Looks aren't everything 



Shunned fish shake poor image 



A sport fisherman casts a line over 

 an old wreck off Wrightsville 

 Beach. Instead of reeling in the red 

 snapper he hoped to lure, he finds an 

 amberjack at the end of the line. 

 Remembering that he heard 

 somewhere these fish have worms, he 

 throws the fish aside to die. 



This scenario is repeated frequently 

 throughout North Carolina's coastal 

 waters and those of the Southeast. As 

 anglers pursue snappers, groupers, 

 king mackerel and spotted trout, they 

 cast aside their incidental catch — the 

 sea catfish, puffers, sharks, sea robins 

 and stingrays. 



But the species that sportsmen 

 throw away today may be tomorrow's 

 prized catch. At least that's what Jim 

 Murray and Jeff Johnson are planning. 

 In the first part of a National Marine 

 Fisheries Service project, Murray and 

 Johnson studied why anglers prefer 

 some species of fish over others. They 

 surveyed fishermen from North 

 Carolina, Florida and Texas to find the 

 answers. 



Jim Murray 



"Basically, we learned that any fish 

 that doesn't look like a fish isn't used 

 by recreational fishermen," says 

 Johnson, a Sea Grant researcher and 

 an anthropologist at East Carolina 



University. "Fish with feelers, spines 

 or skin instead of scales were perceived 

 as ugly. Many fishermen equated 

 ugliness with being poisonous or 

 dangerous. And that meant these fish 

 weren't utilized." 



The team found that most anglers 

 prefer species that have white, flaky 

 meat and are easy to catch, clean, store 

 and eat. Sport fishermen did include 

 several dark meat species on their 

 preferred lists — bluefish, mackerel and 

 mullet. And some fish are sought 

 because of the challenging fight they 

 offer when hooked. 



The researchers also found that 

 preferences varied from region to 

 region, says Murray, director of UNC 

 Sea Grant's Marine Advisory Service. 

 North Carolina sportsmen valued 

 smaller species — croaker, spot and 

 perch — more highly than fishermen in 

 Florida or Texas. 



Johnson says this occurred because 

 of the lack of access to larger species 

 (usually found offshore 40 to 50 miles 

 in the Gulf Stream) and because of 

 North Carolina's extensive sound 

 system. Anglers here fish inshore 

 waters more than Florida or Texas 

 fishermen. 



But recreational fishermen reject 

 fish they perceive as ugly, difficult to 

 clean, dangerous to handle and 

 poisonous, or fish with dark meat. 

 More often than not, this rejection is 

 based on hearsay and rumor, rather 

 than actual experience with these 

 species, says Johnson. And, he says, 

 the rumors are often misleading or in- 

 correct. 



For example, sea robins often are 

 perceived as poisonous by sportsmen 

 because they are ugly. But in Europe 

 the sea robin is called grondin — an in- 

 gredient in classic French bouillabaisse. 



When anglers aren't discarding 

 species because of misconceptions, 

 they cite the ready availability of bet- 

 ter species as the reason for neglecting 

 less-favored fish. But these preferred 

 fish may not always be abundant. 



"Many of the popular recreational 

 species — flounder, grouper, red 

 drum — are becoming overfished," says 



Murray. "The size of some fish popula- 

 tions are down, and the number of fish 

 caught per fisherman is down because 

 so many people are fishing. We need to 

 spread out the species we're targeting. 



Jeff Johnson 



A number of these underutilized 

 species are good to eat and fun to 

 catch. They're just non-traditional." 



Getting recreational fishermen to 

 target underutilized species is one 

 reason why NMFS funded Murray 

 and Johnson's project. NMFS has 

 been encouraging commercial fisher- 

 men to net underutilized species for 

 years. But until now, no effort has 

 been directed at recreational fisher- 

 men, who number over five million in- 

 dividuals in the Gulf and South Atlan- 

 tic. NMFS statisticians estimate 

 anglers reel in 30 to 35 percent of the 

 total finfish poundage harvested for 

 food in the United States. 



By encouraging recreational fisher- 

 men to catch underutilized species, 

 resource managers are hoping to lessen 

 the demand for and conflict over 

 traditional species sought by commer- 

 cial and recreational fishermen. And if 

 anglers begin to favor shark or amber- 

 jack, consumer demand for commer- 

 cial quantities may not be far behind. 



In the second part of Murray and 



