Photo by Brian Kelly
A Snapshot Of U.S. Fisheries
NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency tasked with managing the nation’s marine fisheries, recently released its annual Fisheries of the United States Report for 2014. It is a yearbook of fisheries statistics for the U.S. and provides a snapshot of data for the commercial and recreational sectors.
Not surprisingly, this more than 150-page document made up mostly of charts and tables is a little much for the average angler to digest. However, there are some interesting tidbits about our marine fisheries that can be drawn from it. It highlights the importance of fishing to our nation.
In 2014, 10.4 million recreational anglers took 68 million fishing trips nationwide and caught 392 million fish. That’s a lot of fishing and a lot of fish, but the most striking statistic about recreational anglers is they released 60 percent of the fish they caught in 2014.
The total recreational harvest was estimated at 155 million fish weighing 186 million pounds. That’s an average of 1.2 pounds per fish; not many anglers would admit to that. For comparison, U.S. commercial fishermen landed 9.5 billion pounds of seafood in 2014.
The Atlantic Coast accounted for nearly 57 percent of the trips taken and 55 percent of the total catch. The Gulf of Mexico was the second most popular fishery, with 32 percent of the trips and 39 percent of the catch. Apparently fishing is not that popular on the Pacific Coast. The Pacific accounted for just 8 percent of the trips and 4 percent of the catch.
Another interesting statistic tells of the popularity of inshore fishing and a tendency for recreational anglers to stay closer to shore. Most of the fish caught by recreational anglers, 56 percent, were caught from inland fisheries nationwide. State waters accounted for almost 34 percent of the fish caught. The remaining 10 percent came from federal waters.
By pounds landed, the top five U.S. species in 2014 were striped bass, bluefish, yellowfin tuna, mahi mahi and summer flounder.
To view the report, go to http://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/.