The controversial issue of fish traps is one that just won’t go away. Even after they have been completely banned, they continue to strike fear into a broad range of recreational, charter, and commercial fishermen, along with environmental groups, Sanctuary proponents, and the general public. One would think from the uproar, that it if fish traps are legalized again, it will be the death of the marine environment as we know it.
It seems that a little perspective is in order. As far back as I can remember, fishermen have always used a few fish traps, though primarily to catch bait. The modern commercial usage started in the 70’s when several fishermen used their experience in Cuba, to start a small trap fishery in the Keys. As a boy, I had seen a few extremely large fish traps on Cuban boats that were fishing at Dry Tortugas. The traps were made entirely of mangrove branches, and the first ones used by the Key West fishermen were of the same construction.
The efficiency of fish traps was immediately apparent, and very quickly the traps were being mass produced out of chicken wire, over a re-bar frame. At first, the catches in the Keys were very heavy, particularly with species like Black Grouper that lived in the rocks, and were hard to land any other way. When fishermen started working their traps in the Bahamas, the catches became truly spectacular. It was not uncommon for a boat working the nearby Cay Sal bank to return from a 5 day trip with 20,000 lbs of Black and Nassau Grouper.
In a time when the resources of the ocean appeared infinite, it seemed to those using the traps, as if the high catches would continue indefinitely. Little thought was even given to the use of un-sellable, tropical reef fish for bait. The fishermen who were trapping, felt as if they were providing food for thousands of people, and appeared to be unaware of any long term harm to the marine environment.
Below the surface, however, the overwhelming majority of commercial fishermen were strongly opposed to the use of fish traps. Several fishermen who had come from Cuba, talked privately to me about the damaging nature of the traps, and particularly how they had wiped out Black Grouper populations in reef areas where they had been used.
I had myself, constructed 10 traps sometime in the mid 70’s, and placed them outside the main reef on the Eye-glass Bar. I baited them with scorched fish heads, and pulled them about an hour after they were set. Amazingly, I was able to get more Black Grouper in one quick pull around, than I had ever caught in an entire day. What surprised me even more however, was the number of unmarketable reef fish that were in the traps; Cardinal Fish, Parrot Fish, Angel Fish, Tangs, Trigger Fish, Cowfish, and even a couple of small sharks.
The general fishing plan for traps, was to carry only enough bait for the first pull, and then use the unmarketable fish for bait the rest of the day. Not knowing what to expect initially, I had brought enough bait for the entire day, but each trap held enough reef fish to re-bait several more. After we had extracted a 20 lb Black from the first trap, and stared awhile at the flopping batch of brightly colored fish, the mate looked at me blankly, and said “What do you want to do?”
“What the heck. We have enough bait, let them go.”
The fish seemed unharmed when we dumped them back in the water, and we continued working the traps, and releasing the ones that were not sellable. If memory serves, that day we caught about 300 lbs of Black Grouper out of only 10 traps. Most fishermen worked about 50 traps – the number they could haul around on their boat at one time – and we easily calculated what could have been caught with a full load.
I doubt that we released the tropicals out of any prescient feelings about long term harming of the reef eco-system, but more likely because it just seemed a shame to kill the fish. While we had no trouble taking any fish that was usable for bait, the beautiful ones that populated the reef didn’t seem to fit that category. No commercial fisherman I had ever known, believed in the indiscriminate killing of a fish that was not going to be eaten, and that’s what it would have felt like.
I was however, very concerned about the grouper catch. Black Grouper were the sport fish of the commercial fishermen in Key West. The biggest ones – up to 60 and 70 lbs – lived in the largest rocks, in the densest sections of the reef. A large Black grouper is the most powerful bottom fish in the ocean, and with all commercial fishing done with hand lines, it took a Herculean effort to keep the fish from getting back in the rocks, and popping the line on the sharp coral heads.
Whether he was after Yellowtail, Muttons, or Kingfish, every fishing trip for my father, was a mission to do battle with the brawny Black Groupers. Heavy lines with large hooks and leader wire, were always ready, and a stop at a shallow rock pile to have small yellowtail and grunts for live bait, was mandatory on every trip. The nylon hand lines were tied off to sections of bicycle inner tubes hanging from the awning, and when one of the rubbers made the big stretch, all hands were called into action. Back at the dock, fishermen gathered around to admire the rugged fish, and whether or not Dad made money with the Yellowtail, a fishing trip was considered a success if a couple of the low priced, large Blacks were landed.
With that first day’s trap catch, it was not hard to imagine how quickly the limited area of the deeper reefs would be depopulated of the large Black Grouper. Thirty five years ago, thoughts of viable populations, and spawning aggregations, probably did not cross my mind, but the clear prospect of wiping out the fiercest fighting fish on the reef was more than I wanted to think about. The Cuban fishermen who had first sounded the warning were right, and I put away the traps for good.
With the tacit support of the commercial industry, the ban on fish traps was eventually instituted. Those who invested in the traps fought hard to keep them, but after first being banished from all reef areas, and then without the support of the average fishermen, they finally lost their fishery. To a large degree, the traps did succeed in decimating the population of Black Grouper, but after forcing the traps off the reefs, and out to deep water, the stock of big fish rebounded. Today, we once again have a strong population of large Black Grouper, and with the myriad of restrictions in place, it is highly improbable that commercial fishing effort alone, could ever allow them to be over-fished.
Next: Fish Traps – Today
