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Introduction to Commercial Fishing
by S. Alnutt, 9/98
Most of us are surprised to learn the number of commercial fishing vessels that routinely operate out of the docks at Barnegat Light. There are approximately 25 gill netters, 8 scallopers, and 15 long liners. These numbers do not include party boats serving the recreational fishing market. These vessels are busy year round, shipping seafood to markets and restaurants all over the eastern United States and internationally as far away as Japan. Our fishing industry is the foundation of Barnegat Light's economy, and some recent developments in the complex federal fisheries regulation threaten to weaken that foundation!
The Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Council has set stringent limits on target species, the quantity of the catch, offshore areas, and the number of days that a vessel can be engaged in fishing each year. In addition, regulations require expensive equipment on board each licensed vessel to facilitate real-time tracking to assure compliance.
On the face of it this rigid control may sound like responsible management, but often those limits are based on outdated information or information that may be pertinent to one area/species but not another. In other words, the stock of a certain species may appear to be depleted in one area, and that may cause the regulators to act to prohibit fishing for this species despite evidence of adequate stocks in other locales. Just to complicate the picture, while our fishing fleets are under severe restrictions and controls, the fleets of other nations, fishing the same waters, are not being regulated.
Often well-meaning folks, wanting to be politically correct conservationists, attack the commercial fishing industry as solely responsible for depletion of fish stocks. In reality, the last thing the industry intends is to deplete stocks to a point where the economic viability of the industry is threatened. Obviously there is a difficult balance to be achieved. What our commercial fishing neighbors are hoping to achieve is rational husbandry of this resource, and reasonable international regulation----- based upon accurate data, realistic economic goals, and applicable to all.