Monkfish Lophius americanus
(A.K.A. - Goosefish, Anglerfish) Life History
Monkfish are marine bottom-dwelling fishes belonging to the family, Lophiidae. These fishes have very broad, depressed heads (head is as wide as the fish is long) and enormous mouths. They have long, sharp teeth and a modified spine called an "esca", that is quite mobile and can be angled forward so it can dangle in front of the fish's mouth and be wiggled like bait to lure its prey. Monkfish range from the Grand Banks and northern Gulf of St. Lawrence south to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. They are occasional visitors to the lower Chesapeake Bay from late fall to early spring. They inhabit sand, mud, and broken shell bottoms from inshore areas to depths greater than 800 m (2,300 ft).
Monkfish reach maturity between ages 3 and 4, and spawning can take place from spring through early fall depending on latitude. Females lay a non-adhesive, buoyant gelatinous egg mass that floats as a broad raft on the water's surface. Larvae and juveniles are pelagic and remain in this stage for several months before they settle to the bottom at a size of about 3 inches. Monkfish grow rapidly with females reaching approximately 39 inches and living to 12 years of age. Males have not been found older than age 9, and their total lengths reach approximately 35 inches. Monkfish are voracious predators and feed on benthic fishes and other prey almost as big as themselves.
Chesapeake Bay Management
The Monkfish Fishery Management Plan (FMP) took effect on November 8, 1999, with annual updates now into 2003. The plan was prepared by the New England and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Councils, in coordination with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). Initially overfished, this FMP set optimum yield and catch targets along the Atlantic Coast that would allow the resource to recover according to a 10-year rebuilding plan. Based on fall, 2002, survey indices, the stocks, under current definitions, are no longer being overfished and the northern stock is now only 10% below being fully rebuilt with southern stocks lagging behind. However, according to Framework Adjustment 2 of the Monkfish Fishery Management Plan, “This will not materially affect the fishery, however, since both stocks are already in the midst of a 10-year rebuilding program.” To maintain these stocks at sustainable levels, annually adjusted harvest targets will be used to maintain the population.
Traditionally, monkfish landings had been a bycatch from the Northwest Atlantic groundfish and scallop fisheries. However, directed trawl and gillnet fishing for this species grew rapidly during the mid-1980’s. By the early 1990’s, the fishing industry expressed concerns about the dramatically increased fishing mortality rates, gear conflicts, a growing directed trawl fishery and a decline in the size of monkfish being landed. These concerns led to the development of a management plan for monkfish. This plan includes four management goals that address overfishing and the intensified effort for small monkfish by limiting fishing mortality (F) and improving size selectivity wherever possible. These goals are:
- to end and prevent overfishing; rebuilding and maintaining a healthy spawning stock,
- to optimize yield and maximize economic benefits to the various fishing sectors,
- to prevent increased fishing on immature fish ,
- to allow the traditional incidental catch of monkfish to occur.
In the Atlantic Ocean off Maryland, monkfish are found in waters from 3 to 200 miles offshore, thus making them outside the jurisdictional limits of the state. However, to meet the need of conservation, a regulation was enacted stating:
“An individual may not catch or land monkfish (Lophius americanus) for commercial purposes when the Regional Administrator for National Marine Fisheries Service determines that the quota has been attained and closes the fishery as permitted in accordance with 50 CFR 648.”
Commercial and Recreational Fisheries
Around the turn of the century, commercial fishermen had little use for monkfish. Records of monkfish catches were not kept until the 1960s when reported landings (live weight) averaged less than a million pounds and a few hundred dollars a year. Traditionally, monkfish have been taken as incidental catch in the groundfish and sea scallop fisheries, but had little or no commercial value. Total Atlantic coast commercial landings (live weight) remained at low levels until the mid-1970s, increasing from about 167,000 pounds in 1970 to 7 million pounds in 1978. Landings stayed below 20 million pounds until the late 1980s. By 1989, the two European and Mediterranean species of monkfish had been overfished, so with stricter regulations in place, there was a greater demand for tails from the United States. At the same time, import markets for livers and whole monkfish in Asia also increased the demand for U.S. landings. Monkfish landings peaked in 1997 at approximately 62 million pounds and dockside revenues topped at $35 million.
Monkfish have traditionally been landed with their heads removed and only their tails taken to market. However, the market for tails and other body parts has been growing rapidly over the past decade. Total landings have increased in response to developing foreign markets for tails, livers, and whole fish (cleaned, but the liver not removed). Currently, trends in total landings are driven primarily by the market for monkfish tails. Landings of monkfish tails are converted from landed weight of tails to live weight of monkfish because most landings have occurred as tails only (or other parts). Landings are usually divided into two regions. The "Northern" region includes the Gulf of Maine and northern Georges Bank and the "Southern" region includes southern Georges Bank and the Middle Atlantic. On a regional basis, most tails were landed from the northern region in the 1960s (75-90%) through to the late 1970s (74% in 1978). From 1979 to 1989, landings of tails were about equal for both regions. In the 1990s, landings from the southern region began to predominate and now provide over 60% of the tails. Landings of livers rose steadily from 22,000 pounds in 1982 to 1.3 million pounds in 1996. During that time, prices for livers increased notably from an average of $0.97/lb. to over $5.00/lb. with seasonal variations as high as $19.00/lb.
The fisheries that target monkfish have also changed markedly. Prior to 1975, most of all the landings of monkfish were caught by otter trawls. However, in recent years, directed effort by fishermen using trawls, scallop dredges, and gill nets has dramatically increased in response to the increasing demand, the decreasing groundfish abundance, and stricter regulations for multispecies and summer flounder.
Prior to the 1970’s, commercial monkfish fisheries and landings were not well documented but by the mid-1970’s, landings were being recorded. Current NMFS data show that Maryland landings (live weight) were very low through the 1980’s and 1990’s but then dramatically increased to over 700,000 pounds by 1997. But by 2001, market competition, coastwide application of the monkfish management plan and relocation of some fishery operations, has caused landings to decline to less than 30,000 pounds. Commercial monkfish landings in Virginia also rose steadily over the years, from a low of 68,000 pounds in 1977 to 3.0 million pounds in 1998. With the monkfish management plan in effect, landings dropped 35% in 2000 and another 6% in 2001, to 887,000 pounds, their lowest monkfish landings in 14 years.
Although the recreational fishery for monkfish is insignificant and not well documented for Atlantic coast states, both New York and Massachusetts have size limits on recreational catches of monkfish.
Monkfish Fun Facts: - Monkfish have been reported to eat prey nearly one-half their size, as well as capture waterbirds at the surface.
- Monkfish are sometimes known as "allmouth" since the fish is mostly head and the head is mostly mouth