APPENDIX III APPENDIX III 
From 2 to 40 baited hooks may be used with each reel line, 
but individual handlines sometimes have only 1 hook. The 
hooks used are both conventional style and self-hooking 
tuna-circle style. For bait, several species of fish, 
shrimp, and squid are used. 
Most of the fishing craft use ice to preserve the 
catch, but a few are equipped with freezers. Some of the 
craft are of multipurpose design to facilitate use in other 
fisheries, such as shrimping and lobstering. For example, 
about 25 percent of the handline vessels operating from 
South Atlantic and Gulf States in 1969 were equipped with 
additional types of gear in addition to those classified 
as handlines, which were primarily mechanical reels. In- 
cluded in the numbers of commercial handline craft reported 
are an unknown number of sport, charter, and party craft 
from which fish were sold and reported to NMFS statistical 
agents. Therefore all of the craft reported as handlines 
are not only used in the snapper and grouper fishery. The 
usual purpose of such diversification is to operate profit- 
ably throughout the year. For the same reason, many of 
the snapper-group fishermen are part time and are active in 
other fisheries or occupations. 
In 1971 the commercial handline fleet operating at 
least part time from the Gulf States was made up of 397 
vessels and 1,570 boats. About 83 percent of the vessels 
and 76 percent of the boats were based in Florida. The 
boats are generally less than 26 feet long. 
In the northwestern Gulf of Mexico off Texas, relatively 
few boats in 1972 were involved solely in commercial fish- 
ing for red snapper. 
A relatively small portion of the U.S. snapper-grouper 
fleet participates in the fishery off the South Atlantic 
coast. In 1971 there were about 56 vessels and 398 boets 
Operating in the handline fleet along the South Atlantic 
coast, with most of these craft based along the Florida east 
coast. There is some seasonal exchange of handline vessels 
between the South Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico. 
The total number of commercial vessels increased from 
138 in 1953 to 406 in,1971, with. a maximum of 546 in; 1959. 
The number of commercial boats has declined from 3,290 in 
EIS Gute One le160)2 sein eo alee 
In the Gulf of Mexico off the United States, the smaller 
Snapper-grouper craft that fish these waters are based at 
nearby ports along the gulf coast and make 1- to 12-day trips. 
101 
