picture and left it for dead because it 

 was a big fish. It's not as good to eat 

 (as the smaller fish)." 



Angler attitudes have since im- 

 proved. But the stakes today are higher 

 than ever because the stocks of fish 

 living off North Carolina's coast are 

 dwindling. The causes are multiple: 

 pollution of the waters and nursery 

 areas, habitat destruction and overfish- 

 ing. 



Meanwhile, the sport is growing in 

 popularity, says Ron Schmied, special 

 assistant for recreational fisheries in 

 the Southeast regional office of the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service. 



There was a threefold increase in 

 national saltwater sportfishing between 

 1955 and 1985, he says. And that 

 demand is expected to increase nation- 

 ally by 36 percent between 1985 and 

 2025. In the Southeast, where outings 

 and catch accounted for half of the 

 nation's fishing activity in 1991, the 



Rather than dropping it into 

 a cooler or leaving it for dead 



on the shore, an angler 

 returns the fish to the water 

 and takes steps to ensure that 

 it can survive to spawn and 

 perhaps bite another angler's 

 hook another day. 



projected increase is closer to 45 

 percent. 



The situation is compounded by the 

 fact that a stunning majority of fisher- 

 men are not even bringing their catch 

 to dock. 



Throughout the Southeast in 1991, 

 only 26 percent of fish caught were 



actually landed, brought to shore and 

 used, Schmied says. When you con- 

 sider that 201 million fish were caught 

 in the Southeast in 1991, that means 

 roughly 149 million fish were hooked 

 but not brought to shore. They were 

 either cast overboard dead, used for bait 

 or released. 



Landing rates for popular species 

 are higher, but the big picture is clear. 

 All of this would be great news if 

 anglers were using catch-and-release 

 skills to return their unkept catch to the 

 sea. But people like Schmied are 

 doubtful. They wonder what happens to 

 the fish that weren't landed and 

 whether anglers understand that the 

 way they handle a fish determines 

 whether it will survive. 



"We want to change angler beliefs 

 such that they understand that their 

 actions can have a tremendous effect on 

 the resource and that they make a 



Continued 



COASTWATCH 9 



