December 14, 2018 โ Flipping through his captainโs log, Larry Colangelo looks at the water temperatures off Atlantic Cityโs coast this past summer. Unusually warm 70- and 80-degree days are jotted down inside the record-keeping book heโs had for nearly two decades.
For $800 a day, he takes tourists and professional anglers alike onto his 31-foot ship. But in recent years, he said, certain fish have become more challenging to catch and keep.
Climate change and outdated regulations are partially to blame, researchers say, and itโs affecting some local fishermen in drastic ways.
โI only know what I see, and what I see is that the water definitely seems to be warmerโฆ We have to work a little harder now,โ said Colangelo, who owns a charter boat docked at Kammermanโs Marina in Atlantic City.
A November report in the ICES Journal of Marine Science looked at how fishermen are reacting to the migration of fish north as the oceanโs temperature gradually increases. It reports dramatic shifts in the distances large, commercial Atlantic Coast fishing operations have been traveling over the past 20 years.
But for some commercial fishers in South Jersey, itโs been business as usual.
Dotted with outdoor seafood restaurants, Cape Mayโs commercial fishing industry brought in $85 million in 2016. The city boasts one of the largest local fishing markets in the country.
Jeff Reichle, president of Lunds Fisheries in Cape May, said his 19-boat fleet has been buying permits off North Carolina and Virginia for decades.
In recent years, he said heโs noticed more summer flounder and sea bass near Connecticut and Massachusetts, but said his boats continue to travel along the entire coast both to maximize the number of fish caught and due to higher quotas in Virginia and North Carolina.
โYou follow the fish where they go,โ Reichle said. โThis is why boats float and have propellers.โ
Read the full story at the Press of Atlantic City