Green Fishing

Contrary to what some people believe, many recreational fishermen are on the front line of the conservationist movement.

Recreational fishing is an economically valuable and socially relevant use of our fishery. Fishermen care about the resource because we use it more than most people and have seen first hand what negligence and abuse can do to degrade and destroy it.

My introduction to saltwater fishing occurred in New York’s waterways during the early 1970’s. Centuries and decades of abuse put the fishery on the brink of disaster.

On party boats, it was common to see fishermen throw empty beer cans and used Styrofoam cups into the water.

Globs of oil and medical waste washed up on our shores on a fairly common basis. PCB contamination and brown algae blooms nearly decimated the dwindling striped bass population.

The topper for me was when exploring the harbor beach near the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge on the Staten Island side, my friends and I discovered the body of a discarded adult horse bobbing in the surf.

This is the same New York Harbor that just two centuries earlier was paved with oysters and an abundance of various fish and marine life. Nowadays, not even a “Fear Factor” contestant would eat an oyster out of New York Harbor.

There haven't been any oyster beds in the harbor since 1927, when city health officials closed the last one, off Staten Island, to prevent the spread of typhoid. Biologists had proved that the cause of the city's chronic epidemics was not immigrants, but rather 300 years of dumping raw sewage into New York Harbor.

Cigarettes are a pet peeve of mine. Cigarette butts as pollution fly under the radar in the eyes of most people. Can you think of a more disgusting pollutant than a tar and nicotine nugget that is in smoker’s nasty mouth and then thrown into the gutter to be washed into our waterways by the millions?

Recent reports of medical waste washing up on the Jersey Shore suggest that perhaps the lessons have been forgotten.

Here are a few ideas for environmentally conscious fishermen to keep ocean conservation on the front burner:

1. Discuss the importance of conservation with other fishermen, especially young ones. Many new fishermen don’t know the history and we simply can’t afford to let it be repeated.

2. Value and respect the aquatic environment and all living things in it. Even nuisance fish like sea robins and dogfish serve a purpose. Don’t kill what you don’t eat.

3. Never dump pollutants such as gasoline and oil into the aquatic environment. Even a little bit goes a long way in destroying the environment.

4. Dispose all trash, including used line, leaders, and hooks, in appropriate containers, and helps to keep fishing sites litter-free. Take it a step further and leave it a little better than you found it. Maybe it will become trendy!

5. Learn and obey size and seasonal regulations. Be vigilant in reminding others that we share this resource and cheating hurts all of us.

6. Keep no more fish than needed for consumption and never wastefully discard fish that are kept. Early in the season, many people kill more bluefish than they will ever eat, resulting in fish being thrown out dockside.

7. Practices conservation by carefully handling and releasing alive all fish that are unwanted or prohibited by regulation. Using circle hooks that are easier to remove and replacing treble hooks on lures with single hooks help in reducing mortality rates of fish being returned to the water.

These small steps help insure that we leave the ocean in good shape for future generations of fishermen. Every little bit helps.