The Marine life fishery in Florida, 1990-98

Marine Fisheries Review, Wntr, 2003 by Sherry L. Larkin, Charles M. Adams

During the 1990-98 period, 181 individual species of finfish were harvested. For simplicity, these species were grouped into 67 categories using their common name as defined by FMRI; a three-digit code for each species is associated with a (1) common name, 2) genus and species, and 3) family. The common name is most closely associated with the family. For example, the data set contains three genus and species of "cowfish" including Lactophrys polygonia, L. quadricornis, and family Ostraciidae, which are listed (in common name field), respectively, as honeycomb cowfish, scrawled cowfish, and other cowfish. Although each species has its own unique code, each is a member of the Ostraciidae family, and data from all three are aggregated and included under the common name "cowfish." Note that not all codes are associated with a unique genus and species and, thus, fall into an "other" category. Consequently, the number of individual species should be considered as conservative.

The 67 aggregate finfish groups are listed in Table 2. If a group consists of multiple species, parentheses are used to indicate the number of individual species that are included in the common name groupings. Of these groups, ten accounted for nearly 84% of the total value. The most important species group was angelfish, which represented 54% of the total value. Hogfish accounted for 7.5% of the total while the other eight groups accounted for about 22% of the total value of live marine finfish collected from 1990 to 1998. Since each species group contains multiple species, it may be helpful to know how important any single species may be, especially when regulations can be enacted at the species level.

With the exception of seahorses and surgeonfish, all top fish species groups exhibited a decline in landings volumes from 1990 to 1998 (Table 5). The largest species group decline was reported to be the butterflyfish (-48%), while seahorses were the species group with the largest increase (184%).

Average per unit prices varied considerably across species. For example, in 1998 the average unit price for angelfish and hogfish both exceeded $8 per fish, while the unit price for damselfish, jawfish, wrasse, butterflyfish, and drum were less than $3 (Table 6). The average price for seahorses was less than $1. With the exception of angelfish, the species exhibiting the highest landings volume (i.e. damselfish, wrasse, and seahorses) also showed the lowest average unit price. The average unit price for angelfish varied considerably during the 1990-98 period, increasing from $5.62 in 1990 to $9.13 in 1993, before declining to $6.92 in 1995. The unit average price for angelfish then increased to $8.12 in 1998.

Invertebrate Species Data

The 137 individual species of invertebrates collected by the marine life industry in Florida from 1990 to 1998 were analyzed by their 32 respective common names (Table 2). Due to the diversity of the invertebrate species, these groups are further aggregated into the following three categories: 1) invertebrate animals (including crustaceans, mollusks, starfish, anemones, sea cucumbers, sponges, nudibranches, bryozoa, etc.), 2) plants (including those of the Caulerpaceae, Halimedaceae, and Corallinaceae families), and 3) live rock and live sand.