Chesapeake Bay Striped Bass kill to Increase 14% in 2014
| The Maryland Department of Natural Resources recently announced that the Chesapeake Bay harvest quota would increase by 14% in 2014. The text of the release and information on the splits between jurisdictions and recreational/commercial allocations can be found below. The reason is simply that the 2011 year class had a high young of the year count, and managers feel that the extra biomass is there to catch. The Bay had been harvesting less than the quota allowable under the ASMFC quota because production of young striped bass has been poor.Stripers Forever’s board disagrees with this increase as do most of the fishermen and fishing groups that we have spoken with. While 2011 may have produced a good young of the year count, we did not see the volume of very small stripers along the coast that would indicate an overly large year class. Survival of young Chesapeake Bass is an issue considering the disease and water quality issues the Bay faces. Beyond that we know that the 2012 and 2013 year classes were poor, so there is not much in back of this one year class. Additionally the ASMFC stock assessment just confirmed that striped bass are far less abundant now than just a few years ago. We are already near or in a state of overfishing, and we have fished the stock at above the target rate consistently for years. It seems like reductions are called for and not quota increases.
We can lay this on the doorstep of the commercial fishery. If striped bass were a coast wide game fish the recreational community would have vetoed these increases for certain. Here is the announcement.
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Striped Bass Stock Status
At its annual meeting on October 29, 2013, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) adopted a new stock assessment. In a nutshell, the assessment shows that while the spawning stock biomass is not yet critically low (as of the end of 2012), we have reached the overfished threshold and are well below the target level set in 1993 when the stock was first thought to be recovered from the crash of the 1970’s. The overfished threshold is a point at which the spawning stock biomass would slip below the level it was at when the successful 1993 year class was spawned, and is calculated to provide what is thought to be the minimum acceptable spawning stock – one with some margin of error that could produce the much larger year classes needed to support a robust recreational fishery.
The current level of fishing mortality, while below the threshold in 2012, is now forecast to be greater than the prescribed target, which means that too many fish are being killed by fishermen to maintain the target spawning stock biomass.
Striped bass spawning success varies from year to year. But the recent Young of the Year (YOY) spawning numbers are very disturbing. The 2013 YOY count of striped bass spawned in Maryland’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay was below the average of the last 20 years (see graphic below). A year earlier, in 2012, the YOY count was the worst ever. The Hudson River, which is the second largest producer of baby stripers on the Atlantic Coast, has now had three years of poor spawning success. Striped bass are the major predators in their niche, and nature designed them to grow large and to spawn over a long lifetime. Some biologists are greatly concerned that the management concept of focusing harvest on the larger, more mature fish in the population is destabilizing and could lead to long-term spawning disaster.
Further evidence of the declining fishery is evident in greatly decreased recreational catches and a lower CPUE coast-wide. CPUE stands for catch-per-unit effort which simply means how many fish are caught during the time spent trying to catch them. The catch declines have been reported throughout the migratory range of the striped bass.
Paul Diodati, the Massachusetts Director of Fisheries, offered a plan to cut the recreational catch in the coastal fishery from two fish at 28 inches to one fish, and to make a cut of corresponding magnitude — about 38 percent — in the commercial quotas. Diodati said he had been on the water and seen firsthand what has happened to the fishery. He also said the latest stock assessment shows that the ASMFC should have taken steps to reduce fishing mortality several years ago.
Unfortunately, most other members of the ASMFC were not prepared to make immediate cuts. It is impossible for us to understand why, especially since opponents of Diodati’s measure include representatives of several states where the striped bass is already a game fish. Instead, the ASMFC charged the technical committee to come up with a list of five possible measures beginning in 2015 that are designed to bring the population back in line with the target spawning stock biomass. We think these reductions will be too little too late and that far greater cutbacks will be required down the road.
Stripers Forever feels that harvest reductions are needed now to lower striper mortality and raise the level of the striped bass population coast-wide. Stripers Forever was started 10 years ago because many of us could see the quality of the fishery begin to slip away almost as soon as catch levels were increased to the current levels. The YOY graph reveals that the year classes since 2000 have been on average much smaller than those in the 1990’s. Nothing can change that — the fish are simply not in the pipeline to support the current levels of fishing mortality. No one really understands how much fishing pressure striped bass can take and still reproduce successfully, but it is obvious that the fishing pressure needs to be substantially lower than it is now.
Stripers Forever has bills in the Massachusetts legislature that would remove the part-time or “recremercial” fishermen from the fishery, reduce the commercial quota correspondingly, and eventually sunset the commercial fishery completely in 2025. We will also carefully monitor the ASMFC’s deliberations on striped bass and through our membership try to influence the decision making process to adequately reduce the harvest and help turn around the declining population.
Action Alert Hearing on HD717 and 716
ACTION ALERT…HEARING NOTICE
Stripers Forever Members
In preparation for our up-coming Committee Hearing to be held on Nov. 6th at 1:00 PM for HD717 and HD716 in meeting room A-2, Stripers Forever will be meeting with members of the House and Senate Committee on Natural Resources, the Environment and Agriculture during the week of 10/28 – 10/31. Below find meetings that have already been set up. As more meetings are confirmed, we will update this list. Your participation will be welcomed.
The purpose of this notification is to afford you the opportunity to attend one of the meetings if you live in the town or district of the Representative or Senator or if you have a personal relationship with them. Please be aware that meeting may end up being with the legislator’s staff since the schedule can be unpredictable during session. You will meet with our lobbyist (Henri Rauschenbach) 15 minutes beforehand to go over the strategy for the meeting. If you want to attend a meeting contact Henri as soon as possible at henri.rauschenbach@gmail.com.
The meetings scheduled so far are:
Sen. Michael Rush (D-Boston)(Room 504) – Tuesday 10/29 at 2PM
Sen. Dan Wolf (D – Cape & Islands) (Room511-B) – Thursday 10/31 at 1:30PM
Sen. Ben Downing (D-Berkshires) (Room 413-F) (with aide) – Thursday 10/31 at 2:30PM
Rep. Anne Gobi (D – Spencer) (Room 473-F) – Monday 11/4 at 4:30PM
Rep. Paul Mark (D – Hancock) (Room 472) -Wednesday 10/30 at 1:00PM
Rep. Matt Beaton (D-Shrewsbury) (Room 167) – Wednesday 10/30 at 2:00PM
If you cannot attend a meeting we urge you to contact legislators on the committee and ask them to support HD 717 and 716 which will in effect remove recreational anglers from the commercial fishery and reduce the quota correspondingly, and will sunset the entire fishery by 2025. The second bill will require that striped bass tagged by commercial fishermen be tagged immediately at the point of capture. The message should be short and direct. Something like this:
“My name is XXXX and I live in TOWN, MASSACHUSETTS. Striped bass are important to me. The fishery has declined greatly, and stripers need to be better managed. I urge you to vote for HD717 and 716.
Here is a list of committee members and their contact information. Please let them know that you want striped bass to be conserved.
SENATE MEMBERS Phone Email Residence
Sen. Marc Pacheco (D) Chair 617-722-1551 Marc.Pacheco@masenate.gov Taunton
Sen. Michael Rush (D) Vice Chair 617-722-1348 Mike.Rush@masenate.gov Boston
Sen. William Brownsberger (D) 617-722-1280 William.Brownsberger@masenate.gov Belmont
Sen. Dan Wolf (D) 617-722-1570 Daniel.Wolf@masenate.gov Harwich
Sen. Ben Downing (D) 617-722-1625 Benjamin.Downing@masenate.gov Pittsfield
Sen. Robert Hedlund ® 617-722-1646 Robert.Hedlund@masenate.gov Weymouth
HOUSE MEMBERS
Rep. Anne Gobi (D) Chair 617-722-2210 Anne.Gobi@mahouse.gov Spencer
Rep. Paul Schmid(D) Vice Chair 617-722-2210 Paul.Schmid@mahouse.gov Westport
Rep. Robert Koczera (D) 617-722-2582 Robert.Koczera@mahouse.gov New Bedford
Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante (D) 617-722-2210 Ann-Margaret.Ferrante@mahouse.gov Gloucester
Rep. Paul Mark (D) 617-722-2013 Paul.Mark@mahouse.gov Hancock
Rep. Mary Keefe (D) 617-722-2210 Mary.Keefe@mahouse.gov Worcester
Rep. Carolyn Dykema (D) 617-722-2210 Carolyn.Dykema@mahouse.gov Holliston
Rep. Gailanne Cariddi (D) 617-722-2130 Gailanne.Cariddi@mahouse.gov North Adams
Rep. Christopher Markey (D) 617-722-2450 Christopher.Markey@mahouse.gov Dartmouth
Rep. Matthew Beaton (R ) 617-722-2230 Matthew.Beaton@mahouse.gov Shrewsbury
Rep. Susan Williams Gifford (R ) 617-722-2976 Susan.Gifford@mahouse.gov Wareham
Thank you for lending a hand to our efforts. Dean Clark Co-Chair, MA
Lou Tabory on The State of the Striper
Recently, in Fly Fishing In Saltwaters Magazine, striper fly rod expert Lou Tabory expresses his thoughts on the state of the striper, and expresses his fear that it will take another crash like the 1980s to pass the best possible solution, which is game fish designation. A copy of the article is attached.
