"In the 1970s, the vigor of the local fishing community was expressed or manifested by many fishermen in pursuit of a variety of finfish and shellfish resources," according to On the East End: The Last Best Times of a Long Island Fishing Community by Clarence Hickey, who studied the fishery as a researcher at the New York State Ocean Science Laboratory in Montauk. "The local and regional stocks of important fishery species were abundant and supported the vigor of the fishing community and fueled its spirit. Important finfish and shellfish harvests peaked then."

A New York Times article in 1980 reported that Long Island's commercial fleet grew from 135 to 227 fishing boats, along with a 20 percent growth in the catch, between 1975 and 1980. The expansion was attributed in part to the fact that the fishing limit for foreign boats went up from 12 to 200 miles offshore in 1976, thinning the competition for local vessels.

"Here in Montauk, home of Long Island's highly profitable fishing industry," the article continued, "marine biologists are closely watching the area's fish stocks to see if they are being hurt by overfishing. Because fishermen are fishing more heavily than ever before, the biologists are unsure whether certain fish can survive the strain."

Commercial Fishing

There was a surprisingly glamorous whiff to fish on Montauk Harbor in the 1970s and early 1980s, when  the commercial business was booming. The commercial dock, Gosman’s retail and wholesale seafood operation next door, the new Dock restaurant next door to that – for many, work was hard and physical, and opportunities to kick back were most welcome. 

Sportfishing

"Striped bass fishing was phenomenal in the early 1970s," Ralph Vigmostad wrote in his fishing column On the Water. The late 1970s saw a "blitz" of giant bluefish.  However, commercial and sportfishermen were also blaming each other as government regulators initiated quotas on some species beginning in 1977.

Further, as a Japanese market for tuna developed,  by the 1980s, "a tuna caught Monday off Montauk could be sold Tuesday in Tokyo for up to $30 a pound," Bill Akin wrote in The Golden Age of Montauk Sportfishing. With that incentive, many sportfishermen started to fish for the bounty rather than the sport itself, sometimes aggressively competing even among themselves. "But these people who come today, they’re so money conscious that it's hard for me to ever see anybody getting back to really going out there for a day's fun," the charter captain Frank Tuma Jr. recalled regretfully in a 1993  oral history interview.