OUR FISHING PRACTICES

AND AMY MARIE

The Fishing Vessel Amy Marie is a 39 foot “#1 Hull” fiberglass boat that was built in Key West Florida in 1985. She is powered by a Detroit Diesel 671 engine that gives her 175 horse power. Her average cruising speed it 7 knots. Captain Mark usually fishes with one or two other crew members. A typical fishing trip takes Mark and the crew 50‐ 60 miles offshore (just inside the Gulf Stream, where the current is too swift to bottom fish) and anywhere off the coasts of North Carolina, South Carolina or Georgia. During that trip the boat will move around quite a bit over 3-7 days. They never stay on a spot for long whether the fish are biting or not! All fish caught on the Amy Marie are caught on a vertical hook and line using a rod and reel system called “bandit gear” for its resemblance to a one armed slot machine. There are 4 electric bandit reels mounted on the stern deck of the Amy Marie each reel is rigged with a leader and a line with 2 hooks. Each line that is dropped is tended by hand until a bite is felt. Fish are immediately reeled in and any fish that can’t be kept due to regulations are carefully released alive. What we can keep is then gutted and put on ice. Mark and his crew take great pride in landing a high quality product when the fish hits the dock and the fish are well cared for both on deck and when packed away ice in the Amy Marie’s 6000 pound fish hold. In the days before the local food movement a good trip on the Amy Marie was 4000-5000 pounds of fish now we are abel to make a comfortable living and grow our business when she reaches port with only 1000-2000 pounds. 

PROTECTING THE RESOURCE

IT'S WHAT WE DO

While it is can be a common perception that commercial fisherman want to catch anything they can at any cost to the resource, that is certainly not the case with the vast majority of fisherman that are involved in the snapper grouper fishery in the South Atlantic, and it is certainly not true of Mark. Both Mark and Kerry have long resume of working closely with the scientists and the government to improve the health of the resource and the viability of the industry. 

Mark began as an advisor to the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council in the 90s, serving as chairman of both the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s Snapper Grouper and Marine Protected Areas Advisory Panels as well as having participated in many stock assessments and other resource management bodies. Through the years Mark has worked very closely conducting research with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, the National Marine Fisheries Services, and Pew Environmental Group and others. Projects have included testing electronic fishing logbooks at sea, identifying spawning sites of deepwater grouper in need of protection and quantifying regulatory discards. Kerry now serves on the Snapper Grouper Advisory Panel as well the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s System Management Plan Working Group. She has worked with the North Atlantic Marine Alliance and the Business Alliance for Protection of the Atlantic Coast to fight drilling off the South Carolina Coast.