Stripers Forever Protest Chesapeake 14% Quota Increase

The letter below was sent by Stripers Forever to Officials in MD and VA in protest of the planned 14% quota increase in Chesapeake Bay that is designed to target the 2011 year class – the only really successful one in the last 10 years.  More information is available in the previous two posts.

To: ICPRB, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Virginia Marine
resources Commission
From: Stripers Forever
Subject: The Chesapeake Bay striped bass quota increase

The striped bass population is in serious decline along the Atlantic coast
according to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. Even though
it insists that stripers are not yet being overfished, the ASMFC board has
directed its technical committee to develop ways to reduce striper
mortality beginning in 2015.
So we were shocked to learn that Maryland, Virginia and the Potomac River
Watershed Commission have decided to increase harvest quotas in the
Chesapeake Bay area for 2014, thus exploiting the only above-average
striped bass spawning year class in the past decade. The decision is
irresponsible at best and will force increased commercial pressure on an
already badly compromised fishery
Stripers Forever joins the Coastal Conservation Association in requesting
that the harvest increases planned for the Chesapeake Bay area be
rescinded immediately so this threatened fishery can be conservatively
managed to sustain the resource.
Thank you.
Brad Burns
President, Stripers Forever