Commercial Striped Bass Harvest Regulations Denied

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission announced recently that it has denied a proposal to increase the commercial harvest of striped bass by up to 50 percent. Introduced last February, the proposal has drawn attention from recreational anglers up and down the East Coast with calls to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to deny the proposal.

According to Richen Brame, the director of the Coastal Conservation Association, Atlantic States Fisheries managers "were very much in danger of increasing mortality at a time when the stock is declining, but they took the conservative approach in light of all the uncertainty surrounding the stock today. They should be commended for refusing to take a path that could have ended in disaster. This is a great day for conservation.”

The fisheries management board drafted a proposal to increase the commercial striped bass harvest last February, despite concerns raised about the health of the striped bass population by scientists and conservation enforcement officers.

“Anglers who remembered the dark years of the ‘70s were alarmed that managers were attempting to ramp up commercial harvest, even as anglers were seeing serious warning signs on the water,” Brame said.

According to Mac McKeever, president of Maine's Coastal Conservation Association, anglers are not seeing the abundance of striped bass seen in recent years.

“Anglers in the northern reaches of the striped bass range are the canaries in the coal mine when it comes to the health of the striped bass population, and anglers here are not encountering anywhere near as many fish as they did just a few years ago," McKeever said. "There is definitely reason to be concerned.”

The Coastal Conservation Association states that there is a need for the striped bass fishery managers to take a cautious approach. According to the association's website, three major problems in the fisheries need to be seen as significant warning signs: The declining trends in the striped bass juvenile abundance index; significant and unreported poaching in the exclusive economic zone; and the potentially devastating impact of Mycobacteriosis in Chesapeake Bay — the primary striped bass spawning ground for the entire Atlantic Coast.

According to the Coastal Conservation Association, 70 percent of striped bass sampled in the Chesapeake Bay had lesions associated with Mycobacteriosis — an infection that is almost always fatal.

Charles A. Witek, chairman of Coastal Conservation Association Atlantic Fisheries Committee, said that this is no time to be increasing the commercial harvest of striped bass.

“The problems facing striped bass today are far more complex than simple overfishing," Witek said. "Managers did the right thing by taking a precautionary approach to management. Striped bass are the crown jewel of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s management successes and should be treated as such.”