Sport Fishing Puts Bite on U.S. Fish Stocks, Study Says

James Owen
for National Geographic News

August 26, 2004

A lone angler, in a little boat, dangles a baited hook in hopes of a bite that might make him some supper.

It's the traditional image of the recreational sea fisher, and hardly one to raise fears for the future of fish stocks along the U.S. coast. But multiply that angler by ten million and you might think again—especially that now sport fishers have powerful, far-ranging boats equipped with global-positioning systems and sonar devices for pinpointing elusive shoals.

This, at least, is the picture painted by a report published in tomorrow's issue of the journal Science.

Researchers behind the study say fishing for fun now makes up almost a quarter of the total take of overfished populations. These include seafood favorites such as red snapper, red drum, and bocaccio—species already under pressure from commercial fishing.

For these "large charismatic fishes that people care about most," the researchers say recreational catches often outstrip those of commercial vessels. Almost 60 percent of red snapper, 56 percent of gag in the Gulf of Mexico, and 93 percent of bocaccio on the Pacific Coast are taken by sport fishers.

The figures were compiled using data provided by the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service, state marine fisheries commissions, and state natural resource agencies.

Sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts, an independent nonprofit based in Philadelphia, the study is the first comprehensive analysis of the ecological impact of recreational saltwater fishing in the U.S., the researchers say. Catches for the past 22 years were analyzed.

"The conventional wisdom is that recreational fishing is a small proportion of the total take, so it is largely overlooked," says lead author Felicia Coleman, a marine ecologist at Florida State University, Tallahassee. "But if you remove the fish caught and used for fish sticks and fishmeal [pollock and menhaden] the recreational take rises to 10 percent nationally. And if you focus in on the populations identified by the federal government as species of concern, it rises to 23 percent."

There are now ten million saltwater recreational anglers in the U.S., with the sport growing as much as 20 percent in the last ten years, says co-researcher Will Figueira, a biologist at the University of Technology, in Sydney, Australia.

Millions of Fishers

"Recreational anglers are operating below the radar screen of management," Figueira adds. "While the individual may take relatively few fish, we show that a few fish per person times millions of fishermen can have an enormous impact."

Besides accounting for a sizable chunk of total catches, anglers tend to target bigger fish. The study says the removal of these top-level predators can cause dramatic changes in ocean food webs, which in turn unbalances the ecosystem.

Coleman points to the Gulf of Mexico as an example. Here, she says, the removal of larger reef fish like grouper and snapper has led to a population boom in prey species, such as grunts.

The study also highlights recent advances in technology that can make anglers as effective as their commercial counterparts. High-tech "fish finders" use sonar and global positioning systems (GPS) to locate shoals and can even pinpoint individual fish.

The report's findings might surprise many U.S. anglers, given that the country has led the way in introducing conservation measures to marine sport fishing. These include state licenses, seasonal angling restrictions, catch-and-release rules, and bag limits.

The American Sport Fishing Association adds that taxes imposed on fishing tackle and boat fuel, when combined with license revenues, result in a pot of nearly U.S. $1 billion being returned to states each year for conservation work.

Coleman accepts that measures are in place that aim to prevent unsustainable exploitation of fish stocks. Many states issue mandatory licenses that put limits on the number and size of fish each angler can bring in, but she says there are simply too many anglers for this to work.

"The recreational fisher has a daily quota, but the number of recreational fishers given that quota is essentially unlimited," Coleman said.

Commercial Quotas

By contrast, she says commercial fisheries have an annual quota, and when it is reached the fishery is closed for the year.

The researchers suggest the way to tackle overfishing is to cap the number of licenses issued. Coleman says such a system, if introduced nationally, could decrease the cumulative impact of recreational fishing.

Sea anglers have come under similar scrutiny in many other countries. In South Africa, for instance, tight catch restrictions have been imposed on anglers after hook-and-line fishing was implicated in the population collapse of at least 20 species.

In the U.K, where until now sea anglers have faced little regulatory interference from government, proposals are being considered for a 22-pound ($ U.S. $40) annual license in England and Wales.

The revenue would help fund inshore fisheries management in areas where stocks of popular recreational rod-and-line species, such as cod and sea bass, have crashed in recent decades.

However, sea anglers aren't to blame for dwindling stocks, claims David Rowe, development officer for the National Federation of Sea Anglers, in Devon, England. "We try to carry out our sport in a sustainable manner," he said. "That's why the majority of angling is increasingly done on a catch-and-return basis, and an angler would generally take one or two fish at most."

Rowe blames overexploitation by commercial fisheries for diminishing rod catch returns among his members.

On the new license proposals, he queries why any angler should be prepared to buy one.

"Currently the needs of recreational sea anglers are not taken into account in the management of these fisheries, and there are very few fish inshore for us to catch," he said.

This sentiment is echoed elsewhere, as Carl Safina, who also contributed to the new study, admits. Safina is president of the Blue Ocean Institute, a marine conservation nonprofit based in Cold Spring Harbor, New York. He added, "There's little use in commercial and recreational fishers pointing fingers at each other.

"Commercial fishing is not all bad, and recreational fishing is not all good. A fish doesn't care if you are a commercial or recreational fisherman. It only cares if it is surrounded by water—or on ice."

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