ASMFC Regulations Released: What Does It All Mean?

On October 29, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) approved new striped bass regulations which lower both commercial and recreational fishing mortality to conform to new lower reference points recommended by the ASMFC Technical Committee and adopted at this meeting. The ASMFC Management Board also clarified that uncaught commercial quotas cannot be transferred to other states. All of this comes as a result of last year’s stock assessment which showed that the striped bass spawning stock biomass has been below the desired target levels for years. The ASMFC technical committee gives the new changes only a 50 percent chance of rebuilding the spawning stock.

Some of us have been following this process for many years, and while the names of the fishery managers have changed, the basic positions they take are quite similar. The Chesapeake Bay area commercial fishermen want no changes in their catch quotas, claiming that they fish on a stock of non-migratory and plentiful male fish. This argument is hard to buy since the recreational catch in the Bay has declined from about 6.7 million fish in 2006 to 3.2 million in 2013. Further, striped bass spawning success in the bay has been drastically lower in recent years than it was during the glorious 1990s before all the catch quotas of striped bass were liberalized. (For more information on striped bass spawning success, see the recently posted 2014 young-of-the-year report on our website). It stands to reason that with fewer young stripers being born, there are also fewer fish to catch, and that is why the catch is less than half of what it was in 2003.

Bay area commercial fishermen also argue that a striped bass population as robust as it was a few years ago is not desirable or sustainable. The watermen claim that stripers are eating too many young blue claw crabs that the fishermen depend on for the rest of their living. The other argument heard repeatedly during the hearing was that a large spawning stock is not necessary for producing a large year class. The truth is that stripers have been coexisting with the crabs in the Chesapeake Bay forever, and many people feel that over-harvest and environmental conditions within the bay are the real culprits in the low crab population. While a reduced striper spawning stock can produce a large young-of-the-year class, the large spawning stock in the 90s produced many big year classes, not just an occasional outlier. Many scientists believe that the chances of a successful year class are much better if more adults spawn over a longer period of time and are therefore more likely to hit the jackpot for ideal spawning conditions.

It was heartening to hear some fishery managers from the northern states argue that the recreational fishery for striped bass has created more than 90 percent of the jobs and economic value tied to the species. Paul Diodati, the Director of Marine Fisheries in Massachusetts, made the point that the coastal states had already lost a great deal of money with the striped bass population downturn, and that many anglers have been deprived of highly valued recreational opportunities. Listening to ASMFC fishery debates over the years, I have never heard anyone stand up for the value of recreational fishing and the need for a robust fish population to the extent that I did during this meeting. That may be a good sign for the future of fishery management.

So where will the striped bass situation go from here? Will the lower quotas work? And what will happen if they don’t? It is impossible to predict the future spawning success of striped bass.

Certainly the more big stripers that come in to spawn, the better the chances that a big year class will result. The new coastal size and bag limit is one fish at 28 inches, rather than two fish. Will that change really reduce pressure and mortality on big stripers? Not very much, I fear. Most fishermen don’t catch two legal keepers anyway, and the new ruling will encourage the illegal practice of hi-grading – releasing smaller, dead keepers already in possession to keep a larger fish.

While we can’t say for sure what next year’s striped bass young-of-the-year number will be, we can look at the production that has already taken place to see just how many fish are in the biomass. It is the fish that are already born that we will have to work with for years to come. Nothing can change that, which means we will not have generally improving fishing for striped bass for many years. The reportedly large 2011 year class is in the pipeline. Those fish are now 17 inches or so in size and should be filling every nook and cranny along the coastline as is normal for three year old stripers from a giant year class. But very few fish of this size have been reported by anglers up and down the coast; nor were those 2011 fish seen in abundance last year as 11-inch, two-year-old stripers. There is no denying that the number of small stripers available over the past 10 years is much smaller than it was in the previous decade. That means there will be many fewer big fish in the coast-wide striped bass population down the road than there are now.

So while the vote this week mandating regulatory changes for 2015 is a step in the right direction, we would be surprised if those changes will substantially improve the striped bass population, or even make any difference. The battle is a very long way from being over. Although we feel that game fish status is the logical and inevitable future of striped bass management, any move away from the long-standing commercial bias is frustratingly slow in coming. So there is an even greater need for Stripers Forever and its members to remain involved in the fishery management process. In a few weeks we will launch our 12th consecutive annual fishing survey. Each year we have supplied fishery managers with the results of this coast-wide survey, and it is an important reason why the needs of the recreational fishing community are being taken more seriously in the fishery management process.

Thanks to everyone from Stripers Forever and from other conservation organizations whose members took the time to tell the ASMFC that stripers must be managed more conservatively. The ASMFC heard us and responded favorably. We must continue to keep the pressure on the ASMFC while we advocate for striped bass game fish. We need your help, so please stay involved.

Brad Burns
President, Stripers Forever