BUZZARDS BAY, Mass. — September 3, 2014 — Worried that the poster child for good fishery management, the striped bass, might be sliding backward with fishermen potentially catching more fish than the spawning adult fish can replace, fishery managers proposed cutting the quotas for both commercial and recreational fishermen by as much as 25 percent.
The measures are intended to reverse a seven-year trend of declining adult bass population within three years.
Staff from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which regulates fishing in state waters from Florida to Maine, and the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries held a public hearing Tuesday night at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy to get public comment on a suite of options to reverse a steady decline in the spawning population over the past seven years.
That has resulted in a 19 percent drop in landings since 2008.
Regulators aired proposals for the next year that included the 25 percent cut in landings as well as other plans that advocated a 17 percent cut, or that phased in a 21 percent reduction in 7 percent increments over three years. Other measures to help achieve these goals included decreasing the daily limit for recreational fishermen to one fish and a variety of options to bump up the minimum size.
The approximately 60 striped bass fishermen who attended the hearing were vocal in their support for quick and effective action.
"There will be economic hardships, but this is not about an economic study, it's about sustaining a fishery, to have it be productive," said Charlie Gregory of Fall River, who fishes commercially from the beach and from a kayak. Like many in the room, Gregory supported the 25 percent cut done in one year.
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