Making A Difference Award

Making A Difference

Sport Fishing Magazine has sponsored a new award that they have called “Making a Difference”. These awards are designed to recognize those that have been instrumental in creating a positive difference to recreational saltwater fishing. They felt that it was time to bring the national spotlight to shine on these individuals and their contributions to recreational fishing. Each year, 5 individuals will be chosen from a list of nominees. The inaugural class of this new award was just announced at the ICAST Meeting in Las Vegas.

Among this initial class is Dr. John Graves of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. I can think of no one more deserving of this honor. From his nomination for the award:

Dr. John Graves

Gloucester Point, Virginia

John E. Graves received a Ph.D. from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1981. He is currently a Professor of Marine Science at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary where he serves as Fisheries Department Chair. He is the Chairman of the U.S. Advisory Committee to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). He serves on the Highly Migratory Species Advisory Panel of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Dr. Graves’ genetics research allows law enforcement to identify what fish is actually being sold. They now can tell if that blue marlin is from the Pacific (legal) or Atlantic (illegal). This helps us to protect our protected species.

His studies with pop-up tags have led to the use of circle hooks in the recreational marlin fishery. He found that 37 percent of white marlin caught on J-hooks do not survive while almost all caught on circle hooks survive. This led to regulatory changes. He also proved that marlin released form long-line gear will survive. This led to ICCAT regulations requiring the release of all live marlin caught on long-line gear. There was concern with catch-and-release mortality with striped bass during the Virginia’s winter fishery. His release mortality study showed that more regulations were not needed for this fishery.

He serves on various committees at the national and international level and on the boards of research foundations. He has been a champion of tuna and billfish conservation at the international level.

“Our genetics research has changed the stock structure for Atlantic blue marlin and white marlin as well as striped marlin in the Pacific, helped demonstrate the validity of the roundscale spearfish, and provided molecular markers for the identification of billfish tissues and larvae, as well as the discrimination of Atlantic and Indo-Pacific blue marlin (which is necessary for the enforcement of the ban on importation and sale of Atlantic blue marlin). We have also demonstrated that the Mediterranean and Gulf of Mexico populations of bluefin tuna are distinct breeding units (there are slight, but significant genetic differences),” says Dr. Graves.

The pop-up satellite tag research first demonstrated that live release of recreational billfish is a huge conservation measure as most of the animals live. We then showed that blue marlin and white marlin released from commercial pelagic longline gear had high rates of survival, and then was able to get ICCAT to agree to an Atlantic wide measure requiring the release of all live white marlin and blue marlin. Reported landings of white marlin have dropped greater than 67 percent and blue marlin 50 percent (yeah!),” he says. “Then in the recreational fishery we demonstrated that J hooks in natural baits don’t do white marlin any favors (35 percent mortality after release) and that prompted NMFS to implement the requirement of circle hooks in natural baits in all Atlantic billfish tournaments.

Outside of that, our genetics work has contributed to our understanding of the stock structure of many other species: bluefish, weakfish, yellowfin tuna, chub mackerel, Spanish mackerel, striped marlin, sandbar shark, shortfin mako shark … Note that the NMFS Billfish advisory panel was merged into the HMS advisory panel several years ago. I’m currently serving my 8th consecutive two-year term as chair of the U.S. ICCAT Advisory Committee. I’m not compensated for this, but it is a way to make sure that the fisheries science gets incorporated into management. It also provides a means to introduce my students to the wonderful world of fisheries management.”

— Submitted by Dr. Ken Neill, III

To see all of the inaugural class of the “Making a Difference” Award and to watch the video of the award presentation, visit: www.sportfishingmag.com/inaugural-making-difference-award-winners-named

There are many individuals deserving of this honor. To learn more about this award, to see all of this year’s nominees, and to nominate candidates for the 2012 class, visit: www.sportfishingmag.com/makingadifference