Beach Fishing Fisheries management doing fine in Delaware

[Sam]

The recent article titled, "Our marine life in peril" and the editorial, titled, "Current regulations won't end overfishing, but new approach may," presented an alarming picture of some of Delaware's important marine fish and fisheries. The article stated that "Nearly all species are in peril." The editorial purported to see evidence of overfishing "everywhere," including in Delaware waters. Overfishing was mentioned as one of the causes of a decline in abundance of weakfish, the state fish. The article mentioned or depicted four species of fish or invertebrates that have been caught in Delaware waters: weakfish, striped bass, summer flounder and horseshoe crabs. The article went on to discuss complaints people had about fisheries management and finally presented some current research on weakfish tagging that the Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife is conducting in cooperation with Delaware State University.The only one of the four species that is currently estimated by scientific analysis to be undergoing overfishing, however, is summer flounder. Management measures have reduced fishing mortality significantly, however, so that, as the chart accompanying the article showed, summer flounder has been increasing, not decreasing.

The National Marine Fisheries Service has set the threshold for "overfishing" at a relatively low level and has set the definition of a restored stock at a relatively high level, some would say an unrealistically high level. Federally mandated cuts in the summer flounder fishery have been planned for the coming year, including in Delaware, to meet the federal stock rebuilding target. By the end of the 1990s, the Division of Fish and Wildlife enacted restrictions on the horseshoe crab fishery, which had been unregulated. There has been no decline of horseshoe crabs observed since then, and abundance of juvenile crabs has increased, which will eventually produce increased adult abundance.

Striped bass are at unprecedented high levels of abundance, as the article's chart clearly shows. There has been no overfishing since the 1970s and early 1980s, when overfishing caused a marked decline. In the mid-1980s, the coastwide fishery management plan for striped bass was given mandatory status by federal law, so any state that is out of compliance with the fishery management plan is subject to a federal closure of its fishery. The Delaware River spawning stock, one of the three major spawning stocks of striped bass, was officially declared restored by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission in 1998. Weakfish, also known as sea trout, have undergone a severe decline. As the chair of the Weakfish Stock Assessment Subcommittee of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, I led a two-year effort to assess the status of weakfish stocks on the Atlantic coast. The subcommittee found that overfishing had occurred back in the 1980s and early 1990s. In the mid-1990s, however, a mandatory coastwide fishery management plan went into effect and ended overfishing.

Although weakfish abundance and catches increased initially in response to the fishery restrictions, by 1999 abundance started to decline because natural mortality increased. We found that the increased abundance of striped bass was the most likely cause of the weakfish decline, via predation of weakfish and possible competition for menhaden. There is extensive published scientific documentation of striped bass predation of weakfish. They have similar seasonal migratory patterns. An increase in predation in one area can affect abundance in other areas, just as overfishing in one state can affect the abundance of fish available to another state.Ironically, success in restoring abundance of one managed fish species seems to have caused decline in a second desirable species. Finally, the two people who complained about fisheries management in the article had opposing complaints. One complained that managers were too slow to restrict fisheries, while the other complained that managers have imposed too many restrictions too quickly.Despite complaints, however, fisheries management in Delaware does have a largely successful track record in managing fisheries for sustainability.

delawareonline ¦ The News Journal, Wilmington, Del. ¦ Fisheries management doing fine in Del.