been initiated on that question. 



For Spanish mackerel, the optimum 

 yield probably will be 27 million 

 pounds. A 12-inch minimum length has 

 been recommended for catches in both 

 the commercial and recreational fish- 

 eries. Premetz says there seems to be 

 no need for allocation now, but the 

 purse seine issue is being considered for 

 Spanish mackerel too. 



For cobia the council is considering a 

 minimum catch size of 33 inches for 

 both the commercial and recreational 

 fisheries. Premetz says that a 

 minimum length in any fishery is a size 

 which the council believes allows max- 

 imum yield per fish. The fish has an op- 

 portunity to spawn at least once and 

 perhaps twice. 



Snapper-grouper — This group is di- 

 vided geographically into four man- 

 agement units: black sea bass in the 

 northern range; and three distinct 

 species complexes, one north of Cape 

 Canaveral, one south of Cape 

 Canaveral and one in the deep water 

 farther offshore. The draft plan for this 

 commercial and recreational fishery is 

 expected this summer. 



The two problem areas, according to 

 Premetz, are the black sea bass and the 

 complex which is found south of Cape 

 Canaveral, Florida. Included in that 

 group are mangrove snapper, yellow 

 tail snapper, mutton snapper, lane 

 snapper, inshore groupers, grunts and 

 porgies. Premetz says in both cases 

 there is gross overfishing with under- 

 sized fish being taken. 



The quota for black sea bass is 1.6 

 million pounds. A minimum size of 9 

 inches for black sea bass will be im- 

 posed in both the recreational and 

 commercial fisheries. 



For the area south of Canaveral, the 

 quota is 8.9 million pounds. Premetz 

 says that once more information is 

 compiled, minimum catch size also 

 should be set for species in the south 

 Florida area. 



The area north of Canaveral sup- 

 ports fisheries for gag, scamp, red 

 porgie, red snapper, Vermillion, grunts, 

 hind and trigger fish. That quota is 4.1 

 million pounds. The quota for the deep 

 water complex is 1.5 million pounds. 

 Premetz says that fishery, which in- 

 cludes snowy grouper, yellow-edged 

 grouper, black tile fish, golden tile fish 

 and red porgie, still has considerable 

 room for expansion. 



Winner: times 

 have changed 



Skippy Winner of Wilmington has 

 spent most of his 44 years on boats. 

 Along with his family he operates half 

 a dozen head and charter boats for rec- 

 reational fishing. Twenty years ago, 

 Winner says, the boats didn't have to 

 go out of sight of land to fish. "You 

 could catch all the fish you wanted. . . 

 Now nobody slows down till they get 

 out of sight of land. So the fishing has 

 greatly declined. 



"There are less fish of all species. 

 Black (sea bass) fishing is nowhere like 

 it was." 



Fishing for snapper and grouper in 

 the Gulf Stream "is just not even the 

 same ball game." 



And fishing for mackerel: 

 "Everybody's been getting into it. 

 There has been a decline in the king 

 mackerel." 



In short, Winner welcomes the 

 regulations — even down to the detailed 

 stipulations on fish traps in the 

 snapper-grouper plan. Winner says 

 fishermen often loose half their traps in 

 a season. "They sit on the bottom and 

 kill fish for years." 



He tells of the time in the 1960s 



Other restrictions being considered 

 for the snapper-grouper fishery include 

 regulations on fish traps. Included are 

 limits on the number of traps to be 

 fished by a given vessel and require- 

 ments for degradable panels in the 

 traps. Zoning of artificial reefs also is 

 being considered. And trawling efforts 

 will be watched to see if controls are 

 needed on that type of fishing. 



Billfish — Included in the plan are 

 blue marlin, white marlin and sailfish. 

 The South Atlantic fishery council is 

 taking the lead for five regional coun- 

 cils in the development of the billfish 

 plan. The final draft is expected this 

 month. 



Under the plan, billfish will be strict- 

 ly a domestic recreational fishery. 

 Given the extent of the domestic 



Skippy Winner 



when he pulled up a stray trap. The 

 wire mesh box, though finally rotting, 

 had continued to trap fish for quite 

 some time, Winner says. There were 

 live and rotting fish in it at the time 

 and the bones in the bottom of the trap 

 were three and a half inches deep. 



fishery and its economic importance, 

 no surplus will be declared for foreign 

 vessels. 



Foreign fishermen already are ex- 

 cluded from the billfish fishery under a 

 Preliminary Management Plan 

 (promulgated by the Department of 

 Commerce as an interim measure). 

 However, according to council staff 

 member Davis, the council is caught in 

 a legal dilemma: the FCMA 

 specifically excludes tuna from US 

 jurisdiction within the 200 mile Fish- 

 ery Conservation Zone. Japanese long- 

 liners have continued to take tuna 

 within the FCZ and, since the billfish 

 often are an incidental catch in the 

 tuna fishery and since "they get a good 

 price for them too," says Davis, it may 

 be difficult to protect the fishery 

 entirely. 



