COMMERCIAL FISHERIES 



Commercial and subsistence fishing has been a practice of long standing 

 in Southwest Florida. Extensive Indian shell middens attest to the importance 

 of this food source in past centuries. Even in its simplest form in the early 

 1900's, commercial fishing required substantial investment in gear or equip- 

 ment, such as boats, beach seines, and gill nets. Marketing was severely 

 limited by the lack of proper storage, preservation, and transportation. 

 Unless a day's catch was dried or salted, most had to be sold on the same day 

 they were caught. In contrast, much of today's modern fishing industry is a 

 complex of vessels, sophisticated electronic equipment, freezing and storage 

 facilities, transportation, and marketing systems. 



Fishery resources may provide a reliable supply of low-priced protein. 

 This is particularly true for schooling nearshore estuarine species such as 

 mullet, croaker, trout, and redfish. A recent survey conducted by the Bureau 

 of Marketing and Extension Services of the Florida Department of Natural 

 Resources revealed the importance of low-priced commercial fish in ethnic 

 diets. This survey is important because commercial fishing with nets is 

 becoming increasingly unpopular with the general public and further restric- 

 tions on that kind of fishing will reduce the catch of less expensive fishes. 



Excellent and detailed economic analyses of a variety of fisheries in 

 specific areas have been reported by Cato and Prochaska (1975, 1976, 1977). 

 Statistical data on the composition of the commercial fish and shellfish land- 

 ings for Florida and Southwest Florida and its counties are given in tables 

 FSH 1-42, pages 182-236, Volume II, Data Appendix, this report. 



FISHERY RESOURCES OF SOUTHWEST FLORIDA 



Over one hundred species of finfish and shellfish are caught by commer- 

 cial and sport fishermen in Southwest Florida. Unfortunately, very little 

 information is available for sport catches and none on a regular or annual 

 basis. The National Marine Fisheries Service has attempted nationally through 

 direct interviews and telephone surveys to get some feeling as to the magni- 

 tude of this catch (Deuel and Clark 1965, Deuel 1970, 1975, 1979, U.S. 

 Department of Commerce 1975, 1979). A creel census-interview study by Flor- 

 ida DNR (Irby 1974) looked intensively at a small relatively pristine area 

 (Choctawhatchee Bay). Efforts are now underway to establish continuing 

 commercial and sport catch statistics, through State/Federal cooperative 

 agreements. 



Most of the following discussion is based on commercial statistics, but 

 existing evidence indicates that for those species actively sought by both 

 sport and commercial fishermen, sport catches often equal or exceed commercial 

 landings. Reports on commercial landings, value, and prices of the coastal 

 fishes of Florida were published by Cato and Prochaska (1975, 1977); some of 

 the data are used in the following sections. In any review of commercial 

 landings, care must be exercised to avoid oversimplification in analyzing the 

 data. For example, several years of steadily declining catches do not neces- 

 sarily indicate that the species is overfished. For example, the decline in 

 catch may be caused by normal annual fluctuations or a decline in commercial 



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