Subject: Greater amberjack, lesser amberjack & banded rudderfish

From: [email-masked](Steven Atran)
Date: 22 Sep 1996 22:05:17 GMT

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council recently proposed a new rule
combining greater amberjack, lesser amberjack and banded rudderfish under
an aggregate 1 amberjack bag limit and 28 inch fork length minimum size
limit.  This essentially eliminates a fishery on lesser amberjack and
banded rudderfish since these two species rarely, if ever, reach 28 inches.
 However, they are far less common than greater amberjack and are difficult
to tell apart from juvenile greater amberjack.  Because of concern that
greater amberjack stocks may be becoming depleted, the Gulf Council felt
that protecting juvenile greater amberjack outweighed the loss of the minor
amberjack species to the fishery.  However, this proposed rule has met with
so much resistance from the Florida charterboat industry that the normally
conservative Florida Marine Fisheries Commission has asked the Gulf Council
to withdraw its rule.  They are considering a state rule that would allow
separate (and less conservative) bag limits for each species.  Unless there
is some fairly easy way to differentiate lesser amberjack and banded
rudderfish from juvenile greater amberjack, the Florida proposed rule will
undermine the Gulf Council's attempt to protect juvenile greater amberjack.
 Color is unreliable because the fishes color can change after death. 
Minute details such as counting gill rakers also not useful for enforcement
because many judges refuse to accept that as a readily identifiable
characteristic to an average fisherman and throw cases based on such detail
out of court.  Is there any other way for an average fisherman, enforcement
officer and judge to tell these species apart? 
 
Steven Atran 
Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council