Interesting article on mackerel stocks..

[bulletbob]

Quick easy read, and very informative.. Blame is placed squarely on the commercials and their desire to wipe the sea of any damn thing with fins...

They are pretty much GONE yet the commercial quota is going to be increased ny NOAA if I read the text correctly.

If you are anything like me, this article will most likely piss you off.... bob

https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2018/10/31/noaa-should-give-overfished-mackerel-a-fighting-chance

[dakota560]

Another species depleted due to commercial over harvest. Check out the following chart regarding annual harvest of Atlantic Mackerel and there's nothing else you need to know. Not climate change, recreational fishing pressure (which for all practical purposes died decades ago), lack of forage etc. Commercial greed and a government which allows the onslaught to go unabated.

Between 1970 thru 1980, average annual commercial harvest of Atlantic Mackerel was 4.6 million pounds. From 2000 thru 2010, the average increased to 56.4 million pounds, a 1300% increase in annual commercial landings. Two years, '04 and '06. the commercial harvest exceeded 124,000,000 pounds each year. A fishery can't sustain itself with that amount of pressure in commercial harvest. Not to mention the impact this has on the ocean's food chain and disruption caused to the entire ecosystem. Unless there's more emphasis placed on fisheries management and less on commerce, we're going to continue seeing one fishery after another succumb to political greed and overall fisheries mismanagement.

[bulletbob]

Another species depleted due to commercial over harvest. Check out the following chart regarding annual harvest of Atlantic Mackerel and there's nothing else you need to know. Not climate change, recreational fishing pressure (which for all practical purposes died decades ago), lack of forage etc. Commercial greed and a government which allows the onslaught to go unabated.

Between 1970 thru 1980, average annual commercial harvest of Atlantic Mackerel was 4.6 million pounds. From 2000 thru 2010, the average increased to 56.4 million pounds, a 1300% increase in annual commercial landings. Two years, '04 and '06. the commercial harvest exceeded 124,000,000 pounds each year. A fishery can sustain itself with that amount of pressure in commercial harvest. Not to mention the impact this has on the ocean's food chain and disruption caused to the entire ecosystem. Unless there's more emphasis placed on fisheries management and less on commerce, we're going to continue seeing one fishery after another succumb to political greed and overall fisheries mismanagement.

boy oh friggin' boy... Your graph pees me off even more than the article i linked....
thats absolutely absurd.. A little common sense and we could have mackerel back in just a few years.. problem is, years ago no one wanted to eat mackerel to any extent.. these days its a "demand" species.. If there's a few nickels to be made on a fish species these days, there are more than enough guys ready to pick up the last nickel.bob

[dakota560]

A fishery which was predictable, consistent and healthy for decades if not centuries was destroyed within 5 - 8 years. And our own government who sets quotas and establishes policy caused it to happen. Believe it's the growth of sushi markets, increased world wide demand for fish and the decline of other species placing more pressure on all other stocks. Trend is not good, my concern is if remedial measures aren't implemented some of these fisheries will never rebound.

[Reel Class]

Apparently the mackerel stocks just to our north, in New England and in the Canadian Maritimes, are VERY healthy as those fish are caught up there year round. I also understand the stocks across the atlantic in the UK are decent also.

These are fast growing fish who can certainly replenish themselves quickly, similar to scup, so you would hope that a little relief would help them even more.

[bulletbob]

Apparently the mackerel stocks just to our north, in New England and in the Canadian Maritimes, are VERY healthy as those fish are caught up there year round. I also understand the stocks across the atlantic in the UK are decent also.

These are fast growing fish who can certainly replenish themselves quickly, similar to scup, so you would hope that a little relief would help them even more.


Correct Capt...
Mackerel are doing fine says NOAA- Silver Hake [Whiting] stocks are also in good shape according to NOAA.
As we know, those good Whiting numbers pertain to new England waters, over 200 feet deep..
I think its the same type of deal with both Mackerel and Whting.

.. The NY Bight always had both species, but we are not really in the " prime time" latitude for these fish.. We are more on the southern end of their range.. Macks don't stay here of course, they just pass by, and head north where kids catch them from harbor docks in Maine and the Maritimes.
Whiting came into rec fishable range only in the cold months..

We needed big , more widespread populations of these species to enjoy a sport fishery,as we are more on the periphery of where they live..
We kind of got the "spillover".
Nowadays there is no peripheral population, and as long as the fish are on their traditional commercial fishing grounds in sufficient numbers, all is good in the eyes of big brother.
I can't believe NOAA is so damn blind... Recreational fishing means nothing to them.. Its all about having enough to ship to Asia that matters... Thats where the bulk of the catch goes from the reading I have done..bob

[bigal427]

Here we have commercial fisherman's that all they care about is making money and a government that no clue on what they are doing.

[dakota560]

Bob add cod, ling and herring to the list as they fall into the same category. Many of these fish were wiped out in the 70's when our own government horse traded OUR ocean's resources with Russia and other foreign countries for their own personal agenda. These fisheries have never rebounded. Please read the attached article for those of you not old enough to know what actually happened to arguably some of the greatest fisheries that ever existed in this area. These fisheries were so robust and dependable anyone would have thought they'd never be over-fished until within only a year or two they were. The tonnage of haddock, ling, whiting, cod, herring and mackerel harvested is beyond comprehension and if there's ever an example of the devastation commercial fishing has on a resource versus recreational, what happened 40 - 50 years ago with these ground fish is it. And that doesn't even address by-catch issues and permanent damage to the habitat these trawlers caused.

https://www.nj.com/shore/blogs/fishing/index.ssf/2015/02/jersey_shore_fishing_how_angle.html

[bulletbob]

Bob add cod, ling and herring to the list as they fall into the same category. Many of these fish were wiped out in the 70's when our own government horse traded OUR ocean's resources with Russia and other foreign countries for their own personal agenda. These fisheries have never rebounded. Please read the attached article for those of you not old enough to know what actually happened to arguably some of the greatest fisheries that ever existed in this area. These fisheries were so robust and dependable anyone would have thought they'd never be over-fished until within only a year or two they were. The tonnage of haddock, ling, whiting, cod, herring and mackerel harvested is beyond comprehension and if there's ever an example of the devastation commercial fishing has on a resource versus recreational, what happened 40 - 50 years ago with these ground fish is it. And that doesn't even address by-catch issues and permanent damage to the habitat these trawlers caused.

https://www.nj.com/shore/blogs/fishing/index.ssf/2015/02/jersey_shore_fishing_how_angle.html|\


Tom.. I agree, and that was a good article by Ristori..

Only problem I have with it is this.. We still had sensational fishing for Mackerel/Whiting/Ling/Flounder for more than 10 years after the Bolshevik fleet hauled its last net.. it wasn't them that swept up what was left, it was local or regional commercial fishermen.. Same with weakfish.. It wasn't factory ships, it was local gill netters that took millions of pounds of them during the spring spawn, and sold them for pennies a pound...WHAT the hell kind of management is that??..

I dunno, I am just frustrated and disgusted with marine fisheries mismanagement..

NJ now has Walleyes, Pike, Muskies, Lake Trout, LL Salmon, Hybrid Stripers, Channel cats, etc in its limited freshwaters.. Terrific fishing I could only dream of in the 37 years I lived there.
Thats because its the state DEC that knows and manages the resource very well..

In the same state of NJ, half the saltwater species are gone or close to it, because the federal government "manages" the resource to a large extent... The feds know nothing ....bob

[reason162]

|In the same state of NJ, half the saltwater species are gone or close to it, because the federal government "manages" the resource to a large extent... The feds know nothing ....bob

Bob, surely you are not comparing freshwater management to migratory saltwater species?

If saltwater regs were purely up to the states, it'll be a free for all. It's a melee mentality as things stand, since the fed's authority is pretty weak. Look back at the 2017 NJ fluke grab, or the bunker/striper shenanigans by Maryland...these are fish that travel through state waters as part of their migration. Of course there ought to be management at the federal level, who else is going to referee the take?

[dakota560]

Bob I couldn't agree more. State and local priorities and agendas will always be different than those of the Federal government. Freshwater fisheries have probably never been stronger and more diverse while salt water fisheries are in a state of chaos. There's no commercial pressure for the most part on freshwater species to speak of, different situation all together then salt water fisheries which completely changes the dynamics.

All you need to follow is the history of the American Shad and the impact commercial fishing had on it's decline over the years until commercial fishing was banned in many coastal states because of the collapse of the fishery. Other factors, pollution, dams etc. contributed but look at commercial landings by year in the below chart and it's not hard to correlate the improvement in this fishery as a direct result of significant reductions in commercial harvest. The tremendous runs we're enjoying today in the Delaware are a direct result of such efforts.

[bulletbob]

Bob I couldn't agree more. State and local priorities and agendas will always be different than those of the Federal government. Freshwater fisheries have probably never been stronger and more diverse while salt water fisheries are in a state of chaos. There's no commercial pressure for the most part on freshwater species to speak of, different situation all together then salt water fisheries which completely changes the dynamics.

All you need to follow is the history of the American Shad and the impact commercial fishing had on it's decline over the years until commercial fishing was banned in many coastal states because of the collapse of the fishery. Other factors, pollution, dams etc. contributed but look at commercial landings by year in the below chart and it's not hard to correlate the improvement in this fishery as a direct result of significant reductions in commercial harvest. The tremendous runs we're enjoying today in the Delaware are a direct result of such efforts.

Tom,, thanks for taking the time to send those fluke studies to me...
I would like to tell you I enjoyed them, but that would be inaccurate.. Instead, they actually scared me, and make me worry about the future of the fishery.. I knew, as did most of us ,that the majority of 18+ inch "keeper" fluke were females, but 95%???... Don't the egg heads at NOAA read this stuff ??...the way the great unwashed masses of fishermen do?... A slot limit of some has to be enacted, unless they want fluke to simply go away the way so many other species seem to be doing... bob

[AndyS]

And they shovel over the dead shad and herring by the ton.