Morning Star Fish Report

Fish Report 6/23/08

Summer Bass

Flat Ones

Artificial Reef Bashed

 

Hi All,

If you're the type that likes their sea bassing to include a nervous period when you need to count your fish; make sure you aren't over the 25 fish limit; then  maybe I'll see you in late fall.

Maybe.

If, however, you enjoy a light rail, nice weather, and a mess of cbass for dinner, then come see us!

Ain't red hot cbassin' but seems to be enjoyed by those aboard.

Couple flounder have been caught on purpose too. Just a start to what I hope will be another good year on flounder......

Were we in the wheelhouse having a conversation about the following subject, it wouldn't be wise to have young or tender ears about.

But I'm writing to a broad audience and will be nice.. Still, feel free to add-lib. 

So the _(silly) _(exclamatory)_ (indicating low IQ)_ at Newsweek print an article...

Nicer Capt.

OK.

An article in the 6/20 Newsweek digs up the old attraction vs. production debate on artificial reef.

Long since put to bed by science, there are some that can't keep the difference straight between a fish attracting device, FAD,  and an artificial reef, AR.

The FAD being self explanatory, I'll try to help with AR.

The seafloor's natural outcroppings of rock, scoured ancient rocky river bottoms, stones and boulders dropped by glaciers and bergs, all develop a stationary community of life such as hard and soft corals that we call 'reef'.

Artificial Reef simply mimics the rock. It's not hard to do.

Certain species of fish use these reefs to grow to maturity, feed, shelter and spawn. Other species, sharks for instance, only have one thing in mind when they find a reef.

All the life that lives or gets eaten there is natural.

The argument against AR --held tightly, and apparently solely, by Bohnsack for about 30 years-- is that AR simply robs the surrounding natural reefs of fish; concentrating them; making them more susceptible to fishing pressure.

Not inclined to much research, the author of the article asks "Do man-made reefs replenish ecosystems that have been decimated by pollution, overfishing and global warming? Or do they merely lure existing populations away from natural habitats, concentrating them in unnatural ways and making them more vulnerable to overfishing?" She is apparently quite happy with Bohnsack's reply.

Their historic abundance/present day decline well documented; I'll use the oyster reefs of the Chesapeake Bay in way of response.

Yes, man made reef can replenish natural reef destroyed by man.

And no, it is not at all unnatural for fish to look for and utilize a new area in search of better feeding, spawning, or shelter from predation. It's that survival of the fittest thing.

Should a lot of fish congregate rapidly, it's a good sign that all's not well on nearby natural reef.

Since there's less than 1 percent of the Chesapeake's oyster reef left, one might expect fairly rapid use by fish.

Perhaps Bohnsack's right; maybe we should immediately halt AR construction and wait a couple thousand years to see if oyster reefs might regrow.

I'd call that the Bohnsack Plan.

Our recently sited NYCTA subway car reef is mentioned in the article. A slight exaggeration; our 46 cars have multiplied to 600. And, I checked, they are not teeming with fish waiting to be unfairly extracted.

The time-line of 30 years is a very low estimate of the these reef units' reef life. Stainless steel; they will more likely still be functioning as artificial reef for 60 to 100 years. Since they will have become fully encrusted with hard coral before any significant deterioration; their use as reef will almost certainly span centuries as the natural corals will remain.

Wood should last, what, 5 years? Huge timbers 20?

I've filmed wooden artificial reef from the 60's; solid mass of coral...

There's a huge body of science that supports reef development. And then there's a gal at Newsweek that made a few bucks by interviewing the guy that's been trying for decades to bring it down.

Would that I had the time to develop my arguments more fully.

Simply: I say we take our chances and go with the oysters and coral. Fishery management will catch up.

Regards,

Monty

 

Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservation Line 410 520 2076
http://www.morningstarfishing.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fish Report 6/15/08

Slowing Bass

Putting Back

 

Hi All,

Had some nice days of fishing early in the week - worst of the heat. Decent sea bass; numbers not too unlike last week's.

And then.. Struggle.

Working for every fish, an average of 5 or 6 per person was all we could do.

They turned back on Saturday afternoon, a nice mid-May kind of bite amidst the smoke from the VA/NC brush fires.

Stinking, eye burning fog; had to use radar because of a fire almost 200 miles away..

When the smoke cleared Sunday the bite was slow again.

Some customers are putting together decent catches - into the teens. Not everyone. Pool winners are north of 3 pounds, some pushing 4 1/2.

It's summer; there will be times like these.

Ready for those flat-bass to invade our reefs again...

A customer spotted the thrashing water - Whale! Clearly visible, it's tail was waving about like a palm tree in a hurricane. As we were in about 30 feet of water, it had to have been scratching it's nose on the bottom.

From that behavior I 'knew' it was a humpback. Then there was a breach - a second whale jumped almost completely out of the water. Slam-dunk humpback sighting.

Motoring slowly toward the activity, I was confounded when we discovered a pair of right whales. Mother/calf pair at that. It was the calf that was breaching.

The young whale, maybe a few weeks old, is one of about 350 right whales left in the world.

Think we have a hard time restoring fish?

Also saw a jaeger. I think. If you have a keen interest in seabirds - email.

Couple months ago I suggested hybridizing flounder with Greenland halibut; cross-breeding the monster cold water flattie with it's more temperate cousin, summer flounder.

I was just joking. Really. 

So I was very surprised to read in the American Fisheries Society Journal (Volume 33, #4, April '08, J. Briggs, P. 180) that the North Atlantic lacks species diversity; that introducing lots of new species is a great idea since we've pummeled our existing ones. That diversifying effort within the fisheries through new, introduced species lessens the chance that there will be continued overfishing.

Outstanding credentials; guy's dead serious.

Might find some opposition to the idea though. There's been efforts to rid Assateauge of it's ponies and sika deer - invasive species. The debate is still on over asian oysters. Our tog bait, green crab, could become illegal in a wink.

But if new fish are a good idea, lets start with California Halibut. Temperature ranges look compatible. Folks over there seem to enjoy catching them. Probably pretty tasty.

Not bothering with all the genetics of creating a hybrid, Paralichthys californicus simply becomes Paralichthys marylandicus.

Some of their 'rockfish' might play too. Long lived and so many species; there's bound to be some that would take to our right coast's waters.

Don't know why we'd limit the choices to fish from the northern Pacific though: Australia has some awesome fish.

Send our biodiversity right through the roof.

When we learn to use philopatry --the study of habitat fidelity; as in salmon returning to the stream they were spawned in-- as an important tool for managers we'll be a lot closer.

In the late 80's the coast-wide seatrout restoration plan was set in motion. It has yet to bear fruit. There needs to be a Delaware Bay, Long Island Sound and a Chesapeake plan... Because each population of trout has a different spawning ground, it's likely we could even have one for our little inlet and set of estuaries. Lopsided fishing pressure and natural mortality, especially where fish congregate in winter, could be better controlled if we understood more.

Prey management: All those high priority dogfish and flounder have to eat. If we are to build flounder stocks to infinity, might as well add a halibut into the mix. Maybe they'd eat flounder like stripers eat small trout. Better to have lots of sand eels, rock crab, squid and menhaden.

Habitat management and restoration are crucial to recovering lost fisheries too. I'm thinking the folks in charge of squirrels might check to see if there's any trees about. Where's the coral? Where are the tube worm colonies. Far more importantly: Where were they.. What thrived there..

Nope, it won't be as simple as land-based hatcheries cranking out 'fish of the month' stocks for our put and take pleasure.

Putting Back - that's how an old waterman termed it.

There's a huge body of science building; a tipping point approaches. 

For now, we've more work to do.

Regards,

Monty

 

Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservation Line 410 520 2076
http://www.morningstarfishing.com/

 

 

Fish Report 6/8/08

More Cbass

Firsts

Little Guys

 

Hi All,

Sea bass are as 'here' as they are going to get. Some days are mighty fine, even a few limits this week. Other days - eh, scratch up a mess for a dinner or two.

Overall, averaging 12 to 15 keepers per person.

It's fishing..

It really is. There's no magic; just bait, equipment and a few folks that want to go...

Bunch of firsts this week. On Saturday I saw the first 70 degree water of the year. I'd swear it was still 59 last week.

Moving in front of that warm water was a push of sooty shearwaters; their tip of South America to Canada migration well underway. Didn't stick around either, haven't seen them in a few days.

Another first for the year was the appearance of Loggerhead sea turtles. Just 3 thus far - live ones that is. Couple dead ones too. Bycatch? Didn't see any sign of propeller strike.

And a first I couldn't resist: The brand new Susan Power Reef at the Jackspot... Only 18 days old.. George caught the first sea bass on it out of not quite a dozen around the rail. One was a keeper.

But several of the throwbacks were male.

I do hope that the fisheries folks that read this report will look into management's (via fishing pressure) effect on what size sea bass are when they become male. Hermaphrodites - though they are all born female, some become male.

We are seeing a LOT of sub-legal male bass. Last time I saw that we rode a wave of better and better fishing for years. That was also during a low in trawl effort due to summer flounder regulations with a corresponding increase in seafloor habitat; but looking out 2 to 3 years, there's hope that the cbass will do it again.

Question is - how to use it in management? Can it be a tool or is it just an indicator.

I think the answer is indicator. The 'tool' should be zonal management; that fishing mortality should be controlled by sub-stock.

Sub-stock? For instance, when I was tagging bass ('bout 5,000 of 'em before the feds did their 16,000 {any time you want to publish that data fellas}) the returns showed a strong habitat fidelity. Tagged sea bass would overwinter 50 to 80 miles SE and return the next summer to the exact wreck where they'd been tagged in the first place.

It surprised me, though in hindsight it shouldn't have.  

Is it 'natal' fidelity? Is this where they were spawned, and --like the salmon-- are returning to spawn themselves?

Maybe some clever work with chemical analysis of the otolith ('ear' bone) can reveal that information. This type of work, which would make the CSI gang blush, was done first with sea trout in North Carolina. The chemical signatures of the earliest days of life showed they have natal fidelity not unlike salmon - that they return where they were born to spawn.

As the salmons are managed by their river of origin, or several rivers together --sub-stocks-- so too could sea bass be managed by their summer spawning grounds. Certainly not down to a very fine resolution, but within some large marine area. 

Point is, heavy overwinter fishing pressure can cause huge swings in our region's cbass population as was the case in the winter of '03-'04. The spike in January & February trawl landings of sea bass in our stock's overwinter ground left the seasonal recreational and traditional trap fishers with a huge decrease in landings.

Management that controlled effort within zones would have closed those overwinter grounds before it became a problem.

All those small males? When the stock was at it's peak in the summer of '03 the smallest males were +- 15 inches. We had one this week that was 7 1/2 inches.

The size of the males is a definitive sign of too much fishing pressure.

I hold hope that in the next few years we'll see greater numbers of small bass and a return to 'spoil 'em rotten' fishing - the double headers on bare hooks sort.

I know for a fact that there are some small males colonizing that brand new artificial reef.

It's just natural to them.

See you on the rail.

Regards,

Monty

 

Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservation Line 410 520 2076
http://www.morningstarfishing.com/