last 30 years? Why? So New England commercial fishermen can increase their slaughter of pre spawn sub-adults to ship to Japan and line their pockets? This is insane beyond belief!
"Dolphin" fish, a very important recreational species, is being decimated after only five years of sharply increased commercial harvest. This overfishing will eventually destroy all private and charter boats fisheries in the northeast. No fish equals No business!
I believe, based on my fishing experience over the last 20 years from New Jersey, that all the HMS and CMS stocks are in much worse shape than is being reported. We must hold NMFS’ feet to the fire and make they live up to the tenants of the new Sustainable Fisheries Act.