New Jersey’s commercial fishermen are adapting to what fish they can catch as regulations increase and the ocean changes. The emphasis on regulations will lead to job loss in New Jersey’s $1 billion-per-year industry. Unfortunately, all that government attention has not translated into a better safety record; commercial fishing remains the most dangerous occupation.
Wark, who grew up in Ship Bottom and came from a family of bay clammers, has survived by finding fish where others could not, and finding them at the right time. But he has to use every skill he has learned to keep ahead of the growing number of government regulations. He and other fishermen have been barred from catching fish such as sturgeon and shad because of fish-management rules. He can no longer let his nets soak overnight, because they could affect bottlenose dolphins. He just took classes about how to avoid sea turtles.
Wark, 46, of Barnegat Light, began fishing in 1982 and bought his own boat in 1986. All he had to do back then was purchase a state net-fishing license. There were no federal permits nor any fishery management plans yet for bluefish, weakfish, monkfish, croaker, sturgeon, bunker, spiny dogfish sharks or any other species that could land in his net. He just went fishing and caught what he caught.
Now, almost every fish species has a management plan. He used to catch 100,000 pounds of weakfish per year, but now he is allowed only 100 pounds per day. He blames fishery management plans that allowed the ocean to grow too many spiny dogfish sharks and striped bass, which prey on baby weakfish.