Article by Dale Timmons
In May, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) approved Draft Addendum II to Amendment 6 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Striped Bass. One of the changes this amendment would make would be an increase in the coastal commercial quota for striped bass. According to the June issue of “Fisheries Focus,” a newsletter published by the ASMFC, “The proposal to increase the coastal commercial quota is intended to improve equality between the commercial and recreational sectors. Although Amendment 6 established the management programs for both fisheries based on the same target fishing mortality rate, the implementation of state-specific quotas for coastal commercial harvest (and not for recreational harvest) has prevented the commercial and recreational fisheries from responding equally to changes in striped bass population size. Since 2003, coastal commercial harvest has decreased by 3.6 percent, while recreational harvest has increased by 13.7 percent.”
Huh? Come on, guys…this is simply a lot of managerial gobbledygook designed to appease commercial interests who are pressuring for a higher quota. I’m not sure I even oppose a higher commercial quota if the science and the stock would allow it, but don’t tell me it is because recreational harvest went up while commercial harvest went down. First of all, the recreational harvest numbers are still based on the seriously flawed MRFSS numbers, which even the government has admitted aren’t worth the paper they are printed on, so how can you compare the two harvests when one is actually almost completely unknown? In addition, there could be many reasons why the commercial harvest has declined, including weather, striper migration patterns, even a drop in the number of commercial fishermen. The fact that commercial catches decreased tells me that they were higher at one time, which implies the commercial guys are not even catching the quota they have now. So why raise it? Probably not to help the average commercial angler who has some striper tags to fill, but to enrich the much larger commercial interests who have the ears of ASMFC members…
The same ASMFC newsletter states that in 2008 “Landings accounted for 68 percent of the overall fishery removals…while dead discards accounted for the remaining 32 percent.” In case you don’t know, “dead discards” are fish, in this case striped bass, thrown back dead or not expected to survive. No one counts these fish, so it is a purely arbitrary number.
Amazingly, the 2008 striper numbers are further broken down, and recreational anglers are charged with a “dead discard” figure of 23.6 percent of the total overall catch, while commercial fishing is only charged with 8.8 percent “dead discards” of the total striper catch. I don’t buy it. Where do these numbers come from? And even if I thought the numbers were even close to reality, it would just make me angrier to think that all of these dead fish are really the fault of management regulations designed to protect the species in the first place. If fishermen were allowed to keep what they catch, with a reasonable minimum size and with strict enforcement of creel limits, would we have all these “dead discards”? Of course, it’s the same old story with the bluefin tuna. How many fish are being killed because of the absurdity of the slots and size limits…?
Want to steal one more item from the ASMFC newsletter, mainly just because I thought it was interesting. A gentleman named Paul Tasha, a commercial lobster diver for about 40 years, recently caught a huge 31-pound male lobster off of Race Point in Provincetown, MA. To give you an idea of just how big this lobster was, the largest Tasha had ever caught before weighed 22 pounds, and that’s a substantial lobster. This lobster’s carapace (measured from the rear of the eye socket to the end of the body segment) was just over nine inches long, and its “crusher claw was bigger than the average adult male’s head.” Tasha had several offers to buy the lobster for better than $150, but he chose to release it…kudos to him for that…
A friend told me that he recently read somewhere that the ocean temps along the Atlantic coast this summer are as warm as scientists have ever recorded. Unfortunately, that could mean more coastal storms in the coming weeks, but on the bright side, we could have one of those summers when we see a lot more fish normally associated with more tropical areas. A gentleman reported catching two large tarpon one day last week down in Oyster, VA, for instance. There are a few tarpon there every year, but he also reported water temps inside the marshes at 85 degrees. I have seen a couple of tarpon caught in the Ocean City area over the years, and the warm water could bring a few this year. Around here, they feed extensively on croakers, and the hardheads are showing up now in both the surf and the bays. We could also see more Spanish and king mackerel with the warm water, along with cobia, spadefish, triggerfish, and even rarer species such as snappers or groupers. Surf fishermen could see an influx of pompano. Offshore, expect more sailfish, barracudas, and hopefully, good blue marlin, white marlin and dolphin seasons…
Under “even an old dog can learn…” I recently had a brief conversation with a young man who was taking one of my Assateague Tackle rigs that features double 5/0 hooks on 50 lb. test and a large Spin ‘n Glo® float and re-tying it exactly the same way but on 20 lb. fluorocarbon leader. He was then using it for flounder fishing in the inlets and bays down on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, although it was designed more for the ocean flounder fishery. Anyway, it was working very well, and he was surprised at the number of small flounders he was catching on the big double hooks. He said he was using large spearing, which resemble silversides. For him, the fluorocarbon was key, and he had kept side-by-side comparisons with regular mono leaders. He had much more success with the fluorocarbon, he said. I have to admit that while I make many of my own fluke rigs with 30 lb. fluorocarbon, I never really thought it made that much difference with the flatties. Guess I’ll have to re-think that one…
I am sad to report the local fishing community lost another colorful character on Sunday, July 11, when Dick Kelly passed away. With his wife Libby, Dick was a fixture at Oyster Bay Tackle for something like 15 years. He loved to fish, and I enjoyed talking to him many times as I delivered papers to the shop each week. Before he came to Ocean City, Dick was a Navy veteran of World War II, serving on the USS Valley Forge and the USS Tarawa. He retired from his “real job” as a diesel mechanic with Ford Motor Company in Chester, PA in 1986. Dick was ill for many years, but like most of his generation, he was tough, and he fought the good fight. I just hope that now the breathing is easy, and the fish are biting on every cast…
Contact Dale Timmons at [email protected] or call 410-629-1191.
