voluntary decision not to waste any 

 more fish, Schmied says. 



"If anglers were taught how to 

 catch-and-release, then roughly three- 

 quarters of the fish they catch could be 

 put back alive to be caught again 

 another day and to spawn and speed up 

 the rebuilding of the fish stocks." 



The argument in favor of catch- 

 and-release is that fish, large or small, 

 are not totally expendable. Small fish 

 need a chance to spawn. And remov- 

 ing the larger, prolific fish from the 

 water shifts the profile of the popula- 

 tion and reduces its ability to repro- 

 duce. 



"Once fish become spawners, one 

 large adult spawner puts out more eggs 

 than do maybe 20, 100 or 200 of the 

 younger ones, depending on the 

 species and size," Schmied says. 



The reality, however, is that many 

 anglers believe they aren't part of the 

 problem. It's hard to understand the 

 cumulative impact when each fisher- 

 man sees himself as taking only a few 

 at a time. 



Rather, they have a "we 

 vs. they" attitude, and they 

 view commercial fishermen, 

 developers and water 

 polluters as the real culprits, 

 Schmied says. In the early 

 1980s, many anglers were 

 convinced commercial gill- 

 netters were singularly to 

 blame for overfishing the 

 king mackerel stock in the 

 Southeast. But analysis of 

 catch statistics showed 

 anglers accounted for 70 

 percent of the king mackerel 

 harvest, Schmied says. 



"I work for an agency 

 that is responsible for 

 managing marine fisheries. 

 We have to look at who's 

 catching what, recreational 



The argument in favor of 

 catch-and-release is that fish, 

 large or small, are not totally 

 expendable. Small fish need 



a chance to spawn. And 

 removing the larger, prolific 

 fish from the water shifts the 

 profile of the population and 

 reduces its ability to reproduce. 



and commercial fishermen," Schmied 

 says. "And you realize quickly there's 

 a big disparity between angler percep- 

 tion of their effect on a resource and 

 the statistics." 



In a battle waged from the nation's 

 Capitol to town halls, recreational and 

 commercial fishermen are locked in a 



Trends in the Recreational Fishery in the Southeast 



250 



100 



50 

 



79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 

 YEARS 



• Total Catch ■ Trips 



Source: Angler Conservation Education Task Force 



struggle over who gets what share of a 

 disappearing resource. And as sport- 

 fishermen criticize the commercial 

 industry's bycatch problems, the 

 commercial fishermen are pointing 

 out recreational wastes. 



It's not uncommon for some anglers 

 to catch species in excess of bag limits 

 and discard all but the largest fish at 

 the end of their trip to comply with the 

 limit, according to a draft report 

 prepared by the Angler Conservation 

 Education Task Force. 



The task force was assembled 

 by Schmied to develop a plan for 

 promoting effective angler involve- 

 ment in fisheries management, 

 personal stewardship and new norms 

 of responsible fishing. The report says 

 catch-and-release fishing skills are 

 becoming increasingly important as 

 more species become regulated and as 

 non-wasteful fishing practices become 

 more accepted. In effect, nearly all 

 sportfishermen should practice catch- 

 and-release at some time if they're 

 abiding by the law. 



"In most areas of the 

 South Atlantic and Gulf, 

 there has been a virtual 

 explosion of fishing 

 regulations, which means 

 you have to release fish that 

 don't meet the size limits or 

 the bag limits, or when 

 there's a closed season, 

 Schmied says. 



"So the question is, 

 when an angler says he 

 released it, did he really 

 release it with skill so the 

 fish had a chance of 

 survival, or did he just toss 

 it over the side?" 



A pioneer of saltwater 

 catch-and-release programs, 

 Schmied launched a cam- 

 paign 10 years ago to 



1 MARCH/ APRIL 1993 



