Recreational Fishery 
The Heritage Conservation and Recreation Serv- 
ice of the Department of the Interior estimates 
that 207 million days were spent in salt-water 
recreational fishing in 1975, resulting in expendi- 
tures of $3.4 billion. The recreational catch has 
been about the same size as the commercial food 
fish catch. In terms of per capita consumption, the 
recreational catch adds about 3 pounds to the U.S. 
per capita consumption of edible fish, raising the 
total to nearly 16 pounds per person in 1977. 
Increasing numbers of recreational anglers have 
resulted in additional competition between recre- 
ational and commercial fishing interests for certain 
species (table 3—2). 
Foreign Fishery ™' 
Foreign fleets harvest considerable quantities of 
fish within 200 nautical miles of the U.S. coast. 
Total foreign harvest, excluding tunas, in the Fishery 
Conservation Zone between 3 and 200 miles of the 
U.S. coast was about 1.7 million tones in 1977. 
The record year was in 1971 when foreign fleets 
harvested about 3.5 million tonnes. The largest 
catches in 1977 were made by Japan, U.S.S.R., 
Republic of Korea, Poland, and Canada. 
Of major concern to the foreign fleets is the Fish- 
ery Conservation and Management Act of 1976 
establishing the Fishery Conservation Zone, which 
extende . fishery management "jurisdiction fro from 
12 to 200 nautical miles off t off the U.S. coast. The Act 
has resulted in a reduction of | foreign catches in both 
the Atlantic and in the Pacific, with the reduction 
in the Atlantic proportionately greater than in the 
Pacific. In recent years, however, foreign catches in 
Tabie 3—2.—Recreational and commercial catch of 
selected fisheries, 19701 | 
Recreational Commercial Recreational 
Fish species catch catch share 
thousand tonnes percent 
Jacks lade — 100 
Biilfishes 6.86 — 100 
Red drum 30.16 0.67 98 
Sand sea trout 13.83 57 96 
Spotted sea trout 48.26 2.78 95 
Bluefish 54.80 3.27 94 
Atlantic mackerel 32.08 3.64 90 
King mackerel 28.41 3.05 90 
Croaker 34.22 3.85 90 
Kingfishes 16.41 2.00 89 
Striped bass 38.00 5.07 88 
Summer flounders 17.83 2.58 87 
Groupers 18.59 3.72 83 
Bonitos 9.63 4.25 69 
Catfishes 32.89 15.76 68 
Weakfish 7Al 3.46 67 
Spanish mackerel 10.60 5.51 66 
Red snapper 7.86 4.15 65 
Winter flounders 17.04 11.01 61 
Atlantic cod 16.29 24.14 40 
Rockfishes 6.24 12.52 33 
14.37 32 
Chinook salmon 6.88 
1US. Department of Commerce, NOAA, NMES. Fisheries 
of the United States, 1977. 
U.S. waters had been declining in advance of passage 
of the 200-mile law. Japan and U.S.S.R. each show 
declining catch trends since 1973. The number of 
Japanese and Soviet vessels has tended to decline 
in some areas, and there is evidence of a slight de- 
cline in the catch per vessel for both Japanese and 
Soviet fishermen. 
Figure 3-2 illustrates the change in total foreign 
2400 
2000 
1600 
1977 
Foreign 
Allocation 
1200 
Thousand Metric Tons 
800 
400 
1977 
Foreign 
Allocation 
Pacific Ocean Atlantic Ocean 
Figure 3-2.—Catch by foreign vessels in 1975; contrasted 
with 1977 allowable levels of foreign fishing as estab- 
lished by the Fishery Conservation and Management 
Act. Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, National 
Marine Fisheries Service, unpublished statistics 1975, 
and Fishery Statistics of the United States, 1976. 
TI-4 
