Strategic Assessment of Florida's Environment (SAFE)

Annual Weight of Commercial Marine Fisheries Landings

Explanation of Indicator


Commercial and recreational marine fishing in Florida, in combination with coastal and offshore pollution, may have a profound impact on the resources of Florida's waters. It is critical that the status of Florida's marine fisheries be examined on a regular basis. To this end, the State of Florida has required that all sales of seafood products from waters of Florida must be reported to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection by sales transaction on a monthly basis.

This indicator may be a reflection of the public's demand and preference for specific types of seafood. However, landing trends may also record man's pressure on coastal resources. For the purpose of this indicator, data is combined into three groups: finfish; invertebrates, excluding shrimp; and shrimp.

Data also concentrates on certain key species important to Florida's fishing industry, including bluefish, blue crab, stone crab, spiny lobster, king mackerel, Spanish mackerel, black mullet, reef fish, spotted seatrout, shark, and shrimp. All of these species or species groups are important members of marine food webs, either as apex predators like the shark, or as scavengers and prey like the blue crab. Some species, like the blue crab and spotted seatrout, inhabit nearshore grass flats and estuarine areas, whereas reef fish and lobsters are found mainly on offshore reefs. King and Spanish mackerel are near shore pelagic (ocean going) species, while sharks are found from inshore areas to the open ocean. Bluefish are a pelagic species that come into beach areas to feed. Many of the species listed here are important to the commercial fishing industry, except for bluefish and spotted seatrout which are very important species recreationally, but less so commercially.

Source


The Fisheries Statistics Section of the Florida Marine Research Institute collects and analyzes this information. Landings data is stored in the Agency's Marine Fisheries Information System and is available at 100 8th Avenue, S.E., St. Petersburg, Florida 33701-5095, or at (813) 896-8626 or SC 523-1011.

Data Characteristics


Commercial landings data are computerized from trip ticket information submitted by Florida wholesale and retail dealers to the Department and are compiled into annual reports providing summaries for each species by coast, county, and month. Florida's Marine Fisheries Trip Ticket program is funded primarily through license fees paid by commercial fishermen.

Overall Assessment


Good information exists on commercial landings. This indicator reflects the best available information on most commercially important fish species and possibly the pressure commercial fishing is placing on the resource. This indicator includes only commercial landings. However, recreational fisheries also have a substantial impact on Florida's marine resources. Recreational fisheries data is collected by a survey conducted by the National Marine Fisheries Service in Washington, D.C. It is reported in an annual report, Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey, Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. The survey is regionwide and provides estimates for Florida's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. The accuracy and precision of recreational fishery data is a matter of considerable debate among fisheries groups and resource managers. The Department is interested in developing a pilot survey to estimate recreational landings in Florida's marine waters. The pilot survey's goals will be to enhance the existing national survey by providing estimates of (or for) marine recreational fishing for bays and estuaries along Florida's coasts.

Analysis of Indicator


Based on the five years of record from 1986 to 1990, there appears to be no clear trends for any of the three groups of commercial marine fisheries landings in Florida. This does not preclude the possibility of trends being present for any of the given species reported in the Department's annual landings summaries.

              Commercial Marine Fisheries Landings
                         (in thousands)
          Year        Finfish    Invertebrat    Shrimp
                                     es
          1986        121,624      25,585       28,244
          1987        124,403      45,409       25,575
          1988        118,200      42,004       22,473
          1989        138,672      35,884       25,202
          1990        127,508      30,931       23,106
          1991        113,115      26,590       19,014
          1992        112,958      32,216       21,503



              Commercial Marine Fisheries Landings

The data on pounds caught per trip can be deceptive. For example, data on pounds of shark species caught per trip shows an increase continuing past 1990, when actually the pounds of shark caught has decreased. The data shows an overall declining trend for all species except bluefish, blue crab, and shark. As stated in the "Explanation", bluefish is primarily a recreationally important species with commercial landings accounting for approximately half the annual total. The data for blue crab shows fluctuations in commercial landings, but no apparent trends. Sharks have exhibited a drastic increase in landings through 1990 due to increased marketing efforts, acceptance of shark meat by consumers, and to a greater degree, the high prices offered by the Asian market for dried shark fins. Although not reflected in the data, there have been lower harvest levels reported since 1990, probably due to the potential for over- exploitation of the shark fishery, as well as state and federal regulations implemented to protect sharks.

Species that have shown decline include spiny lobster, king and Spanish mackerel, black mullet, and spotted seatrout. The lower landings in later years for spiny lobster are probably indicative of the normal harvest levels, while the earlier higher landings were the result of a boom period that cycles back every four or five years. In 1992 a trap certificate program was implemented which will gradually eliminate an excess of lobster traps, while increasing profits to fishermen. The reduced landings for king mackerel are the result of landing limits imposed on the fishery in the fall of 1989. Spanish mackerel fisheries have also been restricted by landing limits, but the decline is also attributable to the fact that few dealers account for the majority of landings at the height of the season. A decreasing trend in black mullet landings was observed from 1990 to 1992, due in part to new regulations on the harvest of mullet. Also in 1989, entry of fishermen into the mullet fishery was limited. Spotted seatrout has historically accounted for a small portion of the total landings in Florida (27% in 1992), but decreases in landings have occurred since November, 1989 when limits were placed on the fishery.

              Key Species Caught Per Trip (Pounds)
  Species    1986   1987   1988   1989   1990   1991   1992
Bluefish       115    142    141    106     93    120     89
Blue Crab      343    433    329    279    292    244    319
(Hard)
Spiny          171    167    198    194    148    155    143
Lobster
King           302    236    374    229    235    154    190
Mackerel
Spanish        486    404    427    527    272    352    340
Mackerel
Black          394    393    376    400    365    354    335
Mullet
Spotted         32     34     35     31     26     30     29
Seatrout
Shark          332    456    550    699    672    693    752



        Total Pounds of Key Species Caught (in thousands)
  Species    1986   1987   1988   1989   1990   1991   1992*
Bluefish     1,623  1,993  2,024  1,511  1,464  1,860  1,407
BlueCrab    11,238 18,406 15,257 12,974 14,096  9,961 15,027
(Hard)
Spiny        5,029  6,092  6,799  7,814  5,997  7,023  5,337
Lobster
King         4,128  3,115  3,011  2,054  2,794  2,035  2,541
Mackerel
Spanish      6,329  6,162  5,209  5,845  4,364  6,248  5,625
Mackerel
Blk. Mullet 22,787 23,005 23,623 26,895 26,014 22,190 20,614
Spotted      1,568  1,665  1,679  1,364  1,005  1,052    923
Seatrout
Shark        2,628  4,817  5,518  6,991  7,288  6,293  5,769
* These are preliminary numbers that will be revised when
all the
1992 data is compiled.


              Pounds of Key Species Caught Per Trip



     









               Total Pounds of Key Species Caught