. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. Casting for a new catch By Sarah Friday Peters Sea robins get no respect. You might say they're the Rodney Dangerfield offish. And you might as well add trigger- fish, amberjack, pigfish and rays to the category, too. All it takes is one barbed stinger, a spiny fin or an odd-looking shape for a fisherman to shun a fish. The National Marine Fisheries Ser- vice estimates that recreational fisher- men catch more than 33 million of these less favored fish each year. But of the 78 species that they reel in in t
. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. Casting for a new catch By Sarah Friday Peters Sea robins get no respect. You might say they're the Rodney Dangerfield offish. And you might as well add trigger- fish, amberjack, pigfish and rays to the category, too. All it takes is one barbed stinger, a spiny fin or an odd-looking shape for a fisherman to shun a fish. The National Marine Fisheries Ser- vice estimates that recreational fisher- men catch more than 33 million of these less favored fish each year. But of the 78 species that they reel in in the Southeast, they only keep about 10 or 12, says Jim Murray, Sea Grant's Marine Advisory Service director. Anglers reject most of the other 66 species for more popular fish like grouper, redfish, snapper and mackerel. Commercial fishermen, too, often ig- nore certain species, calling them "trash fish," "garbage fish," and "odd- ball ; The image problem comes at a time when consumers want more seafood than ever. And pressures on marine resources are increasing to meet these demands. Now a fledgling campaign hopes to gain new respect for the Dangerfields of fish. With education, supporters say, fishermen may see these ugly duck- lings as beautiful swans. NMFS, the Gulf and South Atlantic Fisheries Development Foundation, Sea Grant and other fisheries and research organizations began workingj toward the transformation about four Their projects target commercial and recreational interests, but fisheries managers agree that changes in the commercial industry will have the big- gest impact. fishermen have netted about the same number of pounds of traditional food fish for 45 years, Murray says. Now most of these species are being fished to capacity. To satisfy our hunger, we import 70 percent of our seafood, says Richard Lord, information specialist with the Fulton Fish Market in New York City. "We don't have the fishery resources to s
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