yellowtail, lane, silk, dog and schoolmaster snappers that were larger 

 than one pound gutted; hogfish larger than one pound; jolthead and knobby 

 porgies larger than one pound; margate, black margate and sailor's choice 

 grunts larger than one pound. 



Small groupers and snappers were normally returned to the water 

 during this period of observation. Non-target species were considered to be 

 tangs, angels, butterflies, parrots, wrasses other than hogfish, triggers, 

 files and trunk fish and were discarded by most fishermen. 



During the three months of this project, the investigators observed 

 the capture of 1568 target fishes of 29 species and 136 spiny lobster. 

 These amount to 61.4% of the total number (2552) and 72.9% of the total 

 weight (5164.6 lbs) of individuals of 48 species and accounted for 38.6% 

 of the total number and 27.1% of the total weight of individuals sampled. 



The 10 most abundant species (3 groupers, 1 snapper, 2 porgies, 2 

 grunts, 1 angel, 1 tang) accounted for 58.7% of the total number of all 

 individuals and 61.02% of the total weight of all individuals. Groupers 

 (358 individuals weighing 2958.23 lbs) account for 14.0% of total number 

 of all individuals sampled and 57.3% of total weight of all individuals 

 sampled. 



The study by the Florida DNR and the NMFS hopes to help resolve the 

 controversies surrounding wire trap use and facilitate management decisions 

 on the fish trap industry. In the meantime often cited disadvantages 

 include: 



(1) financial success depends entirely upon unstable market demands, 

 supply, and price; 



(2) high level of trap efficiency can interfere with the catch per 

 unit effort of recreational and commercial hook and line fishing; 



(3) intense trapping efforts in isolated reef areas may radically 

 change fish species composition and abundance; 



(4) trap dimensions (mesh size, entrance funnel size, orientation 

 and location, and trap volume) are not always species specific and are 

 selective for a wide variety of reef fish, including juveniles, trash or 

 forage species and non-food tropicals (the draft Reef Fish FMP, however 

 states that "...evidence suggests that traps are generally selective and 

 can be set so they are highly selective"); 



(5) Coral and coral reef resources can be physically damaged when 

 traps are dragged across the reef surface during retrieval or when displaced 

 by waves and currents; 



(6) traps are easily lost due to theft, bad weather and vessel passage 

 severing buoy lines; these traps, popularly known as "ghost" or "drowned" 

 traps, continue fishing indefinitely unless retrieved by divers or destroyed 

 by corrosion or large predators; 



106 



