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Article Excerpt
Introduction
South Florida's lampara net fishery has been a small but valuable bait fishery targeting halfbeaks (Hemiramphidae) for more than a half century (McBride, 2001). The two primary target species, ballyhoo, Hemiramphus brasiliensis, and balao, H. balao, are short-lived, fast-growing pelagic species (Berkely and Houde, 1978; McBride and Thurman, 2003). Little attention has been paid to the overall catch composition of this fishery, although Berkeley et al. (1975) and McBride et al. (1996) reported that only needlefishes (Belonidae) and flying-fishes (Exocoetidae) consistently occur with halfbeaks in these catches.
There are three reasons to examine the species composition, catch rates, and size structure of fishes captured in the south Florida lampara net fishery. First, the effect on catch composition, resulting from the recent geographic expansion of this fishery, has not been examined. In the early 1990's this fishery expanded from the Atlantic Ocean into Florida Bay (Fig. 1; McBride, 2001), and it seemed likely that catches from lagoon and bank habitats of Florida Bay would differ in some manner from catches from the historical fishing areas, which are Atlantic Ocean reef habitats. Second, markets for and landings of flyingfishes appear to be expanding, and this part of the fishery should be examined. Although a flying-fish fishery is mostly of local interest, it shows that fishery markets continue to develop in the southeastern United States. Last, bycatch in any fishery represents waste that should be described, monitored, and managed carefully (Alverson and Hughes, 1996; Schmitten, 1998; Boreman, 1998).
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Because the term bycatch has been used in several ways, it deserves clarification here. Hall (1996) categorized all animals captured by fishing gear in one of three ways: catch, bycatch, or released.
Catch consists of target and nontarget species that are kept onboard to be sold later. Unsold catch, rejects, or processing waste are treated as separate categories of catch by Hall (1996). Bycatch comprises target and nontarget fishes that are discarded as dead (or likely to die) at sea because they have little or no economic value or keeping them is not legal. In contrast to bycatch, released fish are those returned to the sea that can be expected to survive. Fish that are not captured, yet die because of fishing operations, are not categorized as bycatch by Hall (1996) but as collateral mortalities. The above terminology is used in interpreting the results of this study.
This study describes the complete species composition of the south Florida lampara net fishery. We examined the landings data reported by this fishery since 1986, although these data were limited because fish sizes, bycatch, and released species did not have to be reported. To overcome this limitation in the reported data, a biologist collected data while onboard commercial fishing vessels, during normal fishing operations in the years 1995-99, as part of a cooperative program with the lampara net fishing industry.
Materials and Methods
Since 1986, transactions between a harvester and a wholesale dealer for marine organisms landed within Florida have been required by law to be reported to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The processed data concerning these transactions are maintained in the Florida Marine Fisheries Information System (MFIS).
Halfbeak landings (i.e. undifferentiated hemiramphids) in pounds, determined from Florida's MFIS data, were summarized previously (McBride et al., 1996; McBride, 2001), but herein these landings are reported as the number of individuals harvested. Landings for the south Florida lampara net fishery were typically reported "by the piece" (i.e. individual fish). Bulk weights of halfbeaks were reported separately (Table 1), and we converted these bulk values to numbers by using an average of 5.7143 halfbeaks/lb (12.572 halfbeaks/kg, from McBride, 2001). This is a conservative estimate of the number of halfbeaks sold in bulk, because halfbeaks that are reported by weight are generally small or damaged fish.
Bulk weights of flyingfishes were also kept separate from the numbers of flyingfishes landed, but these weights were not converted to numbers of fish. Flyingfishes sold by the piece were not identified to species, but they are typically one of two genera, Exocoetus or Cypselurus. Flyingfishes sold by weight were generally a different and smaller species, (sailfin flyingfish, Parexocoetus brachypterus), or damaged Exocoetus/ Cypselurus.
A variety of needlefish species (Belonidae) were captured, with...
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