ReefKeeper International has requested that the Caribbean Fishery Management Council adopt regulations to reduce the number of wire-mesh fish traps currently being used in federal waters as a prelude to their eventual phaseout, and impose regulations to protect essential fish habitat (EFH) from adverse effects of fish traps. The reduction in fishing effort is critical to maintaining sustainable fisheries.
U.S. Caribbean coral habitats off Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands support rich marine life communities, with up to 3000 fish species, 400 hard coral species and thousands of other invertebrate species. The biological diversity of these unique natural areas is rivaled only by that of tropical rain forests. This coral reef marine life is one of this nation's greatest natural treasures.
The sustainable economic potential of coral reefs from diver ecotourism and renewable fisheries production is tremendous. But scientists agree that the U.S. Caribbean's irreplaceable and invaluable coral reef biological resources are increasingly in peril of population collapse and stock depletion from catastrophic overfishing and habitat loss.
Virtually every targeted reef fish species in the U.S. Caribbean is confirmed or strongly suspected of being overfished. Fish trap yields are down to 1% of what they used to be half a century ago (de Graaf and Moore, 1987). Grouper and snapper spawning aggregations are decimated before the fish have a chance to reproduce.
Central to the U.S. Caribbean fisheries' depletion problem is the use of wire-mesh fish traps as primary gear. Originally, fish traps were made by hand from vines, which allowed sufficient escapement to keep fish populations replenished. However, since the late 1940's the traps have been constructed of small-mesh chicken wire that allows very little to escape, including juveniles or non-target tropicals. So, in less than 50 years, these fisheries have been almost obliterated. Algae-grazing parrotfish now dominate fish trap catches, and you almost never see a snapper -- even in Puerto Rico's La Parguera (Snapper Bay).
FACT: Trap Hauling Damages Habitat Habitat destruction by fish traps is well known and documented. Heavy grappling hooks are dragged across the live bottom to retrieve unbuoyed traps, damaging everything in their paths. This includes coral heads, soft corals, and sponges.
FACT: Fish Traps Remove Juveniles from the Fishery Research by the URI International Center for Marine Resources Development found that with traps constructed with the current allowed mesh size (2 inches), the mean weight per trapped fish in waters off of Puerto Rico was just 8.8 ounces (Stevenson and Stuart-Sharkey, 1980). Fish traps of the mesh size presently used in federal U.S. Caribbean waters catch fish averaging less than one pound, with half of all trapped fish actually being even smaller.
FACT: Fish Traps are Non-Selective Traps unnecessarily kill an abundance of tropical fish, which enter traps routinely. A recent report by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS, 1995) demonstrated that only about 35% of the fish caught in fish traps in the northern Gulf of Mexico were kept, with the remaining 65% being bycatch. This bycatch included many juvenile snappers and groupers.
Taylor and McMichael (1983), while monitoring fish traps in the Florida Keys, noted that 20 percent of the released fish were dead. Fish traps placed in this area contained a much higher proportion of tropical fishes and fewer target fish. Of the tropical fish found in fish traps, 17% were angelfish, 9% were trunkfish, 7% were surgeonfish, and 5% to 6% each were butterflyfish, parrotfish and wrasses (Taylor and McMichael, 1983).
In a parallel study conducted by the National Marine Fisheries Service, comparable results were obtained. In that study, one-hundred-and-four different reef fish species were found in the traps. Of the 5984 individual fish trapped, 38% were tropicals and other non-food species (Sutherland and Harper, 1983).
FACT: Current Regulations are Unenforceable Enforcing escape gap and mesh size regulations has proven unfeasible, because out-of-compliance fish traps can still be hidden out at sea with time-release buoys or no buoys at all. Compliance can't ever be verified, and the traps are never returned to the dock for inspection. Compounding the problem is a lack of resources, with the National Marine Fisheries Service only maintaining one enforcement officer for all of Puerto Rico.
For example, fish traps are required to have an escape gap panel tied closed with biodegradable twine, hemp, or jute. These materials will decompose within a short period of time if a trap is lost, allowing trapped fish to escape and avoid mortality. However, there are far too many reports of escape gap panels tied closed with wire that will not decompose and thus not allow fish to escape when the trap is lost.
FACT: Fish Traps are Banned from other U.S. Coral Reefs Recognizing the problems with fish traps, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council and Florida Marine Fisheries Commission have both banned the use of wire mesh fish traps. The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council has approved a phase-out of the use of this fishing gear. The only coral reefs left unprotected in the U.S. are in the Caribbean.
A reduction in the number of fish traps utilized will benefit the fishers. Many fishers report that the average catch in fish traps is now less than 5 pounds per trap, with the average fish weighing less than a pound (de Graaf and Moore, 1987). A decrease in fish traps, along with strong rebuilding plans for overfished species, will likely result in increases in the catch per trap and the reappearance of top predators such as snappers and groupers.
A reduction in traps can be accomplished by normal attrition. Traps periodically require repair or replacement. If these traps were removed from the fishery rather than being repaired or replaced, and no new traps were introduced, a decrease in the number of traps set would be realized.
In Florida, the lobster trap fishers are undergoing a voluntary reduction in the number of lobster traps in the fishery. Estimates in 1989 indicated that as many as one million lobster traps were being fished. However, the total landings had not changed since 1974, when only 200,000 traps were in use. Thus, each fisher was spending more money on traps, more effort to deploy and retrieve the traps, and not catching any more lobsters.
Regulations by the Florida Marine Fisheries Commission were enacted that limited the number of lobster traps each commercial harvester could fish and the total number of trap certificates issued. The total number of traps was cut in half by 1996, to about 582,000. The trap reduction program is ongoing until 2001. By decreasing the number of traps deployed, each trap is yielding more lobsters and the total catch for the fishery has not decreased.
Therefore, ReefKeeper has requested action by the U.S. Caribbean Fishery Management Council for reduction of fish trap numbers in the U.S. Caribbean as a prelude to their eventual phaseout, and for additional regulations to protect essential fish habitat from fish trap damage.
National Marine Fisheries Service. 1995. Characterization of the reef fish fishery of the eastern U.S. Gulf of Mexico. NMFS Memo. Rpt. prepared for the GMFMC. 42 pg.
Stevenson, D.K. and P. Stuart-Sharkey. 1980. Performance of wire fish traps on the west coast of Puerto Rico. Proceedings Gulf and Caribbean Fish. Inst. 32: 172-193.
Sutherland, D.L. and D.E. Harper. 1983. The wire fish trap fishery of Dade and Broward Counties. Fla. Mar. Res. Pub. No. 40.
Taylor, R.G. and R.H. McMichael Jr. 1983. The wire fish-trap fishery in Monroe and Collier Counties. Fla. Mar. Res. Pub. No. 39.