ASMFC 2024 Annual Meeting Summary & Action Alert Winners
Last Wednesday, October 23, 2024 the Striped Bass Management Board met durning the ASMFC 2024 Annual Meeting. It was a six-hour meeting and we came away with mixed feelings.
There are clearly some board members who refuse to admit (publicly) that wild Atlantic striped bass are on the brink of another collapse. Rather than accept their own data and look for solutions, they instead choose to side with constituents who demand the right to not only keep killing fish, but to kill more of them. Representatives of the commercial fishing community and for-hire fleets argued that their demands should take priority over tens of thousands of recreational anglers and the businesses that serve them.
But there were also some board members who, recognizing that the situation facing striped bass is a crisis, expressed frustration with their colleagues who stand in the way of meaningful action. That gives us hope that there will be action in the future. The only question is, will that action happen in time?
Here are some quick takeaways from the meeting:
- The 2024 Stock Assessment update suggests that the stock will not rebuild by the 2029 deadline without the intervention of the board and a further reduction in fishing mortality.
- The stock is currently overfished but not experiencing overfishing in 2024.
- There is some uncertainty around the current assessment due to incomplete MRIP data.
- Research suggests that the mandated use of circle hooks has not improved release mortality as believed.
- The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries/University of Massachusetts study affirmed a 9% overall rate of recreational release mortality, although there needs to be a closer look at regional influence.
- The spawning stock biomass showed a slight improvement as fish from the 2017 year-class reached sexual maturity, but the biomass is also being hit hard by both commercial and recreational harvest. Commissioners expressed concern that the lack of spawning success means that biomass will quickly decline without a significant reduction in harvest.
- A lot is riding on the 2018 year-class as most of those fish have now likely grown to where they have reached the coastal recreational slot and commercial size limit.
It’s easy to see that these findings add up to bad news for the fish that remain in the ocean and on which the future depends. And while policy change was not on the October agenda, a motion passed to hold an emergency meeting in December to debate and, hopefully, take action for 2025 aimed at effecting a meaningful reduction in harvest.
Unfortunately, the Maryland and Delaware delegations made the dubious contention that it is already too late for them to change regulations for their commercial fisheries. Such arguments were, in our opinion, pre-emptive and intended as damage control to show their friends that they are fighting for their interests. We’ll see how it plays out since any cuts to harvest should be equitable across all user groups.
It is worth noting that the idea of a moratorium, which we have pushed for since 2021 and the debate over Amendment 7, did show up in subtle ways. Whereas in 2021 the reactions to our proposal were hostile (to put it mildly), there were signals that, if things do not improve measurably by this time next year, such an idea might be reasonable.
What does that mean for Stripers Forever?
Thanks to the steadfast pressure that our members have put on the ASMFC through public comments, we have clearly changed the conversation to the point where some delegates have left the door ajar. Comments received by the ASMFC prior to this meeting were overwhelmingly supportive of an equitable harvest moratorium, and we believe that some influential voices in the fishing community are coming to grips with the idea that a moratorium is likely the only arrow left in the ASMFC’s management quiver that has a chance of hitting the target.
So where do we go from here?
There will likely be a call for public comments prior to the December meeting and we will let you know at that time what we think the best response will be. Please keep your eyes open for those messages. The TC (technical committee) will also be working on some assignments from the board. The information gained from the below will help guide the board in deciding the best action plan to ensure a rebuilding of the stock by 2029. Unfortunately, the board seems satisfied with a 50% or at best 60% chance of rebuilding by 2029. So, the fate of stock and the economy which it supports is decided by a coin toss. Not the way we would do business and in our humble opinion, a losing bet.
In the meantime, thank you for your support and for your concern for the future of wild Atlantic striped bass.
This is the statement we read at the outset of the meeting:
Recreational slot and commercial size limits focused on harvesting breeding-sized fish.
Gill nets in the Bay—legal and illegal—killing fish indiscriminately.
Environmental conditions squeezing the spawning window so narrow that there is no room for error.
Mycobacteriosis. Predation. Invasive species. Warming water. Lack of forage.
It adds up to a crisis for striped bass. And yet, as with every other meeting of the striped bass technical committee, there will be lots of numbers and charts and formulas cited as sleight of hand to convince the public that the fisheries managers have things under control and that we just aren’t smart enough understand. And yet we’ve had a quarter-century of the smartest people in the room presiding over a steady decline in the striped bass population.
In 2021 I was among the voices calling for the ASMFC to do something bold and initiate a ten-year recreational and commercial harvest moratorium. I, and many others, asked that the fishery be shut down long enough to give striped bass a chance to recover and achieve the abundance and healthy age stratification the Commission claims are its management goals.
And now, after six straight years of spawning failure, this meeting will likely conclude with more of the same: incremental tweaks to a ten-year recovery plan that is entering its fourth year with no indication that improvement is imminent, and the remaining breeding population producing numbers insufficient to fill the reproductive pipeline.
What will it take for the ASMFC to find the courage to do the right thing and shut the fishery down for the sake of the future of striped bass? Pausing the commercial harvest and imposing a zero-bag limit for recreational anglers is the last, best hope for recovery.
If the Commission is serious about achieving its goals, an equitable harvest moratorium needs to be a part of the debate.
ACTION ALERT – WINNERS
A BIG THANK YOU to those who took the time to be part of the process!
Winners of the 5 limited edition SFxSLP striped bass bracelets have been notified via email. Once shipping addresses have been confirmed bracelets will be shipped.
ADDITIONAL LINKS
- ASMFC 2024 Annual Meeting: News Release 10/24/24 – Atlantic Striped Bass Stock Assessment Update Finds Resource Remains Overfished With A Less Than 50% Chance of Rebuilding by 2029 (PDF)
- ASMFC 2024 Annual Meeting: Presentations (PDF)
- ASMFC 2024 Annual Meeting: Audio/Video Meeting Recording (YouTube)
Six Straight Years of Failed Striped Bass Spawning
Maryland and Virginia reported their 2024 juvenile young of year indexes for striped bass. There’s no other way to put it: failure. That’s six straight years of dismal reproduction in the most important nursery for wild Atlantic striped bass. And that should have alarm bells ringing at the ASMFC.
Female striped bass reach sexual maturity between four and eight years. That means the 2017 and 2018 year classes—the last two that were above average—are not showing up to reproduce as hoped. The ASMFC already admitted that the good 2015 year class is a lost cause, and so there are very few breeders left available to return in the spring. Yet the harvest continues to be focused on breeder-sized fish.
Right now, Maryland’s Juvenile Striped Bass Index looks a lot like it did in the mid-1970s when the striper population collapsed. The action that changed the fish’s fortune then was a harvest moratorium, and even though not every state chose to do so, it was the moratorium that brought the fish back from the brink. Let the ASMFC know that they can’t wait fifteen years. Now is the time to do the right thing and enact a coastwide equitable (recreational and commercial) harvest moratorium.
ADDITIONAL LINKS
- MD Department of Natural Resources: Results of Chesapeake Bay 2024 Young-of-Year Striped Bass Survey Show Little Change
- Virginia Institute of Marine Science: A poor year for juvenile striped bass in Virginia waters in 2024
ACTION ALERT – ASMFC 2024 Annual Meeting (Wednesday, October 23, 2024 1:30-5PM EST)
In 2022 the ASMFC adopted a new ten-year striped bass management plan, Stripers Forever was the lone voice calling for bold action beyond the scope of the available options. We called for a ten-year harvest moratorium. At the time we said:
“We are 18 years into a 10-year management plan that has utterly failed in its objective to rebuild striped bass stocks. Now the ASMFC is preparing to embark on yet another 10-year plan of compromise and half-measures, and stripers may not survive. Bold, decisive action is needed to prevent a collapse of the fishery like we saw in the late 1970s. An emergency moratorium was adopted in 1984, and is the only approach proven to work.”
We stand behind that call and today there is an opportunity to once again send a message to the ASMFC: For the sake of the survival of wild striped bass, adopt a ten-year harvest moratorium.
Environmental conditions in the most important area for striped bass reproduction have narrowed to the point where there is no room for error, as evinced by five consecutive years of spawning failure in the upper Chesapeake. Warming water, micobacteriosis, predation by invasive species, lack of forage, increased fishing pressure, gill netting, and industrial-scale poaching are removing adults faster than they can breed. Soon we will be presented with new options that amount to little more than minor, incremental adjustments that will succeed only in delaying the bold action needed to save striped bass.
It took the ASMFC 18 years to admit their previous ten-year plan had failed. We are now three years into Amendment 7 and striped bass are worse off than they were when that ten-year plan began. And with five straight years of spawning failure there are no new generations of fish coming into maturity in sufficient numbers. Yet we continue to harvest mature fish rather than preserve them. The situation is unsustainable.
As we did in 2021, it is time to go off script and let the ASMFC know that we reject their options; we reject the absurdity of trying to reverse the rapidly building momentum of an impending crash with tweaks that even they admit have, at best, a coin-flip chance of making only modest improvements. Striped bass can’t wait.
The ASMFC’s goals are to restore abundance and healthy age stratification. To achieve those goals demands a ten-year harvest moratorium that will maximize survival of the fish available today, protect what fish are spawned tomorrow, and allow these fish to grow into maturity. Please write to express your frustration with the ASMFC’s half-measures and demand the kind of bold action befitting a crisis. A harvest moratorium. Ten years of zero commercial harvest and of strict catch-and-release for the recreational fishery is the ONLY policy that has a chance of achieving the ASMFC’s stated goals and of saving striped bass.
ACTION ALERT
Submitting your comments is an easy and effective way to be part of the process. Let the ASMFC know that they must act now. As an added bonus we will be giving away 5 limited edition SFxSLP striped bass bracelets.
To be automatically be entered to win all you need to do is send your comments to comments@asmfc.org and CC us at comments@stripersforever.org.
Following the meeting on October 23rd we will randomly draw 5 winners. Winners will be notified via the email address used to send in comments.
- Get your comments in by 5 PM on Tuesday, October 15 so they will be included in the supplemental materials for the meeting.
- You must indicate in your email that you want your comments included in the supplemental materials for the meeting.
Next Wednesday, October 23, 2024 from 1:30pm to 5PM EST the Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board will meet during the ASMFC 2024 Annual Meeting. Below is the meeting agenda.
To register for the live webinar please click here: ASMFC 2024 Annual Meeting – Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board
Webinar ID: 565-353-915
Call in: +1.562.247.8422
Access Code: 953-170-135
A PIN will be provided to you after joining the webinar. For those who will not be joining the webinar
but would like to listen in to the audio portion only, press the # key when asked for a PIN.
ADDITIONAL LINKS
- ASMFC Annual Meeting: Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board – Main Meeting Materials (PDF)
- ASMFC Annual Meeting: Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board – Supplemental Materials (PDF)
- ASMFC Annual Meeting: Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board – Supplemental Materials 2 (PDF)
UMass Amherst Depredation Survey
Do you go fishing along the Atlantic coast from North Carolina to Maine? Has a predator taken your fish while fighting it on the end of the line? A team from the University of Massachusetts Amherst is conducting a survey on depredation – when a predator partially or wholly consumes an angler’s catch before it is landed. If this is something you’ve experienced, then they need to hear your views on depredation. Use the link https://bit.ly/3VipGtl to take the survey.
Dr. Andy J. Danylchuk, Professor of Fish Conservation at UMass Amherst, recently reached out regarding a survey his lab is conducting. It is being spearheaded by Evan Prasky, a PhD student. This is a survey of anglers from North Carolina to Maine and is focused on depredation. Andy is a friend of Stripers Forever and is also the Science Advisor at Keep Fish Wet, promoting the use of science-based best practices to catch, handle, and release fish. We are thrilled to help with this important survey by sharing it with you. As a bonus for your participation and help with this research project, you can enter to win a Patagonia Guidewater Backpack (retail value $299).
For those not familiar, depredation is when a predator (shark, seal, etc) takes a fish off the end of an angler’s line before it is landed. Depredation is a rapidly increasing and controversial topic, and there are important knowledge gaps that are important to fill so that our community can address these issues in an informed way. With that, this is why our survey is specifically focused on the recreational fishery between North Carolina and Maine, since previous surveys have addressed the issue further south.
