36 



ing in the management process I have developed a certain level of 

 familiarity with and knowledge of the bluefish fishery. 



"Based on my own observations and on discussions with other 

 recreational and commercial fishermen, I can't say that I have seen 

 or heard of any indications that bluefish have become less plentiful 

 over the past several years. 



"My reasons for this are, in the recent summers there have been 

 lots of small bluefish in Barnegat Bay and the other coastal waters 

 that I am familiar with. We have been seeing average to above av- 

 erage numbers of medium and large bluefish in the ocean in the 

 areas that we normally fish. Last year there were large numbers 

 of five to ten pound bluefish in the waters from ten to 20 miles off- 

 shore for the entire summer. 



"The headboats were catching these fish steadily and their pas- 

 sengers regularly filled their ten fish bag limits. Making allowances 

 for management imposed closures, our bluefish landings have been 

 consistent with the effort we have been putting into the fishery. We 

 have not had to fish harder to produce the same amount of fish. 



"The feeling that the bluefish stocks are declining that is being 

 expressed by some managers and recreational fishermen and that 

 is part of the reason for this hearing today, might be due to an- 

 other phenomena that seems increasingly plausible; the bluefish 

 stocks aren't declining but the entire population is moving either 

 north and east or farther offshore. 



"In support of this, Longliners report seeing tremendous schools 

 of bluefish up to 50 miles offshore. Tilefish boats see large bluefish 

 schools in the offshore canyons in the spring and bluefish can be 

 so prevalent 30 to 50 miles offshore in the summer that they inter- 

 fere with shark fishing. 



"For over five years we have been hearing of recreational anglers 

 regularly catching bluefish in waters as far outside their normal 

 range as the Gulf of Maine and that this is out of the ordinary is 

 indicated by the fact that in his 1974 book Successful Bluefishing, 

 author Hal Lyman states, 'In the 1950's and again in the late sum- 

 mer and early autumn of 1971, blues were abundant as far north 

 as Old Orchard Beach, Maine.' 



"Bluefish moving from their normal areas of concentration could 

 be due to changes in water temperature or currents or to competi- 

 tion from other species such as striped bass, another highly effec- 

 tive predator that is found in the same areas and feeds on many 

 of the same forage species. 



"Coupled with a possible shift in range might be a decline in rec- 

 reational bluefish landings caused by shifts in recreational fishing 

 effort. Over the past five years both fluke and striped bass have in- 

 creased in abundance in the Mid-Atlantic. Prior to this, many rec- 

 reational anglers focused on bluefish for no other reason than that 

 they were the only fish available for harvesting. 



"Now, with the return of the more desirable fluke and stripers, 

 the recreational effort targeting bluefish must have declined sig- 

 nificantly. In recent years there has also been a significant increase 

 in the number of smaller recreational boats going offshore in 

 search of tuna and, to a lesser extent, billfish. Before this fishery 

 developed most of this effort was probably expended on bluefish. 



