Some of these fisheries with high sport harvest include bluefish, red drum, striped bass, Spanish mackerel, spot, spotted seatrout, summer flounder, and winter flounder. The total sport harvest of all finfish combined in 1994 from Maine to Texas and Oregon to California was over 173 million fish weighing almost 200 million pounds. In addition to the harvest, sport anglers caught and released alive over 189 million fish in 1994. Sport anglers took over 66 million fishing trips in 1994. The importance of recreational fisheries has been recognized in an Executive Order signed by President Clinton in June 1995.
Fisheries are a renewable resource.
They need to know the numbers and weight of fish harvested recreationally, the size composition of the catch, the numbers of people participating in the various fisheries, and the total number of trips that they make, and social and economic information about the participants. It also requires that the fishery management plans consider both recreational fisheries and commercial fisheries and their harvests.