Where have all the large mahi gone? Keys charter boat crews blame one fishing method

The charter fishing industry in South Florida and the Keys was hard hit by the pandemic shutdown.

When Monroe County ordered hotels closed in early March and the checkpoints keeping tourists out went up later in the month, the island chain’s famous fleet docked idle in the the winter and spring season that gets boat crews and owners through the rest of the year.

The checkpoints came down in June and restrictions on lodgings, restaurants and bars continue to ease as COVID numbers decline in the archipelago. But the charter fishing industry is still suffering more than other sectors of the tourist-dependent Keys economy.

But a major factor in declining business has nothing to do with the novel coronavirus, according to those who make their living on the water. It’s the disappearing population of older and larger dolphinfish, or mahi-mahi, the beautiful blue and green deepwater migratory fish popular with anglers for its fight and seafood lovers for its taste.

Clients typically charter boats to hunt for mahi starting in late winter and early spring all the way through the fall. But while anglers report no shortage of smaller mahi, or “schoolies,” noticeably absent in recent years, captains say, have been larger “gaffer” fish starting at around 20 pounds.

“There are more schoolies in the ocean now that I have ever seen in my entire life,” longtime Keys charter boat captain Brian Reynolds told federal officials Wednesday during a meeting of the South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council, a federal entity responsible for developing fisheries management plans.

Reynolds and more than a dozen other charter anglers spoke at the meeting urging the council to do more to protect mahi-mahi, including reducing allowable catches by both commercial and recreational fishermen — including charter boats.

The issue is particularly urgent now, charter captains say, because the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service is considering allowing commercial anglers to increase the length of their longlines from 20 to 32 nautical miles.

Longlines, as the name suggests, are long stretches of hooked fishing line that are dropped in the ocean and later retrieved. Charter boat captains say the controversial fishing method is largely to blame for what they say is the dwindling population of mature mahi off South Florida.

“I don’t see how something like that can go on and not deplete the species. They are such voracious eaters,” said Skye Stanley, captain of Blue Heaven Charter Company at Robbie’s Marina in Islamorada.

The South Atlantic Management Council can recommend Fisheries reject the proposal.

Jon Reynolds, captain of Drop Back Fishing Charters at Whale Harbor Marina in Islamorada, and executive director of the nonprofit South Atlantic Fishing Environmentalists, or SAFE, said commercial longliners began targeting mahi in 2014, and quickly began catching between 30,000 and 40,000 pounds per trip.

“A strict commercial trip limit and a reduction in the recreational vessel limit are essential to promote conservation in this fishery,” said Reynolds, Brian Reynolds’ son.

The recreational bag limit per trip for mahi is 10 per person or a maximum of 60 fish per vessel. The charter captains who spoke this week said the limit should be reduced to 40 fish.

For commercial fishing, they said they’d like the feds to mandate mahi only be caught with hook and line.

“We do not need to treat dolphin as a crop,” said Carlos Jimenez, who has been running offshore fishing trips in the Upper Keys for almost 30 years. “We need to treat it as a fishery.”

Representatives for the commercial fishing industry were not immediately available for comment.

Increasing the population of larger mahi is essential for a healthy fishery, Jon Reynolds said, because mature adults produce significantly more larvae.

“The focus should not be on harvest, but abundance of large fish to target,” he said. “We need to reduce landings.”

A greater stock of large fish, like mahi, are also important for a healthy marine ecosystem, Reynolds said, because their existence helps reduce ocean acidification, which in turn improves water quality and helps with coral reef restoration.

Recreational saltwater fishing, including charter fishing, brings more than $9.2 billion a year into the Florida economy, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. And, mahi fishing is a prime reason people come to the Keys to fish and hire a deep sea charter crew.

According to SAFE, the mahi fishery in the South Atlantic brings $450 million annually to the U.S. economy, and $300 million to Florida alone.

“The checks and balances in the Keys are the mahi,” said legendary Islamorada fishing captain Skip Bradeen.

Given the economic gut punch the charter industry took from March through June due to COVID, captains were depending on clients to come to the Keys to hire them to fish for large mahi. The clients came, the captains said this week, but most trips resulted in few mahi worth keeping.

“I just don’t know what to tell them,” said Joseph Spaulding, captain of the LegaSea charter boat docked at the Post Card Inn Marina on Windley Key. “They’re just not here.”

Kit Carson, captain of the Dirty Boat charter vessel out of Robbie’s Marina, said he had dozens of clients booked this summer, and more than half came down solely to catch mahi. One recent trip, he caught so few fish, he said he felt guilty his clients paid for the day.

“I had no choice but to look at my customers and say, ‘Sorry, I’m not going to take your money,’” Carson said.

Justin Hopper, captain of the Fantastic II docked in Key Largo, was also counting on summer mahi anglers to help him recover from the months he spent grounded at the marina. But, he too, said clients aren’t coming back to shore satisfied because the fish are so small this year.

“We depend on this. Without this, we’re in big trouble,” Hopper said. “We’re already in trouble as it is.”