Recycling Fish:
The Right Thing to Do
These days, conservation is
"in." It shows in our atten
tion to recycling, earpooling,
saving water and reduced product
packaging. And it's casting new ap
peal in the sport of fishing with the
catch-and-relcase ethic.
For ages, the creed of the honor
able sportsman has been to respect
the quarry, limit the take and use
the remains in a productive way. He
lowers his rod with an eye toward
preserving the population for an
other day.
But fishing, like hunting duck
and deer, is above all else a sport
for many who sink a line off the
North Carolina coast. And though
sportfishennen frequently make a
meal of their catch, they take to the
water to enjoy the outdoors and a
good fight with a lively fish.
That fish, however, can be "recy
cled" with a few catch-and-relcase
skills.
Rather than dropping it into a
cooler or leaving it for dead on the
shore, an angler returns the fish to
the water and takes steps to ensure
that it can survive to spawn and
perhaps bite another angler's hook
another day.
Its An Investment
It's more than good sportsman
ship, supporters say. It's an invest
ment in the fast return to the sport
of fishing. Otherwise, the trends to
ward dwindling stocks and growth
in fishing spell doom for the sport.
"No one has a problem with
someone taking home enough fish
for him to cat," says Jim Murray,
director of the Sea Grant Marine
Advisory Service. "But the days of
catching more than you can cat, to
bring back to the dock and brag
about, are over.
Anglers arc more conservation
minded now, perhaps because they
can see for themselves that the
stocks are declining, Murray says.
The success of a trip is no longer
gauged by the number of fish in the
cooler at the end of the day. The
smaller fish go back into the water.
Even so, the quality of recre
ational fishing is not what it used to
be, says Bo Howell, president of
the N.C. chapter of the Atlantic
Coast Conservation Association
(ACCA-NC). In the late 1970s,
Howell trekked to Ocracoke every
May to catch gray trout. The Cary
sportfisherman no longer does this.
"There's no reason to," he says.
"The fish arc so small. They're
fewer and harder to catch. And
when you catch them, why keep
them? I don't want a 10- or 1 1-inch
fish. And I don't want to kill the
bigger fish because they support
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4 When you go
fishing , you don 't
necessarily go to
kill fish. You do
occasionally
because they're
great to eat. But
you go for the
enjoyment. And
after you catch a
number of fish, it
becomes a whole
lot more fun to let
them go. '
population."
'Preaching Gospel '
Nowell began "preaching the
gospel" about catch-and-rclease af
ter 1988, when he saw a fellow at
Oregon Inlet cleaning spots hardly
more than 4 inches long. Perhaps
the man had children who caught
them, he says, but a lesson in catch
and-re lease would be more appro
priate than killing undersized fish.
Obviously, the complexities of
fishing ethics run deep. What is
right or enough varies from person
to person, and it's hard to get an
glers to practice catch-and-re lease
when they often don't abide by the
legal limits on some fish, Nowell
says.
Sometimes angler just get caught
up in the excitement of the mo
ment, keeping more fish than they
could possibly use. But this type of
behavior is also a reflection of en
trenched values, which are some
times difficult to change.
Education ? to change altitudes
and destructive behavior ? has
helped.
As recently as the early and mid
1980s, the catch-and-re lease ethic
hadn't caught on in North Carolina.
Nowell remembers seeing trophy
sized red drum hanging from scales
at every tackle shop from Avon to
Buxton.
"They were every place you
turned; we used to call them dead
drum," he says. "People were
proud to have caught a large fish.
They got a picture and left it for
dead because its was a big fish. It's
not as good to eat (as the smaller
fish)."
Attitudes Improving
Angler attitudes have since im
proved. But the stakes today arc
higher than ever because the stocks
of fish living off North Carolina's
coast arc dwindling. The causes arc
multiple: pollution of the waters
and nursery areas, habitat destruc
tion and overfishing.
Meanwhile, the sport is growing
in popularity, says Ron Schmied,
special assistant for recreational
fisheries in the Southeast regional
office of the National Marine
Fisheries Service.
There was a threefold increase in
national saltwater sportfishing be
tween 1955 and 1985, he says. And
that demand is expected to increase
nationally by 36 percent between
1985 and 2025. In the Southeast,
where outings and catch accounted
for half the nation's fishing activity
in 1991, the projected increase is
closer to 45 percent.
The situation is compounded by
the fact that a stunning majority of
fishermen are not even bringing
their catch to dock.Throughout the
Southeast in 1991, only 26 percent
of fish caught were actually landed,
brought to shore and used, Schmied
says. When you consider that 201
million fish were caught in the
Southeast in 1991, that means
roughly 149 million fish were
hooked but not brought to shore.
They were either cast overboard
dead, used for bait or released.
Where Do They Go?
Landing rates for popular species
are higher, but the big picture is
clear. All of this would-be great
news if anglers were using catch
and-release skills to return their un
kept Catch to the sea. But people
like Schmicd arc doubtful. They
wonder what happens to the fish
that weren't landed and whether an
glers understand that the way they
handle a fish determines whether it
will survive.
"We want to change angler be
liefs such that they understand that
their actions can have a tremendous
effect on the resource and that they
make a voluntary decision not to
waste any more fish, Schmied says.
"If anglers were taught how to
catch-and-rclease, then roughly
three-quarters of the fish they catch
could be put back alive to he caught
again another day and to spawn and
speed up the rebuilding of the fish
stocks."
The argument in favor of catch
and-rclease is that fish, large or
small, are not totally expendable.
Small fish need a chance to spawn.
And removing the larger, prolific
fish from the water shifts the profile
(Set BRINGING, Page 40)