Slaughter on the Long Line

Like most fishermen, the Japanese crewmen aboard the commercial boat Yoku Maru could not resist a bit of a brag. When the 100-ft. vessel put into Jamaica's Montego Bay last fall, the skipper invited some local sport fishermen aboard. Modestly the Japanese apologized that a mother ship had carted away most of their catch. Then they threw open their lockers. There, stacked like cordwood, were the carcasses of thousands upon thousands of game fish: yellowfin tuna, wahoo, sailfish and blue marlin.

Relations between sport fishermen and their commercial cousins have never been exactly cordial. Lately they have been strained to the breaking point. No longer satisfied with harvestIng such traditional "meat" fish as cod, halibut, salmon and the smaller tunas, commercial fishermen from Japan, Scandinavia and Russia have now invaded the world's best sport-fishing areas with superefficient methods that devastate the population of rare game fish. In the once renowned waters off New Zealand's Mayor Island, where 900 big fish--swordfish, striped and black marlin --were boated in 1949, not a single billfish of any size was caught in 1964. Off Acapulco, Mexico, headquarters of one of the world's biggest (300 boats) sport-fishing fleets, commercials have zeroed in on that most spectacular of seagoing acrobats, the Pacific sailfish. Two years ago, in Acapulco's annual tournament, 48 anglers landed 176 sails; last year's catch was barely half that.

Gone, Overnight. One top sport-fishing hole so far seems safe: Panama's Pinas Bay (TIME, July 10, 1964), where hundreds of marlin and thousands of sailfish were boated last year. Maybe the commercial fishermen were too busy elsewhere. Off Montauk Point, N.Y., where a favorite sport is fishing for sharks, commercial fishermen have practically eliminated the scrappy and tasty porbeagle. The pressure is growing at Maryland's "Jack Spot," the summer home of the tough little (world's record: 161 lbs.) white marlin. Until commercials showed up in the Jack Spot last summer, it was rare for a charter-boat captain to return emptyhanded. Last September, after a fruitless day trolling at the Jack Spot, Maryland's Governor J. Millard Tawes and Delaware's Governor Charles L. Terry Jr. issued a joint statement demanding protection of U.S. game fish from foreign meat fishermen.

The commercials' methods are as brutal as they are efficient. Instead of nets, which are useless against big game fish, the fishermen string out "long lines" --ropes or metal cables anywhere from two to 60 miles in length with baited hooks attached every twelve to 25 ft. The long lines are left in the water for 24 hours or more, supported by buoys and equipped with radar beacons to spot their location for the boat. Fish hooked on the long lines fight hopelessly against the miles-long cable until they drown or are mutilated by sharks. Off Baja California one day last spring, enraged Mexican sport fishermen counted more than 300 sailfish on the 2,000 hooks of a single long line. The line was only one of five laid by a Japanese boat that fished the area for 14 days. Total estimated catch: 21,000 sailfish.

Raw Delicacy. By Western standards, sailfish and marlin are practically inedible. Even the Japanese can think of nothing better to do with the coarse oily sailfish than grind it up into fish sausages. But marlin is considered a delicacy in meat-short Japan, where it is served fried or raw--garnished with soy sauce and horseradish to make a dish called sashimi.

Sport fishermen around the world have been bombarding government agencies with complaints about the commercial long liners. Now, tired of waiting, the protesters are taking matters into their own hands.

In Jamaica last summer, sport fishermen blasted away at a long liner's glass floats with rifles. In Acapulco, only the timely arrival of a Mexican coast-guard boat averted a shooting match between charter-boat vigilantes and a Japanese long liner armed with a machine gun. And last July, when a flotilla of Norwegian long liners steamed into Maryland's Jack Spot, a pair of charter-boat skippers roared out and carved up the long lines with their boats' propellers.

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