The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) – an interstate compact responsible for managing striped bass in state waters – announced in January that the striped bass resource is significantly overfished, and that the spawning stock biomass has dropped back to levels last seen in the early 1990s.
Stripers Forever president Brad Burns say that: “Stripers Forever supports significant reductions in recreational fishing mortality beginning this season.” The commercial fishery has comparatively small socio- economic benefits, and it is concentrated on large breeding-age fish which are the sector of the resource that is in the greatest trouble. Burns also said that: “The commercial fishery for wild striped bass enables the existence of a black market. Stripers Forever feels that all commercial fishing activity for stripers should end either through a buyout program paid for by the sale of a striped bass stamp, or phased out by grandfathering those commercial fisherman who have had a minimum average amount of sales over the past several years and not issuing any new licenses.
The ASMFC announcement also revealed that 90% of the striped bass fishing mortality along the Atlantic coast is estimated to be from recreational fishing activity, and 10% from commercial fishing not including illegal commercial activity which is not estimated by the ASMFC. 42% of overall fishing mortality comes from the recreational harvest, while 48% comes from fish that are released. The ASMFC estimates that 9% of stripers released by recreational fishermen die, and that 9% applied to the total of all stripers released by recreational fishermen therefore amounts to 48% of total fishing mortality. The larger recreational impact on the striped bass resource reflects the fact that the recreational fishery benefits many hundreds of thousands of individual citizens fishing for personal use. The average recreational fisherman harvests less than one striped bass per year.
Stripers Forever expects the ASMFC to announce in May that regulatory changes will be imposed in 2020 to reduce striped bass mortality; specifically minimum sizes will be increased for recreational fishing and a decreased commercial quota for the commercial fishery. Some states may take immediate actions to reduce striped bass mortality, especially release mortality, such as Massachusetts, where circle hooks may become mandatory for bait fishing and gaffing of live striped bass may be prohibited.
For more information contact Brad Burns at stripers@stripersforever.org
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