The picture is a colorized black and white photograph, circa 1929, that depicts a number of anglers and their Florida catch. It is an amazing photograph and quite interesting to study. The old cars in the background and the old fishing boats tell a tale of what transportation was like both on and off the water.
I really was pleased to get a copy of the photo, but the more I looked at it, the more disturbed I became. The picture is at the right and though it is small even on the blow up icon, you can see the fish hanging from nails on the pier. Catch and release was the last thing on the minds of these dudes!
Those are tarpon for those of you who can’t tell – over thirty dead and hanging tarpon that obviously were pitched after the photo session. It really tells a tale of how far we have come in putting sensible limits and restrictions on fish. To keep a tarpon in Florida today, a tarpon tag is required. It is a 99% catch and release fishery. Finally!
I remember my father cutting the line on a number of huge tarpon that would easily have topped 150 pounds or more. To him they were a nuisance and only served to interrupt his fishing for “good” fish. Pop was a meat fisherman looking to put food on the table. Catch and release sport fishing was something he simply could not understand. When I wanted to fight the big tarpon, he was pulling out his knife and cutting my line.
I have caught more than my share of tarpon over the years. I released all of them, sans one big scale from their sides.
I can remember other scenes like this that I personally witnessed while growing up in Key West. We lived a block from the harbor at Garrison Bite, where charter boats brought their catch to the dock and hung them on nails very similar to the tarpon in the picture. Once all the tourists finished having their pictures made with the fish, the captain and mates cleaned what were considered edible fish, and chunked the others into the water beneath the dock.
There were always far more “other” fish, and I watched almost daily as numbers of amberjack, barracuda and sharks went to the bottom. I guess they just figured – as a lot of us did – that the resource would never run out.
Today, captains and guides are smarter. They realize that the resource they catch today could be gone tomorrow if they don’t practice proper management of that resource. That’s a good thing, as someone famous like to say.
All the hoopla surrounding marine protection areas (MPAs) and no fish zones brings all of this into perspective. Maybe we don’t think we need those MPAs, certainly not in our own back yard. On the other hand, maybe the anglers who would have pictures like this made in today’s world are the reason we need them.
One thing is sure. Proper management of the resource will bring the resource back. We have proven that in Florida with redfish and Goliath grouper (jewfish). Fifteen years ago, you had to fish long and hard to find even one red. Jewfish were so scarce in most locations we thought they might be gone for good.
But, today, the reds are back in full force, so much so that talk is surfacing around increasing the daily recreational take from one to three fish per person. And jewfish can be caught as easily today as they were twenty or thirty years ago.
Catch and release works. Proper management works. It’s up to us to insure we don’t have any present day photographs that resemble these poor tarpon. The future fisheries are in our hands – literally!
