It’s long been said that “familiarity breeds contempt.”
Maybe the black sea bass has been suffering from some of
that contempt lately.
They’ve always been a popular saltwater panfish, offering
wonderful, flaky white flesh that is particularly prized in East Asian
recipes. For many years, black sea bass
were overfished; more recently, federal fishery managers armed with the
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and helped by good wintering conditions at the edge of the continental shelf have restored the
species not just to abundance, but to ubiquity, along most of the coast between
New Jersey and Massachusetts.
A
benchmark stock assessment completed in 2016 indicated that the spawning
stock biomass at the close of 2015 was about 230% of the target
level. Such abundance was readily
confirmed by fishermen, who were catching black sea bass in greater numbers
than they had previously experienced, and in places where they had never seen
them before.
Much of that abundance was due to a huge 2011 year class,
nearly three times the average year class size, which benefitted from unusually
favorable oceanographic conditions during the extraordinarily mild winter of
2011-2012.
The explosion of black sea bass abundance came at just the
right time, since in 2016 summer flounder, the traditional mainstay of thesummer small boat fleet in southern New England and the upper Mid-Atlantic, hadjust experienced six consecutive years of below-average spawning success. Lacking a reliable summer flounder fishery
anglers, and in particular the party boat fleet, shifted much of their effort
from the often-scarce fluke onto black sea bass.
The party boats often still advertised to their fares that
they were fishing for summer flounder, and they did catch a few; however, instead
of fishing on the open sand bottoms of the bays, inlets and nearshore ocean,
they began spending more time fishing around wrecks and artificial reefs, where
anglers had a chance of hooking some big summer flounder, but were virtually
certain of putting a few black sea bass into their pails even if the fluke didn’t
show.
Farther from shore, wrecks that had historically seen only
modest fishing pressure were crowded with private and foir-hire boats seeking black sea bass; even
hard-to-find, low-profile pieces were frequently visited.
As a result of the increased effort, even as black sea bass abundance increased,
regulations grew more restrictive.
Changing regulations here in New York illustrate that very
well. In 2012, well before the 2011 year
class recruited into the fishery and, due to the lack of an acceptable stock
assessment, at a time when the annual catch limit was still very low, New York
anglers could retain 15 black sea bass per day; each had to be no less than 13
inches long, and the season ran from June 15 through December 31. By 2017, despite the fact that the 2016 stock
assessment led to a sharp increase in the annual quota, the bag limit had been decreased
from 15 fish to 3 (increasing to 8 in September and October and 10 in November and
December) and the size limit had been increased from 13 to 15 inches. The season was also modestly shortened, and
now runs from June 27 through the end of the year.
It seemed to be a counterintuitive change, since it would be
logical to assume that growing abundance and increased annual catch limits
would lead to relaxed, rather than more stringent, regulations. And regulations probably would have been
relaxed, if it hadn’t been for the effort shift.
The
National Marine Fisheries Service’s recreational harvest estimates show
that New York anglers harvested about 275,000 black sea bass, weighing roughly 400,000 pounds, in 2011. By 2016, the number of black sea bass
harvested by recreational fishermen in New York had nearly quadrupled, to slightly
over 1,000,000, while the total weight of
the fish landed was more than five times
what it was in 2011, increasing to a little more than 2,200,000 pounds.
Viewed in that light, it’s pretty clear why regulations had
to be tightened.
Members of the recreational fishing industry, however, didn’t
see things quite that way. Instead of considering
the increased fishing effort being directed at black sea bass, as well as the
increased abundance, they focus solely on the abundance, and thus complain that
regulations are too stringent. That was
well exemplified in
the summary of the comments made at a recent meeting of the Mid-Atlantic
Fishery Management Council’s Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Advisory
Panel, where it was noted that
“the size limit should be decreased because we are in a
downward spiral where fish get larger and it takes fewer fish to reach the
[recreational harvest limit] even when it is higher. This flies in the face of the premise that ‘if
you cut back today, you will be allowed more tomorrow’ because regulations get
tighter with higher abundance. Because
people see this now, they have lost faith in management and are more prone to
totally disregard any regulation as they feel they have sacrificed size,
season, and bag limit for too long. If
you are allowed fewer fish when the stock is at 2.4x target then when will
things liberalize? If fishermen never
get any ‘real’ relief that they can see in their buckets or time allowed to
fish then this exercise of management has failed. The more disconnected that regulations get
from reality the less people will be inclined to follow them. For example, there would be a lot of cars
speeding on I-95 if the limit was 40 miles per hour the whole way, it is just
how it is.”
The local angling press bears a lot of the blame for such
attitudes, because they never take the time to educate their readers about the
impacts of increased effort on harvest and, consequently, on regulations. Instead, they
quote individuals such as Jim Donofrio of the Recreational Fishing Alliance,
who wrote a semi-hysterical letter to the White House that said, in part,
“At this time, the Atlantic black sea bass population is at
the highest level recorded in fisheries’ management history. It’s more than double its rebuilding target
and we have a shut down. Currently,
arbitrary and non-scientific provisions that were implemented in the last
Magnuson Act are keeping fishermen and our for hire boats (party and charter
boats) from accessing this completely healthy fishery. They will be losing over a month of business
facing this closure.”
Donofrio, of course, never mentions the sharply increased
effort going into the black sea bass fishery, effort that could also
conceivably be “the highest level…in fisheries management history,” nor does he
mention that one of the big reasons that New Jersey anglers were facing a
closed black sea bass season at that time is because the state
chose to adopt regulations that included a 12 ½-inch size limit—fully 2
½ inches smaller than the minimum size in any other northeastern state with a
significant fishery—and that the closed season was necessary to compensate
for the large number of smaller fish harvested as a result.
But anglers usually aren’t told all of those critical
details; instead of understanding the facts that lead to fisheries regulations,
they become enraged by writers who try to stir up uninformed indignation, and
the management process suffers as a result.
That is particularly true in the for-hire industry, where
black sea bass have been receiving particularly shabby treatment.
Many responsible anglers were outraged a few years ago, when
word
got out that New Jersey law enforcement agents boarded a party boat out of
Brielle, New Jersey, to find 819 illegal black sea bass on board. Their outrage was further fueled when the
vessel’s captain seemed to show little contrition for allowing his passengers
to kill all of those illegal fish, instead acknowledging the illegal landings
while saying
“I didn’t think it was that many. And I’m not getting paid by the state of New
Jersey to take fish out of people’s buckets.”
Rumors—perhaps better deemed to be descriptions—of blatant
disregard of the black sea bass regulations have been steadily trickling out of
the party boat fleet ever since.
Readers will have to decide for themselves whether those
were the only times the people involved broke the law, and whether they were
the only boats in the fleet that dabbled in illegality…
But people are finally noticing, and starting to take some
action.
At
its October meeting, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Summer
Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Management Board considered adding a
provision to the management plan that would hold for-hire captains and crew
legally responsible for such illegal harvest by their passengers. ASMFC’s
Law Enforcement Committee also considered the matter, where
“several members observed that repeated abuse of size and bag
limits on certain for-hire vessels has been an ongoing problem. If all states could implement the needed
measures to charge and prosecute captains or operators (along with customers),
it would help in putting a stop to these illegal practices.”
Unfortunately, no immediate action will be taken. Instead, the Black Sea Bass Recreational
Working Group has been asked to develop options designed to improve for-hire
compliance in the fishery.
Even as such ongoing violations of the black sea bass
regulations were being discussed, both
the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and ASMFC
moved forward with an operationally
incomplete proposal to allow black sea bass fishing during Wave 1—January and
February—when it is currently closed.
The proposed open season would run for the full month of
February, with a 15-fish bag limit and 12 ½-inch minimum size. Despite the fact that, at least in the northern
half of the Mid-Atlantic region, the February fishery would be prosecuted
primarily by for-hire vessels, the recreational harvest limit for the main
summer/fall season would be reduced by 100,000 pounds to account for what was
caught in February, making the entire angling community pay for a privilege enjoyed
by relatively few.
The 100,000 pound harvest would
be just a rough estimate of what might be caught during a February season,
since the Marine Recreational Information Program does not sample anglers north
of the Carolinas during the first two months of the year.
States will have to decide whether or not to opt into the
February season before it begins.
Not many years ago, such a proposal would have been
automatically approved by the states.
However, problems related to noncompliance, accurately counting the fish
caught during the first two months of the year and even fairly distributing the
benefits and burdens of the open season are making people think twice.
In
New Jersey, the Marine Fisheries Commission decided to defer action on a
February season, until they could get a better idea of what restrictions
might be placed on the 2018 black sea bass fishery.
Anglers and party boat operators who don’t
sail for black sea bass during the winter seemed generally opposed to the new
season, as they didn’t want to see the primary summer/fall season shortened;
the only way that they would support the February season would be if the
primary season wasn’t affected at all.
Owners and operators of vessels who want to participate in the winter
fishery, on the other hand, want to see it established.
The same sort of discussion played out at New York’s Marine
Resources Advisory Council meeting last Tuesday.
While no one was opposed to the concept of a
winter season, the majority of the Council wanted to see such a season done
right, with little or no impact on the primary summer/fall season and observers
on board the vessels to get an accurate count of the fish caught.
I attended the meeting, and noted that, given
the acknowledged abuses taking place in the party boat fishery, the ability to
assure regulatory compliance was also an important issue.
In the end, a motion recommending that the
Department of Environmental Conservation adopt a February season in 2018
received only two affirmative votes, and was defeated—although the Council left
open the possibility that a well-regulated season could be adopted in 2019.
Such concerns about the black sea bass fishery are a good
thing.
Because sure, there are a lot of black sea bass around right
now, and the 2015 year class looks very strong.
But then, 200 years ago, between three and five billionpassenger pigeons flew through America’s skies.
One hundred years later, they were all gone.
When you think about that for a minute, it shouldn’t seem
unreasonable for fishery managers to try to take good care of black sea bass
today, despite its current abundance.
Because in the end, the best time to conserve any species is
when it’s still plentiful, and not when it’s mostly gone.
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