One of our ambassadors, Capt. John McMurray, wades into the Lateral Line blog today with a good piece about the Conservationists and environmentalists getting involved in fisheries conservation and management. You’ll enjoy this read. Thx John

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By Capt. John McMurray

I suppose it’s nothing new these days for the fishing community to blame all their troubles on environmentalists, but indeed the intensity of the blame-game has been ramped up in recent years. “Radicals”, “extremists”, “socialists”, “elitists”, “antis” etc…  You know…  Those people who want to “end all fishing.”    Recently, some folks have gone so far to claim that the environmental community is really part of a grand conspiracy by “Big Oil” to abolish all fishing so it can drill wherever and whenever it wants.    If would be funny if it wasn’t so pathetic.

For too long, fishermen harvesting marine resources exhibited very little restraint, and refused to take responsibility for the consequences of their actions.  It is far easier to place blame elsewhere:  “The data isn’t reliable”, “there’s too much development” and “there’s too much pollution…”  While such claims contain some truth, they do not justify continued overfishing.  When fish populations face stress from changing climate, pollution, habitat loss or other factors, it’s plain stupidity to continue to catch them faster than they can reproduce, yet fishermen routinely point their fingers at Continue Reading »

Saltwater recreational fishing continued to provide important economic benefits to America’s coastal communities in 2008, bringing fishermen to the shore to reel in fish, book spots on charter and party boats, buy bait and tackle, stay in local inns and eat at local restaurants, according to a report issued this week by NOAA’s Fisheries Service.

Saltwater recreational anglers took an estimated 85 million fishing trips in 2008, down slightly from the 93 million trips estimated in 2007. Saltwater anglers caught an estimated 464 million fish in 2008, down slightly from the 475 million caught in 2007. That the decreases were moderate reflects stability in saltwater angling.

“Saltwater recreational fishing is one of the most popular outdoor sports in America, and those who take part in it bring economic vitality to coastal towns and cities,” said NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco, who remembers her first experiences saltwater fishing for salmon with her father aboard a charter boat off the Oregon coast. Saltwater angling generates an estimated $82 billion in sales and supports more than 500,000 jobs annually, according to the most recent figures available to NOAA.

“Last year we had gas prices around $4 a gallon and people did not go fishing as they had in 2007,” said Captain Scott Lindsey, a recreational fisherman and outdoor writer based in Panama City, Fla. “All in all, I believe the quality of the fish this year is better and the size of the fish we’re catching is larger than we have seen in many a year. Is it cyclical or management? We’ll have to wait and see.”

Frank Blount, owner of the Frances Fleet of party boats in Point Judith, R.I. and a member of the New England Fishery Management Council, also saw a decline in fishing business in 2008 that he estimates around 20 percent. “Surprisingly enough, we’ve had a very good early spring this year. I’m especially seeing a lot of our regular customers from the Northeast states. I think it’s due to good availability of many fish we pursue.”

“Saltwater anglers have their eyes on the water and a vested interest in sustaining fishing opportunities for their children and grandchildren,” Lubchenco added. “They are natural champions for ocean stewardship.” Saltwater anglers demonstrated their conservation ethic by catching and releasing back into the water some 58 percent of the 2008 catch, slightly up from the 57 percent in 2007, today’s report said.

NOAA’s report also tallied the top catches by region.

Spotted seatrout was the most popular catch among marine recreational anglers in 2008. The species is caught in the Gulf of Mexico and the south Atlantic regions, which have the highest combined concentration of saltwater anglers in the nation. The top catches in other regions were grouper (Caribbean), striped bass (North Atlantic), summer flounder (Mid-Atlantic), chub mackerel Continue Reading »

Virginia Marine Resources (VMRC) 2009 Saltwater  Fishing Tournament Leading Entries for the week of July 30,2009 .Click on the image for a larger view of the leaders.

Welcome to the 2009 Northeast saltwater fishing reports, better late then never as some say. Capt. John McMurray will not doing the fishing reports on the Lateral Line Blog this year. Between his time commitment needed for his duties at his recent appointment to the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Counsel and the recent addition of twins to he and his wife’s responsibilities, things are a little crazy around his house. Capt. John will still be providing us with weekly reports from his home waters in and around Jamaica Bay, NY, but you have me as your host. I will be publishing this report weekly until the end of November and we will begin again in the spring of 2010.  I cannot promise to rant as much as Capt. John, but I will try to preface the reports each week with some sort of fisheries news, information, and comments from the Northeast. If you have something you think I should cover, please shoot me an email. The Governor of Maryland recently appointed me to the Maryland Sport Fish Advisory Commission and as part of our monthly meeting we are briefed not only on Maryland sport fish advisory things, but also what is going on coast wide.  I will try to bring anything I find as interesting to this report. (image courtesy of Capt. Phil Cronin from Capawock Charters out of Martha’s Vineyard, see below for his full report. You can click on most all the pictures and if there is a bigger version they will pop up in a new window)

If you are a fishing captain or guide from the northeast and would like your report included please drop me an email and I will let you know the details so we can get you included. I also want to thank all our saltwater fishing guides who have returned from last year and will be providing reports. Please remember that all the guides that supply fishing reports for this report on a consistent basis have their links listed on the right hand side alphabetically under their home waters state; please visit their sites and support their businesses when you can.

One last thing, you will find that these reports mainly concentrate on saltwater light tackle and fly fishing for striped bass, bluefish, and false albacore. This is probably more then anything because that is what Capt John does as well as myself. Where and when possible I will do my best to cover other methods and other species such as fluke and offshore for yellow and blue fin tuna. I think you will find that the light tackle and fly guides will give you a good pulse on that is going on.

Now that we have all that out of the way, let’s roll.

Northeast Saltwater Fisheries News
The buzz in the northeast fishing world this week seems to be coming from Massachusetts where a bill has recently been drafted to make Striped Bass a game fish. Stripers Forever is heading up this initiative and this week has been asking for support from all anglers to write the Massachusetts legislators expressing that you support this bill. If you fish these waters Continue Reading »

Fletcher Jones pictured with a nice rainbow trout he recently caught while fishing at the Rose River Fram in Madison Country, Virginia while fishing his good friend Tige. That’s a heck of a nice rainbow trout Fletcher, and we also like the Lateral Line hat (yea that is a shameless link plug) you are sporting.  The Rose River Farm offers some great dry fly and nymph fishing. The private water they own on the Rose River is cold, crystal clear,  spring fed water that has a river rock base with very little sediment .  The water is rich in the kind of natural trout food that produces trophy conditions. Get this, Fletcher says all this with in an hours drive of Tyson’s Corner, VA!

Thanks for sending in the picture Fletcher.! We’re looking forward to seeing your next picture wearing a Lateral Line hat with a nice striped bass this fall from the Chesapeake.

(click on the picture for a pop up window with it in full size)

Here is an update from Don Hammond who runs the Dolphinfish Research Program. Be sure to check the link to his July Newsletter to get the full news in dolphinfish tagging research. (click on the image for a larger version of the picture to the left where Don is checking a tag before releasing a dolphinfish back into the ocean.)
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The annual number of tag recoveries received is normally looked upon as a function of the number of tags placed in fish that year. For seven years the annual recovery rate has bounced around 2.5 percent regardless of the number of dolphin tagged in a year. Half-way through 2009 the recovery rate has jumped to 4.6 percent, nearly double previous levels. Is this a case of increased harvest of the stocks or is it Continue Reading »

We have written a bunch about herring here in the Lateral Line blog over the years. Do a search on the side bar for “herring” a bunch of blog posts should come up. Some groups recently banded together to try and get something done to stop the harvest of these fish before they are all gone.

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The Marine Fish Conservation Network joined with the National Coalition for Marine Conservation, Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association, the Massachusetts Striped Bass Association, and 100 other fishing, conservation, science and faith-based organizations in asking U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke to take urgent action to protect river herring.

The groups sent a letter supporting the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) request that the Secretary take Emergency Action to effectively monitor and minimize river herring bycatch in ocean fisheries. The Commerce Secretary is also urged to support cooperative efforts between the Atlantic states and the federal New England and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Councils to better manage river herring and other fish that travel between state and federally-managed waters.

“The number of groups signing this letter sends a powerful message to the Secretary of Commerce and federal fishery managers in New England and the Mid-Atlantic that we want to see a serious effort made to restore river herring,” said Brooks Mountcastle, Mid-Atlantic Representative for the Marine Fish Conservation Network. “River herring play an important role in the ecosystem as prey for predator fish, marine mammals, and Continue Reading »

A friend emailed me the below information on a few film called End of the Line. I checked out the preview, some pretty powerful stuff. I think the tag line says it all, “Imagine a world with out fish”. It is worth checking out. There are screenings around the US, I am going to try and catch the one in Washington, DC in August.
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The End of the Line, the first major feature documentary film revealing the impact of overfishing on our oceans, had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Documentary Competition. Sundance took place in Park City, Utah, January 15-25, 2009.

In the film we see firsthand the effects of our global love affair with fish as food.

It examines the imminent extinction of bluefin tuna, brought on by increasing western demand for sushi; the impact on marine life resulting in huge overpopulation of jellyfish; and the profound implications of a future world with no fish that would bring certain mass starvation.

Filmed over two years, The End of the Line follows the investigative reporter Charles Clover as he confronts politicians and celebrity restaurateurs, who exhibit little regard for the damage they are doing to the oceans.

One of his allies is the former tuna farmer turned whistleblower Roberto Mielgo on the trail of those destroying the world’s magnificent bluefin tuna population.

Filmed across the world, from the Straits of Gibraltar to the coasts of Senegal and Alaska to the Tokyo fish market, featuring top scientists, indigenous fishermen and fisheries enforcement officials, The End of the Line is a wake-up call to the world.
The end of seafood by 2048
Scientists predict that if we continue fishing as we are now, we will see the end of most seafood by Continue Reading »