CONSERVATION

An Angler’s Responsibility By Tim Moore

To conserve something means to protect it from harm or destruction. As anglers, we sometimes place the burden of protecting fish species from overharvesting solely on the people paid to do so, the biologists. When a species declines, we blame the biologists. We bark about poor management strategies and call for policy changes, all the while continuously filling limits and killing the biggest fish we catch. While it isn’t just the anglers’ fault when the fishing declines, it isn’t just the biologists either. Fisheries managers often walk a tight rope between what the angling community wants and what is best for the species they are managing.

I’ve had conversations with other anglers about declining species and often heard statements such as, “Cycles are normal.” While it’s true that there is a population cycle with most species. Lots of factors can contribute to population decline. Aquatic invasive plants, such as milfoil, or aquatic invasive animals, such as fish (think rock bass) or mollusks (think zebra mussels.) One of the most common causes of decline though, is overharvest. Overharvesting is a perfect example of a predator-prey relationship on steroids. When prey numbers are high, predator numbers often follow, because there is more food for them. As predator numbers increase, prey numbers will decline due to the increased amount of predation. Well, in our case, anglers are the predators and the fish we target are the prey. An example I have witnessed is the white perch population on Lake Winnipesaukee. for me as an angler and fishing guide on Lake Winnipesaukee, where they grow larger than just about anywhere in the world. I fish for them regularly and have clients come from around the world just to catch them. My close interactions with white perch over more than 40-years afford me the opportunity to observe changes in their numbers and average size in areas that they frequent during different times of the winter. Over the past four decades I have observed clear cycles regarding size and numbers of white perch in Lake Winnipesaukee. This phenomenon is not a coincidence though. I have also noticed a correlation between angling pressure and the number of fish caught the following year.

When white perch numbers are good, especially during the late winter period when schools consist of higher numbers of fish, there is a noticeable increase in angling pressure. It’s not uncommon during a winter with very good catches of white perch to see a hundred or more anglers fishing in the same area, all vying for their chance at a 25-fish limit. It’s also not uncommon to see many of these anglers catching a limit every day for a week or more, sometimes in groups of four or five anglers, and often keeping the biggest fish they catch. I’m not sure how many white perch they think are in the lake, but one group of four anglers taking 100 fish every day is bound to have an impact on the fishery. I’m not saying it is wrong to keep a limit and I don’t write about this with impunity. Before I was spending nearly every day on the ice as a full-time guide, I was often one of the people taking home a limit of white perch whenever I could. A few years of seeing that it wasn’t just me and I started to change how many fish I keep.

Another example of fisheries managers managing a predator/prey relationship is Lake Winnipesaukee’s landlocked salmon. These fish are primarily a, put, grow, and take fishery. The primary forage for landlocked salmon in Lake Winnipesaukee is rainbow smelt. One factor that determines how many salmon are stocked each year are annual smelt surveys. New Hampshire fisheries managers try to ensure that they maintain a balance between the salmon and smelt. Overstock the salmon and they will eat too many smelt, causing declines or even a crash of the smelt population. As anglers, we don’t have the luxury of controlling the ratio between predators and prey in wild fish populations. Or do we?

Managing the quality and size of the fish in a fishery often falls largely into the hands of the anglers, who these days double as conservationists. Being an angler comes with the responsibility of being a good steward of the resources we exploit. My point is that just because it’s legal to keep a limit of fish every day, doesn’t mean everyone should. If you think your fishery is being overharvested, start helping by keeping fewer fish. Then call on your fisheries managers to look at the situation and determine if a bag limit change is warranted. I also realize that opinions vary toward fisheries management strategies, but by working together as anglers, and with fisheries managers, to protect the resources and only keeping what we need there will always be plenty to go around, and everybody wins.