NOAA PROFESSIONAL PAPER H 



Jersey Department of Labor and Industry, personal com- 

 munication). Monies generated from use of marine fishery 

 resources were 7.3 percent of the five coastal counties" 

 annual personal income and 1.0 percent of the State's 

 personal incomes. Locally, the economy generated by 

 these fisheries is extremely important. 



In addition to their monetary value, commercial and 

 recreational harvests represent substantial sources of food 

 and protein. The 1975 commercial catch was 65.306 t, 

 most of which was processed for humans and livestock. 

 There is no estimate of the tonnage landed by recreation- 

 alists, but the sport catch of many species far outweighs 

 commercial landings. 



Not surprisingly, commercial and sport fishermen, as 

 well as the general public, were alarmed when extensive 

 areas of oxygen-depleted water and marine mortalities 

 were discovered along the Jersey coast during summer 

 1976. The disruption of ocean waters and destruction of 

 marine life threatened both the State's valuable marine 

 fishery resources and its second largest industry, the pri- 

 marily ocean-based resort trade. 



PROCEDURES 



Information regarding financial losses to commercial 

 trawlers and party and charter boats resulting from the 

 offshore oxygen-depleted water was obtained by a random 

 telephone survey. Names of trawler captains were selected 

 from a list of food fishermen who are licensed to fish 

 between 3 and 5 km of the coast. Obviously, vessel cap- 

 tains could only estimate their landings. Total fleet losses 

 were estimated by expanding average per-boat losses to 

 include all boats operating in the affected area. 



An important consideration is the difference between 

 actual economic losses and losses based on resource mor- 

 tality. Actual losses refer to dollar losses reported by fish- 

 ermen as a result of smaller catches harvested, increased 

 operating costs, fewer trips, or decreased revenues from 

 fares. Losses from mortality are estimates of the potential 

 dollar value of the standing crop lost. Resource losses can 

 cause actual dollar losses to fishermen, processors, and 

 marketers. 



Estimates of dollar losses in processing and marketing 

 the commercial catch were calculated by multiplying dock- 

 side losses by a factor of 2.5 (Rorholm 1974). 



LOSSES RELATED TO COMMERCIAL 

 FISHERIES 



Commercial landings fluctuate widely from year to year 

 because of changes in market prices, availability and abun- 

 dance of stocks, and weather. The interaction of these 



factors makes it extremely difficult to assess the impact 

 of a single factor, such as oxygen depletion, upon the 

 harvest of a given stock in any year. Table 14-1 compares 

 the 1976 harvest with that of 1975, and with the average 

 of 1971 through 1975 for those species that might have 

 been affected by the anoxic event. Compared to the 5- 

 year average for 1971-75, landings of cod, white hake, 

 king whiting, striped bass, rock crabs, lobsters, and surf 

 clams declined in 1976. Landings of cod, king whiting, 

 striped bass, and lobster were declining before 1976. In- 

 creased landings were reported for bluefish, croakers, 

 blackback flounder, fluke, red hake, scup, sea bass, tau- 

 tog, weakfish, whiting, and sea scallops. 



Although many commercially important species of fin- 

 fish suffered mortalities during summer 1976 (ch. 13), 

 Azarovitz et al. (1977) found few dead fish in their trawl 

 samples and stated that finfish mortalities were minimal. 

 The principal effect of oxygen depletion on finfish stocks 

 was to reduce their abundance in affected areas and cause 

 them to concentrate in unaffected areas. This disturbance 

 of normal migratory patterns and summering areas caused 

 reduced catches by some commercial fishermen and forced 

 them into longer, more expensive runs to find fish. On 

 the other hand, summer flounder were concentrated close 

 to the beach and provided excellent inshore fishing. 



In November 1976 we interviewed 13 captains of New 

 Jersey-licensed commercial trawlers (table 14-2). Three 

 who fished from Sea Isle City to Cape May reported no 

 financial losses caused by the summer marine mortalities. 

 We interviewed 8 of the 10 captains operating out of ports 

 north of Sea Isle City, the 8 stated they had financial 

 losses. Five reported losses between $6,000 and $40,000, 

 with an average per-boat loss of $28,000; three did not 

 estimate their losses. 



According to the National Marine Fisheries Service's 

 (NMFS) statistical agent for New Jersey, 181 commercial 

 finfish trawlers operated from New Jersey ports. Of these, 

 82 operated from ports in Monmouth, Ocean, and Atlantic 

 Counties. If reported per-boat losses are expanded to in- 

 clude the entire trawler fleet (80% suffered losses) in the 

 three affected counties, the total estimated dockside loss 

 was $1 .9 million to the fishermen: Resulting losses to proc- 

 essing and marketing amounted to an additional $4.6 mil- 

 lion. Thus, estimated losses to commercial trawl fisheries 

 totaled $6.5 million. 



Because the oxygen-depleted waters were limited to 

 areas within 100 km of the shore, small inshore trawlers 

 were undoubtedly affected more than larger offshore 

 boats that could search farther for fish. Also, because the 

 sample was limited to inshore trawlers, expansion to cover 

 the entire fleet probably resulted in an overestimate of 

 losses to New Jersey-based boats. No determination was 

 made of possible losses to boats from other States fishing 

 in New Jersey waters. 



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