May 27, 2025 — Mid-Atlantic charter fishing captains are leading a federal court challenge to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and its decisions limiting the striped bass seasons.
The charter operators say they are taking aim at the ASMFC’s actions to limit the 2024 season “through a combination ofshortening the fishing season; reducing the size of removable fish; lowering commercial quotas; and limiting recreational fishers on charter boats to one fish per day.”
In a May 14 announcement about the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., the charter captains cited Maryland Department of Natural Resources reporting after the close of the 2024 fishing season as confirming the association’s predictions “that the ASMFC rule changes would devastate the industry with a revenue drop-off of up to 75 percent.”
Maryland Charter Boat Association president Brian Hardman “confirmed those results and reported that over 50 companies have already been forced out of business and have had to put their vessels on the market at ‘fire sale prices,’” the captains say.