difficult job. The best indicator avail- 

 able at this time is catch data from 

 surveys of commercial and recrea- 

 tional fishermen, says Manooch. The 

 council devises its management plan 

 based on research statistics, public 

 hearings and member concerns. 



In the South Atlantic region, the 

 council has been keeping close watch 

 on pelagics such as billfish, tuna and 

 mackerel and has imposed some regu- 

 lations. Currently in North Carolina, 

 the managers are most concerned 

 about king mackerel, a species impor- 

 tant to both the recreational and com- 

 mercial fishing industries. 



The populations of king mackerel 

 flourished for years, but so did their 

 popularity with fishermen. And in a 

 few years, the stocks dwindled from 

 the Northeast to the Gulf. 



"About three years ago we thought 

 that all the mackerel were one big 

 group," says Jim Bahen, the Sea Grant 

 Marine Advisory Service agent at Kure 

 Beach. But recent studies determined 



Photo by Joel Arrington 



two separate fish stocks traveled the 

 coast — one from Virginia to the east 

 coast of south Florida and the other 

 from there to Texas. 



In the Gulf, hook and line commer- 

 cial fishermen caught so many king 

 mackerel in 1983 that they met their 

 quota of nearly 4 million pounds set by 

 the South Atlantic and Gulf councils in 

 just nine months. Until the next season, 

 commercial fishermen could not fish 

 for mackerel with hook and line, and 

 recreational fishermen could not sell 

 their catch because it fell under the 

 commercial quota. 



"There's still a serious problem with 

 management in the Gulf, but here 

 we've realized it, and we're starting to 

 manage our resource," says Bahen. 

 The South Atlantic council set an 11 

 million-pound quota in 1985 for rec- 

 reational and commercial king mack- 

 erel fishermen fishing in the three- to 

 200-mile zone. 



Recently, the council proposed to 

 cut this quota by 18 percent. The new 



regulations, scheduled to go into effect 

 April 1, would allow recreational fish- 

 ermen approximately 6 million 

 pounds and commercial fishermen 3 

 million pounds. In addition, the coun- 

 cil suggested bag limits of three fish 

 per person per trip for private and 

 charter boats or headboats traveling in 

 the Fisheries Conservation Zone. 



To come up with such a package 

 plan, it took time, research and some 

 give and take from the fishermen and 

 the council members. "It's kind of dif- 

 ficult when you're trying to regulate 

 something from Florida (to Virginia), 

 but you try to look over your own 

 interests," says Bob Mahood, director 

 of the South Atlantic council and 

 former director of DMF. "We tried to 

 work it out where it's fair to everybody." 



Each state in the region has the 

 option to comply with these regula- 

 tions within their three-mile jurisdic- 

 tion, says Ernest Carl, a member of the 

 council from North Carolina. So far, 

 Florida has been the only state in the 

 South Atlantic region to adopt these 

 measures. 



The change isn't always easy to take. 

 Charter boat captains who cruise the 

 Fisheries Conservation Zone are wor- 

 ried sport fishermen won't take as 

 many trips because of the bag limits, 

 and tournament officials are con- 

 cerned the commercial quota for that 

 area may be met before fall or winter 

 tournaments can be held. If the com- 

 mercial quota is reached, any king 

 mackerel caught beyond the three- 

 mile limit in a tournament cannot be 

 sold as is usually done to offset tourna- 

 ment costs. 



But Bahen believes short-term man- 

 agement may lead to long-term pros- 

 perity in the mackerel fishery. 



"We're going to have to manage our 

 resource," he says. "We're going to 

 have to fish for today and save some 

 for tomorrow, take more of a conser- 

 vation view. 



"A good example is if you look back 

 at the striped bass. That is a fishery 

 they let go too far. It got to the point 

 where there weren't any fish at all. It 

 got so bad, some states put a morato- 

 rium on it." But as with king mackerel, 

 the councils are trying to do something 

 beforehand. 



"It's a big pill for some people to 

 swallow, but they're going to have to 

 choke it down," says Bahen. 



— Sarah Friday 



Fishermen reel in a wahoo 



