Article by Capt. Mark Sampson
The summer might be over but our fishing season still has a lot of life left in it. So even though school is back in session, football season is underway, and hunting seasons are finally starting to open up, it’s not time for anglers to start storing their boats and tackle away. Not yet anyway, because there’s still a lot of hungry fish out there, and if history repeats itself anglers should still be pulling on striped bass, bluefish and tautog well into the new year.
Delmarva anglers have a lot to look forward to before the bitter cold and ice takes over and blocks access to our favorite fishing holes. But even then, anglers know that the fishing season never really “ends” for us, it just transitions into a period where we pull-back and start making plans and getting our arsenal of boats and tackle cleaned up and ready for next season. Unfortunately, it would seem that another off-season ritual anglers have grown accustomed to is that of dealing with the annual salvo of public meetings, notices, and proposals of new fishery issues and regulations.
While sitting in an auditorium, public library or fisheries office building and listening to biologists discuss “spawning stock biomass,” statisticians talk about “catch per unit effort,” and fishery officials squawk about quotas and size limits is about as much fun as scraping slime and barnacles off the bottoms of our boats. We now find ourselves in an age where both duties share equal importance in safeguarding that our season ahead runs as efficient and friction-free as possible. I don’t know of anyone who actually “likes” haggling over fishery issues, but just like the threat of barnacles on an unpainted hull, they’re never going to go away, so the only thing we can do is stay diligent and do our best to keep ahead of them before they get so bad that they prevent us from fishing altogether.
Last year seemed like one of the most contentious ever when it came to sea bass and flounder regulations. No doubt this winter we will again be dealing with issues over these two fisheries and I expect that fishermen will still be frustrated with “the numbers” of fish we’re “told” we caught - compared to the amount of fish our own records show we landed. Maybe, just maybe, the new Saltwater Angler Registry will have helped this year to improve catch data reporting and make the final numbers a little more believable. Apparently Maryland is still on track for having a coastal saltwater fishing license in play for 2011, which should, we’re told, make tallying the catch even more accurate.
Anglers should watch for notices of public meetings concerning flounder regulations. In order for the DNR to set flounder regulations that best suit the needs of all fishermen, public input from as many anglers as possible is critical. As they’ve done in the past, I’d expect that late in the winter DNR will present us with a list of options for different size and creel limits as well as season opening and closing dates to choose from. Though we might not particularly care for the options we’re presented with, at least DNR allows us to choose for ourselves which plan suits our own fishing needs.
Surf shark anglers should also watch for notices of any proposed regulations that would affect their activities on the beach. During an Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) meeting in early August, a discussion was held on recreational shark anglers targeting prohibited and research species from shore after the HMS sent a letter to the board asking it to consider management measures to prevent recreational anglers from targeting sand tiger and sandbar sharks. The board agreed to forward the request to the Law Enforcement Committee who will report back to the board at the Commission’s annual meeting in November. If the AFMFC decides to take action it could affect the conduct of shark fishermen on the beach. As I’ve recently been appointed as a member of the ASMFC Coastal Sharks Advisory Panel, I’ll have the opportunity to work more directly with those who might propose any regulatory changes within that fishery and I certainly welcome any comments, questions or concerns from Delmarva beach sharkers about the future of their activities.
It’s hard to say where all this will go but I guess fishermen should also keep an eye out for tuna news this winter. In May the Center for Biological Diversity made a petition to list bluefin tuna as “threatened” or “endangered” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). After a required 90-day review, NOAA Fisheries has determined that the petitioned action “may” be warranted. A determination on whether a listing “is” warranted is due in May 2011 after NOAA completes a comprehensive status review. As many will remember, it was just a couple years ago that environmental groups made a failed attempt to get white marlin listed under the ESA and we all came to realize how devastating such a listing would be, not just to billfishermen, but to the entire offshore fishing industry. An ESA listing for bluefin tuna would certainly create similar, if not more catastrophic results to the fishing industry and the communities that depend on it. This is an important issue that all fishermen should watch closely!
Between now and next spring I expect we’ll all have our share of barnacles to scrape, bloody fish boxes to clean, rancid bait freezers to scrub, holding tanks to disinfect, and fishery issues to deal with. None of these tasks will ever fall into the category of “fun,” but fishermen must accept them with equal importance as necessary tasks that will help ensure future seasons of trouble-free and productive fishing.
Captain Mark Sampson is an outdoor writer and captain of the charter boat “Fish Finder”, docked at the Ocean City Fishing Center.
