New York Times: "Fish seek cooler waters"

[No Fluke]

If you've tried fishing for species like Mackerel in the past few years and remember how easy it was to fill an entire cooler not too long ago, it will be hard to argue with most of this article.


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/30/sc...T.nav=top-news

No Fluke,

Do you think those two fluke / flounder sticking out of the net in the picture we're factored into the commercial harvest counts! While it makes sense to believe climate change and warming oceans around the world are having an impact on migratory patterns of certain fish stocks, I think it pales in comparison to the impact commercial over harvest is having on every fishery where they maintain a presence. Within the last few years, we've had some of the coldest winters in recent history and still very few mackerel to show for it. Wasn't it a few years ago where Sandy Hook almost completely froze up during the winter or actually did. The winter fishery in the New York Bight with ling, whiting, cod and mackerel was without rival back in the day. People who aren't old enough to have experienced it will never have a true sense of how incredible those fisheries were, Stocks were healthy year in year out and then they collapsed because of domestic and foreign commercial pressure. It was wiped out within a few years and has never rebounded,

“We used to come right here and catch two, three, four thousand pounds a day, sometimes 10,” he said, sitting at the wheel of the Proud Mary — a 44-footer named, he said, after his wife, not the Creedence Clearwater Revival song — as it cruised out to sea.

10,000 lbs of whiting a day for one 44 ft trawler. And that's what he brought back to the dock, how many whiting and discard were killed in attaining that catch. I remember the years when acre after acre of dead ling and whiting littered the surface of the Mud Hole after the trawlers were done for the day, a cataclysmic waste of the resource. Climate change will move bodies of fish over a period of time, indiscriminate and excessive netting will kill it overnight.

[Capt. Lou]

Dakotas assessment I totally agree with , if you were after tuna in the 60's & 70's you witnessed thousands of discards or floaters in the draggers wake , ling & whiting predominately , throughout the mud hole !
I know we used to get fresh bait with a dip net all you wanted ! Bear in mind on mackerel front we not only had a solid fall winter run but several solid weeks in spring , u could load up in site of the beach on some days . We also enjoyed open bottom cod fishing in those days , Red Square etc , I guess we fished those out as well!
It's all gone , water temp changes didn't contribute to all of this , somebody"s lack of conservation efforts did , now we as sport anglers are paying the price for something the government let happen in so many ways .
Those people making these rules now are totally ignorant of this past fishery & how fertile it was , they're simply earmarking the weakest link in the chain , that's us !

[tombanjo]

The climate is changing? Duh! It's called nature.

Man caused so a solvable problem? A self serving solution often dished in hysteria driven absolute terms served up by the global warming industry that has vast political power and profits in the billions off it. It's a cause that's turned into a religion.

But I digress.....

If fish are moving to seek colder waters then where are the southern species that should be around here now if that is true?

[june181901]

Re the abundance of whiting and ling: When I turned 17 I was able to drive from Bayonne to Princess Bay on Staten Island and fish on the Viking Captained by Andy Kondracki. In a few hours my buddy and I filled up a couple of burlap sacks with ling and whiting. We would give the fish away to a lot of neighbors who very much appreciated them and we felt like great anglers and nice guys. Sometimes a lobster boat would come by out in the NY Bight and sell shorts for .50 cents. We couldn't afford them so we passed. This was in '57 to about '62. Ten anglers on the boat could easily catch 5 to 7 hundred pounds of fish in a day and they were decent sized. My fishing buddy never left Bayonne and all the guys there blamed the Polish and East German 'factory ships' for destroying the fishing here especially whiting and ling.
Dakota nailed it IMO.

[torchee]

But I digress.....

If fish are moving to seek colder waters then where are the southern species that should be around here now if that is true?[/QUOTE]

Not all species migrate north/south
Some, like fluke migrate east in the winter

and i think warm water species need warm water year round - so they migrate south

But i hope we start getting spanish macs in the summer soon!

[bulletbob]

Bullcrap.. The temp at Sandy Hook today is at 38.5 F ..
Right about where it always is this time of year, and has been for decades.. As long as I have been around anyway.
Really cold winter we might get down to 35-36 in late Jan or Feb, or stay around 38 in a warmer winter...bob

[Blind Squirrel]

Originally Posted by bulletbob

Bullcrap.. The temp at Sandy Hook today is at 38.5 F ..
Right about where it always is this time of year, and has been for decades.. As long as I have been around anyway.
Really cold winter we might get down to 35-36 in late Jan or Feb, or stay around 38 in a warmer winter...bob

Really cold winters have been a rarity for decades, and one water temperature reading in one location isn't a trend:
https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicato...ce-temperature
...nor is it an indicator of annual sea surface salinity...
https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...-above-normal/

[Abrasion]

Southern Species are here. Had a day where I caught AmberJack all day long on peanuts in one of my spots, not to mention The state record redfish in CT was caught this year

[bulletbob]

Originally Posted by Abrasion

Southern Species are here. Had a day where I caught AmberJack all day long on peanuts in one of my spots, not to mention The state record redfish was caught this year

Meaningless.. Tropical species have been caught in the NY Bight as long as people have been fishing.. they are here many years in summer.. some years some species show up, other years they don't...
150 years ago Sheepshead Bay was loaded with Sheepshead, and they disappeared... Did the water get too cold for them??..
The NY Bight is a very unique marine habitat.-For those that know anything about marine fish migrations anyway.
It is a transitional zone.. Tropical, semi tropical, temperate, and cold water species more common in the Gulf of Maine and northward live together here at various times.. Raritan Bay has both lobsters and blue crabs, one species associated with warm water, the other with cold... Its fairly common to catch a winter flounder or small cod while bottom fishing in early fall, along with triggerfish and perhaps a small grunt or smooth puffer.. These species don't mix along much of the coastline of the eastern US, but they do in NJ.. catching tropicals in the summer or cold water species in winter or spring has been going on in NJ forever... I personally read nothing int it... bob