An Apology

[Denlon]

About 2 days ago, I replied to a posting (The Whiting are Biting) by Fishark 531. I guess I was a little too critical of the catch when I saw the huge pile of whiting in the boat.

Fishark531 responded by saying that most of these fish were donated to a local food bank. If that’s so, then I have no problem with the amount of Whiting kept. I apologize to Fishark531 for suggesting he may have kept too many of a species which is still not recovered in the NY/NJ area.

However, the pile of fish just struck a nerve with me. I am 72 years old, and have been hunting, fishing, crabbing, clamming, etc. in NJ all my life. I’m not a member of PETA, nor am I a tree hugger, nor a member of any radical environmental group. However that picture reminded me of many things I have seen over the years. I have no problem with sportsman utilizing natural resources as long as they use common sense and are not wasteful. Some things that were brought to mind by Fishark’s posting:

• My first remembrance was while I was still in grammar school. One day while snapper fishing I saw a couple of guys seine netting spearing for snapper bait on the little beach at the end of Fair Haven Road on the Navesink River. Those guys literally packed a 5 gallon bucket full of spearing with no water. A few hours later I again saw them snapper fishing off the bulkhead in Red Bank. They had the bucket of spearing sitting out cooking in the hot sun, and were complaining about how soft and mushy they were. I’m sure they didn’t use more than about a pint of the spearing and the rest probably went over the side at the end of the day. How stupid. What a waste!

• When fishing off the Long Branch Fishing pier in the 1950’s My Dad and I would arrive about 4:00 AM to find huge piles of Skates which had been caught during the night, and left to die on the pier. During the day, similar piles of Sea Robins were created and left to die. In both cases, the fisherman’s attitude was that these were ugly, undesirable, non-edible, worthless fish. However, I can tell you that both of them (particularly Sea Robins) are very good eating. Skates are a sought-after delicacy in many European countries. It made no sense to me as a kid to kill the fish if they were just ugly or unwanted. Why not throw them back? Again, What a waste!

• Many times while fishing for Blackfish (nobody called them Tog, back then) off the jetties in Tackanassee we also caught nice-sized Bergalls (Cunners). Bergalls and blackfish are both members of the Wrasse family of fishes. Bergalls are every bit as good tasting as the blackfish. We always kept them. However, most other fisherman considered them useless bait stealers, and just pitched them into the rocks to die. Another wasteful attitude!

• During the days of massive big bluefish catches, the party boats would come into the Shark River docks overflowing with highly-successful fisherman. At that time there were fish-cleaning tables right there at the boat docks, where the guys could clean their fish and leave all the mess and stink behind. However, many, many times I watched them clean a few fish and get tired. Then they would leave huge piles of blues on the dock to rot and be picked up by garbage men the next day. Does this sound reasonable to you? Why take them if you can’t use them? I’ve been on many of these blue fishing trips and always practiced Catch/Release for some of my blues while suffering the whimsical stares and rough comments from those around me.

• Last of all, and one remembrance that gripes me a lot is back in the mid 1970’s. At that time there were fantastic Spring runs of tide-runner Weakfish all over Delaware Bay. I’m talking 8, 10, and 12 pound Weakies. They were so prolific, that the boaters would quickly fill up their ice chests with these huge fish, and then start piling them on deck. As you know, weakfish are very soft, oily fish which spoil easily. So after a few hours of cooking, unprotected in the sun, they were worthless mush. But the fisherman were having a great day and kept piling the weakies on the deck, rather than releasing them. When they came back to the dock, almost none of these big beautiful fish came ashore. Most went over the side! Again no common sense and a terrible waste of a valuable natural resource.

If you made it to the end of this tirade, thanks for bearing with me.
Denny