Most anglers understand why there are minimum limits on fish, particularly in freshwater. Without these limits, the fish would be more susceptible to overfishing, reducing the number of the species and threatening their demise. State conservation departments, such as the New Jersey Division of Fish and Game and Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, can control the numbers of freshwater fish. Controlling the numbers of saltwater fish, however, is not always as easy.
Many of us cannot understand why controlling saltwater fish stocks is not as easy. Although the fish have an ocean full of water to navigate, they still have the same habits and stay in the same places, right? This is partially right. Some, if not most, fish have certain habits – go south when the cold weather comes, then back north when water temperatures warm.
Winter flounder are different. They head offshore when water temperatures warm, then come inshore when temperatures cool. Over the years, their numbers have begun to shrink like many other fish, so state conservation agencies have introduced minimum size limits on them. Now, the minimum size is 11 inches. Winter flounder should respond positively to this increase.
The winter flounder’s plight is not like many other fish. State agencies have introduced minimum sizes and put bag limits on many saltwater species in attempts to restore numbers and sizes of fish. In the freshwater, this would work. Saltwater has another variable that changes everything – commercial fishing.
The movie “The Perfect Storm” shows what commercial fishing can do to a fishery. One boat, in one month’s trip, took tens of thousands of pounds of swordfish. In a single drop, longlining boats like the boat in “The Perfect Storm” drops 40 miles of monofilament line, threaded with line and hooks, in an attempt to catch swordfish. An entire season of fishing with the pressure of a fleet of boats can decimate a fishery quite quickly.
Longlining is not the only commercial industry that rapes species of fish and negatively impacts fisheries. Traditional netting techniques also kills large numbers of fish, sometimes fish which are not intended to be netted at all. Often scores of dead stripers will simply be thrown overboard because they cannot be sold commercially. These fish did not need to die, but they do, and the recreational angler pays for this.
Minimum sizes of fish continue to be increased, and the recreational angler can take less fish. Yet the commercial anglers continue to rape the seas. Billions of dollars are being spent on recreational angling, from buying boats, tackle and bait to renting boats and charters, recreational fishing is an enormous industry. Commercial fishing clearly generates revenue, but not as much as recreational fishing. The numbers just do not match.
New Jersey’s Division of Fish and Game increased the minimum size limit because they had a plan. According to Division Director Bob McDowell, “the size limit increase was done incrementally to lessen immediate impacts which may have occurred to the fishery through one large size limit increase, while allowing for a long-term increase in yield from the fishery,” said Division Director Bob McDowell.
This year’s spring season for winter flounder is open from March 1 through May 31. The fall season begins September 15 and runs through December 31. There is no recreational bag limit for winter flounder – minimum sizes should be adequate enough for increasing the numbers of winter flounder because this will help with larger fish that can spawn.
Because striped bass are now banned from commercial fishing, one can see how their numbers have rebounded. From minimum sizes of 36 inches and daily bag limits of one fish to minimum sizes of 28 inches and slot limit fish that are between 24 and 28 inches, stripers are now rebounding from years of overfishing. The story of the stripers continues to evolve; hopefully, their numbers will be what they once were years ago.
Saltwater size limits are sometimes not effective because of the commercial overfishing. While freshwater fish stocks can be regulated by minimum sizes and daily bag limits, commercial anglers continue to rob the seas of our most precious resource – our fish. Hopefully we can right this wrong before it’s too late.
