The commercial fish catch in Bermuda fell massively in the year 2000, with similar predictions being made for 2001, recent Government figures have revealed.

A report released by the Ministry of the Environment said reported commercial landings dropped by more than 130,000 pounds when compared to 1999 levels.

It is believed the lower levels were the result of a significantly reduced fishing effort.

The statistics showed that there was an 11 percent drop in the total number of hours spent at sea - from 79,911 in 1999 to 70,934 in 2000.

The report said this level of decrease is not inconsistent with the apparent drop in landings, but it will take additional analyses to confirm this relationship.

During the year, the average number of hours at sea per vessel, based on 147 vessels that reported their catch, was 483 hours.

Reported landings of wahoo dropped by a whopping 19 percent to 185,799 pounds, while those for yellowfin decreased to 82,692 pounds.

However, despite the drop, wahoo remained the single most important species, accounting for more of the reported landings than any other species.

Yellowfin tuna were ranked second in the landings. Catches of pelagic (deep water) species accounted for almost 45 percent of total reported finfish landings, slightly down on previous years.

Acting director of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries John Barnes said the decline in the amount of fish caught was due to the fishing habits of fishermen and oceanographic changes.

He said: "One of the things that usually is a factor is a lot of people tend to go fishing when the bite is stronger, and they tend not to go when they think it is slow.

"What happened in 2000 was we had a poor run for wahoo, so people who would otherwise go fishing, were not going."

He said many of Bermuda's fishermen were not full-time, so they did not believe it made sense for them to go out if the catch had previously been down.

He added: "If you are only going to catch enough to cover your fuel bill, it's not worth it.

"Some fishermen did not see the point in going out, but it's a self-fulfilling prophecy because if they had gone out, they might have actually caught more."

Mr. Barnes said there was no question that 2000 was a bad year for wahoo, and he said 2001 may prove to be not much better once the statistics come together.

Although last spring resulted in a healthy catch of wahoo, the second catch of the year in the autumn was very poor.

He added: "I think 2000 and 2001 will be pretty similar. And this year so far, it's difficult to say. I'm hearing things from people, but I would say it's too early to say how it will go."

During the year 2000, the catch of snapper increased, accounting for ten percent of total reported landings.

The reported catch of jack species decreased by about 18 percent over 1999 with a suggestion that this may have been due to reduced effort in net fishing for certain species.

Grouper landings were down 20 percent, however that change represented a decline of little more than 21,500 pounds and this level was similar to those reported in recent years.