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Control of Fishing Intensity in Maryland
Author(s) -
Hammer Ralph C.,
Truitt R. V.
Publication year - 1942
Publication title -
transactions of the american fisheries society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1548-8659
pISSN - 0002-8487
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8659(1941)71[144:cofiim]2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - fishery , fishing , overfishing , wildlife , population , brood , marine reserve , geography , environmental science , ecology , biology , demography , sociology
The production of the shad fishery of the Chesapeake Bay has fallen in recent years to approximately one‐seventh of its former level. Artificial propagation has not stemmed depletion. Hydrographic, pollution, biological, and statistical studies have eliminated the various causes held by the fishermen to be responsible for this decline except for a single item—overfishing, with the consequent excessive drain on the broad reserve. Researches of the Fish and Wildlife Service of the U. S. Department of the Interior and of the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory indicate that not more than 60 per cent of the spawners should be taken by the fishery (regardless of year class) if an ample brood stock is to be maintained. However, a further reduction of fishing intensity may be necessary in the Chesapeake Bay to rehabilitate the present brood reserve. Actually the annual catch of shad is far in excess of the 60‐per‐cent level. Tagging records and scale studies show the catch to be approximately 90 per cent of the entire population. In an attempt to reduce the fishing intensity legislation recently was enacted in Maryland. The new legislation gives to the Department of Tidewater Fisheries the power to refuse all applications for licenses from those persons who did not hold permits to fish during 1940 and 1941. Furthermore, the operators are required to make available to the fishery investigators periodic, accurate reports on season, locality, type of gear, and amount (weight) of the catches. These data are of extreme importance in the determination of the brood reserve and consequent control of the extent of capture. Biologists are now engaged in the formulation of plans for the systematic collection of biological data (length and weight frequencies and age determinations) with which to supplement data obtained from fishermen. It is expected that the analysis of the data accruing from all sources will provide a body of information from which it will be possible to determine the relative effects of the different types of gears on the fisheries and, in turn, to determine the extent to which the use of these gears should be restricted in order to keep within the biological needs for brood stock. Plans for the ultimate reduction in fishing effort calls first for the stabilization of the effort at the present level. It is expected that little sacrifice will be required of the present operators, who will, in fact, be the first to profit from a restoration of the stock. No new licenses will be issued until the supply of shad justifies such action.