![]() One of the primary issues to be addressed in the Scoping Document is whether the current recreational/commercial allocation should be changed.Īs the Scoping Document notes, “These allocations were developed using catch data from 1981-1989 (the years prior to regulations that may have affected both recreational and commercial landings) and are still the basis for current bluefish allocations. On April 30, in a joint meeting, the Mid-Atlantic Council and ASMFC’s Bluefish Management Board (Management Board) approved a Draft Scoping and Public Information Document for a proposed Bluefish Allocation Amendment to the Bluefish Management Plan (Scoping Document). ![]() Unfortunately, it seems that the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Mid-Atlantic Council) and Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) now want to penalize bluefish anglers for adopting that conservation ethic. In the most recent decade, 2008-2017, that release rate has tripled, with 62% of all bluefish caught returned to the water.Īnglers have come to realize that fishing is more enjoyable when fish were abundant, and that they can help to assure such abundance by releasing unwanted bluefish, instead of using them for crab bait. Since then, a conservation ethic has pervaded the fishery. That allocation was based on recreational and commercial landings during the years 1981 through 1989.ĭuring those years, anglers in the New England/Mid-Atlantic region still killed most of their bluefish, releasing only 21% of all the fish caught. When the management plan was amended in 1998, the allocation was amended as well, to 83% recreational and 17% commercial, with the proviso that if the commercial quota in any year was less than 10.5 million pounds, and recreational fishermen were not expected to land their entire quota in that year, a portion of the unharvested recreational quota could be transferred to the commercial sector. As noted in the initial Fishery Management Plan for the Bluefish Fishery, released in 1989, “bluefish comprise a small percentage of all finfish harvested commercially along the Atlantic coast primarily because the commercial bluefish market is unstable, easily saturated, and characterized by low dockside prices.”īecause anglers so dominated bluefish landings, the original fishery management plan allocated 80% of the bluefish harvest to the recreational sector. ![]() Far too many ended up in a dumpster or were returned, dead, to the bay.īecause bluefish weren’t in much demand as a food fish, the commercial fishery was small through the 1980s, it only amounted to about 10% of the overall landings. Some were given to (often, almost forced on) reluctant neighbors, while others fertilized gardens. In those days, before states licensed their commercial fishermen, some of the unwanted bluefish were sold to local restaurants. I remember boats coming back to the dock in the 1960s and ‘70s, the anglers on board calling out “Who wants some bluefish?” even before the boats were tied up in their slips. Thus, most bluefish caught by anglers today are released.ĭuring the early years of the fishery, recreational fishermen killed most of their catch, even if they had no intention of eating them. But once bluefish invade inshore waters and begin feeding on menhaden, their flesh becomes too oily and strong-tasting for most people’s palates. Even larger ones that have been feeding on squid, sand eels and butterfish in deep ocean waters can be enjoyable. ![]() Small bluefish, fresh from the sea and still lean from their travels, can taste pretty good. Still, great gamefish aren’t always great food fish, and that’s certainly true with big blues. And we call them worse things farther offshore, when they show up to ruin shark baits and mangle carefully-rigged-and expensive-ballyhoo intended for tuna.īut when they burst through the surface of a calm summer sea, leaping completely clear of the water before landing headfirst on a topwater plug, we have to admit, however reluctantly, that they are one of the great gamefish of our northeast coast. We call them “yellow-eyed demons” when they show up in the surf, attacking lures meant for striped bass. Anglers and bluefish have a complicated relationship.
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