pressure and poor recruitment; they no longer inhabit the bay. The area 
remains a fishing center, but fishing is not the primary water-dependent 
industry. Two counties in the Tampa Bay region --Pinellas and 
Hillsborough-- ranked 2nd and 6th, respectively, in value of Florida 
landings in 1976 (Mathis et al., 1979), confirming the importance of the 
industry even to the present. The 1986 dockside value of the fishery to 
the region is presented in Table 2 as estimates; the prices used to 
calculate the values are based on statewide averages and do not reflect 
local variations. 
Table 2. 1986 fisheries landing for the Tampa Bay region including the 
number of trips made by the fishermen, pounds landed, and value 
of the fishery at dockside (Kennedy, pers. comm.). 
Countv Landed 
Trios 
Pounds 
Dockside Value $ 
Pinellas 
32,549 
10,658,222 
$14,275,594 
Hillsborough 
8,463 
8,662,909 
5,293,494 
Manatee 
28,412 
15,395,044 
4,938,522 
Sarasota 
5.799 
659,400 
356.228 
TOTAL: 
75,223 
35,375,575 
$24,863,838 
Commercial 
landings have traditionally been used 
to monitor trends 
in the fishing industry and economic value. Commercial landings data 
have historically been collected by the National Marine Fisheries Service 
(NMFS) and were originally designed to monitor the value of the fishery 
on a national scale. Landings data have little additional validity other 
than to observe possible trends in the fishery. NMFS landings data 
cannot provide the number of man-hours to catch a fish (catch per unit 
effort), the recreational catch, or where the fish were caught. These 
put severe limitations on the interpretation of the data, i.e., whether a 
decline is due to fewer fish, fewer fishermen, low dockside prices, or 
inclement weather. 
Enhanced approaches to fisheries management have been instituted 
at the state level which will have a positive impact on fisheries 
management in Tampa Bay. The 1983 Florida Legislature created the Marine 
Fisheries Information System to gather the types of fisheries data 
necessary for management and research. FDNR expanded the NMFS commercial 
landing data collection to create a marine fisheries trip ticket. 
Florida law requires that anyone wishing to sell their catch of saltwater 
products must have a valid Saltwater Product License and that licensed 
wholesale seafood dealers must maintain records of each sale on a coded 
trip ticket. The data collected are both mandatory and voluntary. The 
mandatory information includes time fished, county landed, species sold, 
and number of pounds of each species caught. The voluntary information 
requested includes area fished, depth where caught, number of traps 
119 
