We presume that "the unique characteristics of the billfish fishery" include the one about the participants being very rich guys with very expensive boats who know how to push the right buttons in Washington, and that their "conservation ethic" includes the completely false assumption that every released fish will in fact survive. However, the idea of providing multiple recreational opportunities without adversely impacting the stocks - apparently a thick tongued way of restating the catch and release mantra of "live to fight another day" - is as off-target with Atlantic billfish as it is with striped bass and summer flounder.

In a recent review of the literature (currently in press), fisheries scientist Jean Cramer reports post release mortality of recreationally caught white marlin determined by Virginia Institute of Marine Science researchers John Graves and Andrij Horodysky of up to 35% (with a 95% confidence interval of 15% to 59%), which, NMFS's and those guys' with the real expensive boats pronouncements to the contrary, one would be hard pressed to consider as "not impacting the stock." In fact, Dr. Cramer's analysis reveals that "if post release mortality… is 35% or more then the removals of white marlin by the U.S. recreational fishery are, on the average, greater than the total catch of white marlin by the U.S. longline fishery." The U.S. longline fishery, we must mention here, has long been considered - at least by the self-styled recreational fishing "conservationists" and their allies in Congress - the biggest threat to white marlin stocks. In fact there are currently proposals to amend the Magnuson Act to close longliners out of even larger areas of the Atlantic.

Of course, there are no complimentary plans to restrict recreational fishing for white marlin in these areas or anywhere else, "catch and release" and the anglers' built-in conservation ethic supposedly being all that is required. So we have the longline fleet, composed of less than a hundred boats, which has already accepted significant restrictions for conservation including large closed areas, still being blamed for the plight of the white marlin fishery while the unlimited number of recreational anglers, who have done just about nothing to conserve these fish up until now - beyond proclaiming themselves conservationists and shifting the blame to the longliners - are expected to continue doing nothing. And this in spite of National Standards stating that "conservation and management measures shall prevent overfishing, shall be based upon the best scientific information available, and shall be fair and equitable to all fishermen." Unfortunately, there has yet to be any commitment from NMFS to impose the National Standards on the recreational fisheries, in spite of inarguable evidence that those fisheries, with their completely uncontrolled mortality, can and do have greater negative impacts on fish populations than commercial harvesting. Isn't it time that the federal fisheries management establishment recognize and control all forms of fishing mortality, whether recreational or commercial?

Please utilize, print or redistribute this material as you see fit. All we ask is that you give credit to the Fisheries Research Institute.