Lost Numbers
Commercial vs. recreational not a black and white issue. Bad apples on both sides.

By Jeff Nichols

It¹s unanimous: both commercial and recreational guys say there are plenty of fish out there.

If you want to see a journalist's head explode send him out to Montauk and ask him to figure out who kills more fish the ³Sporties or the commercial draggers.²

My original goal for this article was to vent my anger over having our recreational fluke and porgy season decimated by going after commercial draggers. They seemed to be a very easy targets. Even guys that work on draggers will tell you that they are capable of catastrophic harm to fisheries and ecosystems. It¹s old news. To me the assighnment seemed be a piece of cake. I would draw upon on my limited but not insubstantial experience working on three different draggers. By describing the horrific amount of by-catch waste - fluke, bass and porgies [etc.] that I swept overboard dead on draggers - I would argue that attention and resources should be directed, not at the impotent recreational fisherman, but the ridiculous laws that are imposed by the D.E.C that do not allow commercial fisherman to keep and sell a large amount (sometimes as much as 90 percent) of what they kill.

On May 10, I drove over the peak where the old Montauk highway meets the newer Montauk highway. This time of year it is usually a great view for a fluke fisherman. Just behind the town one would normally see fifty or so recreational charter, and party boats out having a blast with a Montauk fluke bight that is second to none. But on this day, because of "emergency" restrictions, there were no recreational guys on the water. To add insult to injury, the only boats on the south-side were two commercial draggers methodically and precisely scouring the grounds for fluke. Having worked on commercial draggers myself, I began to think of the 60/40-allocation established by federal bureaucrats. I just could not see how a guy with a rod and reel could come close to landing what a dragger could land in a huge net. Now, I have always embraced the philosophy that "there is enough for everyone" ­ both commercial and recreational. I also subscribe to the belief that the ocean should be harvested, and that waste is a necessary evil in all industry. I also admire and respect most commercial fisherman and genuinely feel bad that they have to work under the tyranny of the D.E.C.

Like many fluke junkies, when I first heard about the new emergency restriction on recreational guys, I thought that maybe, somehow, despite the horrendous weather and even worse forecasts last year {only about 30 or so fishable days for the small craft all season}, we had indeed over fished the water. I personally suck at fluke fishing and probably had ten keepers all year, but maybe the four stoned guys on in the 1978 Bay liner next to me landed the 2.5 million pounds of fluke the M.R.F.S (Marine recreational fishery statistical survey) is talking about. I only saw them catch a couple of skates. I still felt the m.r.f.s data had to be accurate; after all, it's a federal survey. I then remembered my days working on commercial boats and thought about the thousands of pounds of dead fluke and porgies I used to shovel over the side of the boat because of D.E.C. laws. It did not make sense to me that commercial guy¹s allotment of fish went up while the party boats got a shortened season - May 15 delayed start - and far fewer fish ­ 7 fish last seasons to 3 this year.

Never-the-less, as a writer I needed to make a buck, so I was prepared to use the following facts to prove that recreational fisherman do not affect the biomass of fluke bass, or porgies at all.

Fact: massive commercial (inshore) by-catch waste is poorly monitored due to poor funding while millions are spent on inadequate M.R.F.S surveys. While, the commercial industry is highly regulated (both at the dock and periodically on board by the D.E.C), fewer than five percent of commercial boats nation wide have monitors or observers aboard for the entire trip to witness the huge by-catch waste. New York state has no full time observers.

Fact: on May 11 at 6:30 a.m. more than ten draggers were working the beach in front of the town of Montauk for fluke, while recreational boats sat at the dock.

Fact: Very few, if any, fish survive commercial nets.

Fact: Unlike recreational guys, draggers don¹t need the fish to be feeding when they sweep by. The number of dead fish swept overboard off one dragger in one week can be greater than any one party boat's total catch for the entire month. Party boats deal in numbers; commercial boats deal in tonnage. It's apples and oranges; they're different industries and should not be factored into the same equations.

Fact: In the name of commerce and productivity (you can¹t blame them) mates on commercial draggers are often instructed to get the nets back out again, rather than attend to the dying fish on deck.

Fact: The striped bass population did not recover do to recreation restriction but because commercial netting them was out lawed.

Fact: The Atlantic Sates Marine Fisheries Commission is not acquainted with what really happens on commercial draggers. If it were, they would allow commercial boats a "keep all" policy, and limit/ monitor tonnage and number of days/weeks fished.

Fact: Some inshore draggers ³Cull: striped bass. A dragger is able to keep only seven Bass as a BY-catch, a lot of times mates are instructed to sort through a hundred of dead bass and pick out the bass and pick out the seven biggest. Throwing the rest over dead. (I witnessed this years ago, it might have changed.)

Fact: There is presently a lobby trying to allow up four commercial guys on a dragger to use all their commercial tags up on one trip. This would in essence reinstitute targeting striped bass. If this law gets passed, no doubt about it the fishery would take a hit. So would the party and charter boats.

To substantiate my argument, I talked Dan Furlon of the MAFC (Mid Atlantic Marine Fisheries Council). He was helpful and qualified most off my assumptions. When pressed he admitted that because fewer than 5% of boats have observers-monitors on board to document by-catch waste nation wide, by-catch waste was not documented at all. He also admitted that the MRFS (marine recreational fishery statistical fishery statistical survey) study was not designed to calculate specific impact on resources in a particular state. "It simply is not accurate enough," he said. ³²it was designed to be a vast and general study; supplementary not primary data. But it is all we got.² I also attended the most recent Marine fishery counsel meeting in Suffolk county, unanimous that the M.R.F.S was a joke. All agreed that the survry Reflected nothing regarding ecosystem or actually health of fishery.

So now, to put a bow on the article, all I needed was to go down to the docks and have some charter captain guys tell me about how no one checked ³Real data² like their log books or took into account daily fishing reports that verified the horrific weather (20 out of 31 days were un fishable last May). Based on this info the MRFS study simply could not be accurate. Then I would find a couple of defiant mates who worked on draggers in the past who would validate that there is major by-catch waste on inshore draggers.

Fact: The draggers were not producing much fluke at all in early May as I wanted to imagine. (The Fluke simply were not here.) Many boats fished all day but did not hit their 140-pound quota. Many boats on the south side were targeting squid that came close this time of year. I was wrong to assume that all the boats were targeting Fluke.

Fact: Most large commercial boats can¹t afford to leave the dock for 140 pounds of Fluke. It is not worth their time to go after 140 pounds fluke. Many highly skilled commercial fisherman, have to sell their boats, and/or or take menial jobs at places like Home Depo. They have been regulated out of their livelihood.

Fact: Many draggers, like squid draggers have relatively clean halls. With little By-catch waste.

I did not find as much commercial dragger bashing at the dock as I thought I would. No one was quick to criticize. Captain Mark told me that whole the M.F.R.S. survey was a joke, but the 60/40 take was accurate. He also told me that close to shore, many fish survive the dragnets. Michael Pots told me he saw a few Dangers making a great effort to throw back live Striped bass. I could not find one bait shop to speak up against commercial boats either. I thought that, of all people, party boat captains and bait/tackel shops would be anti-draggers, but they were not. One bait shop owner admitted to me that he had never scene so many fluke caught in a season as last year by ³sporties². ³We have been over fishing Fluke².

So now I had enough conflicting data to make me sea sick. I guess the answer is that there are some bad recreational guys and some bad commercial guys that deplete the local fisheries.

The next day, not being able to fish myself because of our "emergency restrictions," I woke up and drove by the same scene I did the previous morning. This time the waters off Montauk were littered with commercial draggers. I lost count at 15. Now perhaps they weren't fluking. No one at the various agencies I called knew what they were targeting. The woman I spoke to at the press office of the D.E.C only had vague idea of what a fluke or summer flounder was. Though I called several times, I was unable to get the man who knows something about fish, Gordon Colvin, on the phone. I have heard that squid were in the area.

Had I not worked on draggers in the past, I would have, like apparently most people in most bait shops and marinas, simply buried my head in the sand and pretended that good fish were not being massacred daily. I would think maybe those boats off the beach were targeting sardines or oysters. I would also allow myself to believe that if the nets did come across a school of untargeted fish, say 300 striped bass, they would be released back into the ecosystem. Sadly, I happen to be a recreational fisherman with some firsthand knowledge of by-catch waste. That is: I had a shovel in my hand for close to five months.

My first experience on a dragger was in 1997 off the coast between Moriches and Shinicock inlet. The targeted fish was squid and there was an abundance of them 10 or 15 miles offshore. We dropped the nets right at sunrise for maximum hauls. It was commerce at its best. We caught squid, boxed them, iced them, and then sold them. I loved the job. Ironically the hauls were relatively clean. Each net would have maybe ten fluke, a few dogfish, and a couple of striped bass and the obligatory mass of skates - most of which could be used or sold by the captain. This was By-catch at it¹s best: as intened.

In short, by-catch waste was not an issue. But we were only allowed to take 2,500 pounds at once, which we did in two or three hours. That meant we had to head back to port to drop a load off, then go back out again for more. Dual trips were common that summer. The D.E.C. were tyrannical. They often boarded us to check what we had on board. They were also waiting for us at the dock. But, what they did not seem to care at all was the by product- waste. We never had an observer on the three weeks I worked on the boat.

In the fall I worked on another boat. Most of the "fishing" was done about a half-mile of the coast of Fire Island, and it was nothing short of a massacre. We were targeting weakfish. The nets came back brimming with fish, probably 40 percent weakfish, 20 percent striped bass; the rest were fluke, porgies, sea bass, black fish, trigger fish, Spanish mackerel, black fish, blues, you name it. The captain, a generally likable character, was able to keep the seven biggest bass, and I think he was allowed 70 pounds of fluke. He would get this limit in a few hours and throw the rest back dead. My job was to sort the fish, I felt like I was involved in some hideous war crime. This should grab most recreational guys by the ³Sort Hair²: in the ten days I worked for this operation, I probably threw 30 or so doormat fluke (7 pounds and bigger) overboard dead, not to mention hundreds of other fish. I quit the boat, even though I needed the money, and never returned.

I wish I were lying. Perhaps a commercial guy could E-mail me and tell me how this is inconceivable. Or how this did not happen.

One net came up all porgies, probably close to three hundred pounds of them. By law we were not able to keep them. After looking through them for a renegade weakfish, I was instructed to shovel them off the deck. Any porgy fisherman knows they are not a hardy fish. Look at one funny and there dead.

The captain obeyed the law to the letter. Weakfish had to be 16 inches; most were 14 inches and thrown back dead.

Finally in the middle of winter I went out for yellow-tail flounder on another boat. Unlike inshore, the hauls where clean. The problem was they were only allowed to keep say 500 pounds, which they got in about three hours. Then, unable to target Flounder, they went after another species, maybe Hake or something. I forget. But all they came up with was more Flounder. They obeyed the law by releasing them. Alas, coming up from 300 hundred feet or more, none would live.

Commercial fishing did not make sense to me. Maybe it has changed from then. I have heard that there are new nets that release the smaller fish. I hope that is the case. If I'm wrong, I would welcome a response from anyone in the industry. (I would love to be wrong, believe me. In fact, I have already had my assumptions challenged. Michael Potts, one of the top Montauk charter captains, told me he has seen many draggers make an effort to throw back bass alive. He also believes that commercial boats should not have size limits and have a keep-all policy. Believe me Michael Potts know more about the industry than yours truly. Michael also added that the M.R.F.S. study was not conclusive enough: "They (the surveyors) only came around on nice weekends when everyone had fish. Not on a blustery Tuesday, when no one came out fishing."

Of the ten charter captains I interviewed in Montauk, all were all hesitant to say anything bad about the draggers. "Years ago there were more draggers and the fluke fishing was just as good," one captain told me. But then again, he added, no one really went recreationally for fluke in May back then. Everyone went for codfish. I asked him what happened to the cod. "The draggers wiped them out," he said.

By increasing the allotment of fluke to 140 pounds a day, won¹t more commercial boats be encouraged to go after Fluke? Also, if you are after fluke, you're going to kill, among other things, a lot of bass in the nets since both are bottom fish and travel in the same waters.

"The M.R.F.S. has become completely unrealistic as a landing estimation tool," Tom Cusimano, the captain of the Sea Wife.

When I got to Montauk, I went down to the docks to ask how the M.R.F.S. survey is conducted. I found that it's little more than a random polling of fishermen. It doesn't represent any kind of statistical ecological or scientific impact study that would reflect the actual health of a fishery. They don't check the captain's logbooks; they do not go out on the boats themselves and witness what is caught. They do encounter people off the boats, often with too many beers, and ask what kind of luck they had that day.

If the guy embellishes a bit and says he caught five when he really caught two, not only is this false data recorded, but it is considered the norm. The number five will be multiplied by the number of people on that particular boat - fifty on a sunny Saturday - then by the days of the week. Then by the days of the month. Think about it: One of the reasons a man fishes is to satisfy a primal hunter-gatherer urge. Back in the old days, if a hunter-gatherer returned to his tribe with nothing he was considered a disgrace. A successful man has historically always "produced numbers." It's the same with the guy who comes off a party boat. I mean if you can¹t lie on a fishing survey, when can you lie? I no did survry I made shit up. Imagine if you asked a guy if he had gotten laid in the last year do you think he would be honest and say, ³actually I struck out.² I had a very bad year. Chances are he would lie and say ³he got a couple². No?

Let me be clear in saying this is not an indictment of commercial fisherman, only the ridiculous, wasteful and tyrannical laws they are forced to labor under. The commercial guys I have worked with are hard working and extremely talented for most part. Anyone who can mend a net in 10 below weather gets my respect. Commercial fisher an are no less skilled than Hart surgeons. And the ocean should and needs to be harvested by draggers (though I obviously prefer pin hookers). The few draggers I've worked on didn't break any law. Commercial fishermen don't like waste any more than recreational guys do. The draggers I saw off of Montauk will inevitably accidentally net huge schools of bass, which will be thrown over dead. Some might be flopping around when they hit the deck, but in the name of commerce and productivity the crews attention will be paid not to throwing back live fish (they'd most likely die anyway) but getting nets back out again.

Let¹s simplify: no fish goes back alive after being brushed off a dragger. For anything to be done about this problem, that must be accepted by all sides. The notion that untargeted or small fish are caught in these nets then released back into the ocean for them to a swim away is fiction. They go back dead. And I am sick of hearing the old: "Well the fish are not wasted for they are eaten by the crabs." How much food does a crab need?

I don¹t understand why no one wants to talk about the subject. One guy who owns a bait shop in Mastic Beach told me that he had no comment about draggers and that it was a sensitive, controversial and complicated issue. I felt like saying to him; it¹s May 10th and you haven't sold a package of spearing yet. Your not making money! What¹s complicated about that? The draggers are making money and you aren¹t; those are the facts. What if the government closes the fishery to recreational guys completely, which it could do? Is it still a complicated or sensitive issue then? Seems pretty cut and dry to me. You are on the brink of going out of business.

The more commercial fluke boats target in-shore fluke, the more tons of striped bass will be killed and wasted. What happens to the bait shops and marinas when we are not allowed to catch stripped bass because of government regulations?

Here is another thing I am not sure the mid- Atlantic fisherman realizes: unlike in recreational fishing, the fish do not have to be feeding for a dragger to be successful. I would submit that two days of by-product waste on a dragger, can be more than a boat like the Viking or Sea Otter would land in a month. Or more simply put, by-catch product waste on commercial boats is greater than the total take of recreational boats in NY State.

It is inconceivable that anyone who made up these laws has ever spent any period of time on a dragger or has any real hands-on notion of what by-catch waste really is. As for my recommendations, I think the DEC, should give the boats a weight requirement. All fish would be sold. Or specify certain days when draggers can keep everything. But don't shorten the recreational season or limits.

I asked Don Furlon why they did not have a "keep-all catch policy ". He told me that it boiled down to economics and was very compacted - meaning the boats would tag off-season "money fish" and say it was by-catch waste. This would throw the fisheries out off whack because boats would fish for the species that made the most money.

So what? Isn¹t it better than massacring millions of pounds off fish a day?

Party boats should have no limits at all on fluke. Let people that come out have some fun and help the comminutes that depend on their success prosper. Let's make it possible for a retired cop to come out and land a doormat. Let¹s make sure our waters do not become barren like the water around Japan. If someone has to take the hit; the guys on private boats can take the hit of a three-fish limit. They can probably fish again, but the restrictions aren't necessary.

In Conclusion: it needs to be assumed that No fish makes it out of draggers net. This should be accepted as truth. It should also be accepted that recreational guys can kill a lot more fish than the draggers, there is simple more off us.