Article by Capt. Mark Sampson
Last week NOAA Fisheries published this year's bluefin tuna regulations, so starting immediately angling category fishermen on private boats are allowed to take two school-size bluefins and one large school/small-medium fish per boat while those on charter boats will be allowed three school-size fish and one large school/small-medium. I don't think the new bluefin limits will be too painful for most fishermen to digest, but I'm guessing that, at the very least, a lot of fishermen won't know or understand "why" these or other fishery regulations are what they are.
These days anglers are absolutely inundated with fishing regulations; size limits, season, bag limits, tackle restrictions, different ways of measuring fish, safe handling regulations and closed areas. As if all that isn't enough, just when you think you've got it all figured out you find that there are sometimes differences in state and federal regulations that require anglers to keep track of whether the fish they catch are taken more, or less, than three miles from the shoreline.
With so much to keep up with, and so much of it being downright confusing, fishermen often get very frustrated by it all and conclude that certain regulations are just plain "stupid" with no rational foundation behind them. While I'll be the first to admit that, over the years, there have been times when I too have been more than a little unhappy with certain regulations handed to us by folks sitting behind desks in Annapolis or Washington, I have also realized that the more I know about the reasoning of "why" regulations become law - the easier they are to digest.
As it is, fishery managers have two primary jobs; to maintain populations of our marine resources at prescribed levels, and to provide the public access to those resources. In other words, keep the populations up while allowing fishermen to fish. Of course, this creates a balancing act for fisheries people who must be able to control the harvest of fish so that anglers can take "some" but not "too many" out of the population, and to that end they have certain tools to do this.
All fishermen are accustomed to "size limits" which are one of the most common tools fishery managers use to control the harvest of resources. Whether it's fish, clams or crabs, almost all managed species have some kind of minimum or maximum size limit. Sometimes specific size limits are not biologically important but they are set at a certain length just to slow the landings of a particular species. When the intent is to help allow juveniles to reach a certain size before they are subject to harvest, the limit might be set at a length that is known to be the minimum size that a particular species needs to grow to before they reach sexual maturity in hopes that the fish has at least one opportunity to reproduce before being caught. The latest example of this is the new 83-inch limit for mako sharks, which represents the minimum size female mako sharks have ever been reported to be mature.
In many species, even though smaller fish might be able to reproduce, it's the largest and oldest ones that are able to produce many more offspring in a single season, so (as with rockfish and red drum) "maximum" size limits or "slot limits" are a tool sometimes used to allow the best breeding-size fish the opportunity to spawn. Slot limits can also be used to provide a tailored level of conservation to certain year-classes of fish, as with bluefin tuna, which are classified in five management categories of school, large school, small medium, medium and giant, all with their own unique length measurement.
Catch limits - also known as "creel limits" are another well-known way of controlling harvest. Anglers have become very accustom to being told "how many" fish they are allowed to keep and sometimes, just like size limits, creel limits are a very contentious subject! Obviously, creel limits are set to control the harvest, and when doing so marine mangers take into account the estimated size and overall health of the fish population, the amount of fishermen or "effort" that will be pursuing those fish, as well as how effective anglers are at catching them.
Fishing "seasons" are tools that are used for some but not all species. Some fish, such as bluefish, yellowfin tuna and coastal rockfish are open all year, while others such as flounder, black sea bass, tautog and bluefin tuna open and close at different times for a variety of reasons. Such as with bluefins and flounder, seasons are sometimes set simply to control fishing effort and the harvest of a species. In other cases, such as with some species of sharks, seasons are set to keep anglers from pursuing them during periods of breeding or pupping. That's why anglers may not take any of the large coastal shark species in this region until after July 15th.
Closing specific areas to fishing is a tool occasionally used by marine managers to protect species during critical times in their life such as during migrations or breeding. If, for instance, a particular river or other body of water is known as a breeding or pupping area for a certain fish, that river might be closed for specific times that coincide with such activities. Sometimes areas are closed because they are known to be the primary habitat of juvenile fish and managers determine that the area should not be subject to any kind of fishing pressure. Occasionally, bodies of water are declared "sanctuaries" where no fishing of any kind can take place at any time. Often controversial, this tool is used to provide total protection to fish living within a specific boundary area with the thought that as their populations increase many of them will move out of the sanctuary zone and provide opportunities to fishermen in other places.
Gear restrictions and safe handling requirements can provide additional conservation to a fishery by helping to ensure that released fish have the best chance for survival. The required use of circle hooks for billfish and now sharks are great examples of how sometimes simple changes in the gear fishermen use to catch their fish can provide positive impacts on a fishery without reducing catch rates or the enjoyment anglers find in their sport. Requiring that sharks, tuna and billfish be released in the water without first being brought out of the water for photos is an example of safe handling regulations.
Capt. Mark Sampson is an outdoor writer and captain of the charter boat, “Fish Finder”, docked at the Ocean City Fishing Center.
