John McMurray's Story
Fishing guide John McMurray, a former Coast Guard serviceman, gets rave reviews for his charter fly-fishing trips in New York City's Jamaica Bay. But John has noticed that he's pulling in fewer and smaller striped bass these days. "The number of striped bass over 20 pounds is down quite a bit on my boats," he says.
It's hard to catch a big fish with a fly rod, so John and his peers are the first to notice when the big fish stop biting. Big fish are the breeders that sustain a population, and when too many of them are hauled up too fast, fish populations can crash. That spells trouble for anglers and commercial fishermen alike.
Preserving the Fishing Life
The big fish can't keep biting if they're being hauled in faster than they can reproduce. In fishing grounds around the country, fish populations have plummeted after years of habitat destruction and pressure from overfishing. NRDC and conservation-minded fishermen like McMurray are working to build support in government and among fishermen for fishing quotas based on science, not politics, and to avoid destructive practices such as overfishing and bottom trawling, which razes the ocean floor. NRDC is also helping to create guidelines for ecosystem-based management of our ocean resources, helping managers make collaborative, big-picture decisions to support healthy, diverse ecosystems rather than approaching issues one species at a time.
Resources for Fishermen:
State of our Seas: Does Size Matter?
Tips: Sustainable Fishing Techniques for Anglers
Guide: Fishing Advisories by State
More ocean Issues and Solutions
