b'Would Three Fish Be Enough?A Message from WPBFC President, Tom Twyford, Jr.W hen the West Palm Beach Fishing Club (WPBFC) beganregarding climate change, water quality and habitat loss. These promoting the concept of catch and release fishing forare complex problems with no easy solutions, so it is even more sailfish in the 1930s it was a voluntary movement initiated byimportant that we act on things that are in our immediate control.concerned anglers, not a mandate by some government agency.I often ask the question, How many fish are enough? Person-It was a radical concept at the time that was eventually embracedally, there are not many species of fish that I enjoy catching and by anglers worldwide. Just imagine what our sailfish fishery wouldkeeping where three fish wouldnt be enough to satisfy my need for look like if we had not been releasing them all these years. Thisa few fresh dinners. Again, I am suggesting adopting a personal release ethic is one of the WPBFCs most enduring conservationconservation ethic of a three fish bag limit per person per day. legacies. I believe the time has come for another angler-initiatedCurrent bag limits for some species may allow anglers to keep conservation practice that goes beyond pelagic species. What ifmore than three, but is it really necessary to keep that many? For every recreational angler voluntarily limited themselves to keep- example, the bag limits for Mutton and Mangrove snapper are 5, ing just three fish per person per trip? Yellowtail is 10, Triggerfish is 10, Spanish mackerel is 15, Dolphin Despite the creation and proliferation of governmental agen- is 5, Sheepshead is 8, Flounder and Black drum is 5, and Pompano cies and NGOs dedicated to the sustainable management of ouris 6. Obviously, anglers would still need to observe regulations estuarine and marine resources over the past 50 years, the overallfor fish like Redfish, King mackerel and others where the legal health of those resources has steadily declined. It seems that nobag limit was less than three. The Three Fish ethic includes any amount of money can save us from ourselves. Recreational fish- combination of fish. For example, maybe an angler would have ing regulations focused on species specific size and bag limits,2 kings and 1 mutton in thebox at the end of the day, ormaybe and closed seasons has helped stem the tide, but overall biomass2 dolphin and 1 wahoo. If two anglers were on board you could continues to decline.Strike up a conversation with multi-gen- keep 6 fish, if three anglers were on board your take could be 9. erational drift fishing operators like Capt. John Schultz on theYou get the drift. To me, it just doesnt seem like a big sacrifice Southern Comfort/Living on Island Time in Hypoluxo or Capt.to limit my personal take to three fish a trip.Richie Nagel of the Miss Blue Heron fleet in Jupiter & RivieraA Three Fish tenet would accomplish a number of positive Beach, their seasoned perspective and firsthand observationsresults: It keeps more fish in the water where they can be biologi-underscore just how serious this problem is. Significant improve- cally productive, it encourages anglers to be more selective when ment, at least in the near term, seems unlikely due to continueddeciding which fish to harvest; it creates a simplified artificial impacts related to climate change, water quality and the loss ofbag limit for every fish that swims, even unregulated species like essential fish habitat like seagrass and coral. Of course, increasedyellow jack, little tunny, Cero Mackerel and others; and It makes angling pressure adds to the stress. a statement about your personal conservation ethic when others To be fair, there are still good fishing days to be had, especiallyare on your boat.for bluewater species like blackfin tuna, wahoo, and sailfish. In- Practicing a Three Fish conservation code is by no means shore waters in less populated areas where ample habitat remainsa silver bullet that will solve all the problems we face with our can offer bountiful fishing as well. But as the population of theestuarine and marine resources, but it is a positive action that Sunshine State swells, even those places are not immune to degra- we as anglers can control. So, the next time you go fishing, ask dation. Here, off Palm Beach County, catching a keeper grouperyourself would three fish be enough?off the reef, finding a school of decent size dolphin offshore, orCOVER PHOTO:catching a mess of pompano from the surf just doesnt happenClub members Rachel St. Mary & Pat Jackson show off as frequently as it once did. Now at this point you are probablyRachel\'s first ever sailfish, caught & released off of saying to yourself, here we go, another old timer lamenting aboutPalm Beach while fishing from Pat\'s 22\' Pathfinder, the how good it used to be. Maybe so, but as I stated earlier, it is not"P Finder".photo courtesy of Tommy Twyfordjust our impact as anglers. We are facing consequential challenges T ighTL inesM agazine- F aLL2023 3'