Saving Seafood

Striped bass restrictions head to Supreme Court

March 11, 2025 — A coalition of Maryland fishing associations and charter boat operators have escalated their legal battle against new striped bass fishing restrictions, filing an emergency petition with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to block the regulations.

Capt. Robert Newberry, chairman of Delmarva Fisheries Association stated, “We will take this case to the highest court until this matter is resolved — it is far from over.”

The Delmarva Fisheries Association and the Maryland Charter Boat Association, along with two individual commercial fishermen, argue that the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s recent measures impose “drastic, unwarranted, and illegal limitations” on striped bass fishing in the Chesapeake Bay and along the Atlantic coast. The petition, filed March 4, claims the restrictions violate the U.S. Constitution and could jeopardize the livelihoods of many small businesses.

Read the full article at Southern Maryland News

More Striped Bass Restrictions Possible for Chesapeake Bay Fisheries

October 25, 2024 — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) held a meeting this week to review recent studies that suggest the Chesapeake Bay’s striped bass (or rockfish) populations continue to struggle.

According to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation,a 2024 stock assessment update showed the number of rockfish remains below sustainable numbers despite multiple recent efforts to reduce their mortality. Studies conducted in Maryland and Virginia suggest similar issues with lower levels of juvenile fish in consecutive years.

“If an upcoming stock assessment prior to the rebuilding deadline of 2029 indicates that the stock is not projected to rebuild by 2029, with a probability greater than or equal to 50 percent, the Board can respond via Board action, essentially by changing management measures via a vote to pass a motion, as opposed to an addendum or an amendment,” Dr. Katie Drew said at the ASMFC meeting.

Read the full article at WBOC

Delmarva Watermen File Lawsuit Challenging New Rockfish Regulations

March 11, 2024 — Delmarva Fisheries Association Inc. (DFA) and Maryland Charter Boat Association (MCBA) have filed a formal lawsuit challenging the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) recent mandates that would reduce recreational fishing limits for striped bass (or rockfish) by more than 50%.

As WBOC’s Lauren Miller previously reported, ASMFC’s new regulations would reduce the recreational catch limit on striped bass from two bass 19-31 inches per person to one fish 19-24 inches per person. The new rules are currently slated to take effect May 1st. On the commercial side, fishermen would face a 7% reduction in harvest limits.

Read the full article at WBOC

MARYLAND: Following worrying rockfish population data, Maryland looks to cancel spring trophy season for 2024

November 30, 2023 — After five straight years of troubling data on the population of young rockfish in the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland officials plan to enact emergency regulations canceling this spring’s trophy season for recreational anglers.

The rules would eliminate the once exciting two weeks each spring when anglers targeted large fish swimming up the bay to spawn. But this period had been delayed from April into May in recent years in an effort to protect the spawning fish, which diminished its allure.

“That’s the time when Maryland fishermen have access to what is essentially a large, oceanic fish,” said Lynn Fegley, director of fishing and boating services at Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources. “But given the very low recruitment—baby striped bass numbers—we’ve had successively over the last few years, we are moving to just give the fish a break.”

The emergency rules were spurred by a troubling so-called young-of-the-year survey, released in October, that found juvenile striped bass numbers in the Chesapeake Bay at their second-worst result since the survey began in the 1950s. It marked the fifth successive year showing numbers well below the historical average.

Under the new rules proposed by the department, Chesapeake Bay anglers wouldn’t be able to catch and keep rockfish, also known as striped bass, until May 16 next year. In the Susquehanna Flats, located at the mouth of the Susquehanna River near Perryville, Maryland’s newly proposed rules would push back the start date until June 1.

State officials said that the delayed opening in the flats, where many striped bass end their journeys from the Atlantic Ocean to spawn, is an attempt to further protect large adult fish lingering in the sprawling underwater grass beds near the Susquehanna, so they can produce more young

Read the full article at PHYS.org

States Schedule Public Hearings on Atlantic Striped Bass Draft Addendum II

November 21, 2023 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic coastal states of Maine through Virginia have scheduled hearings to gather public input on Draft Addendum II to Amendment 7 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Striped Bass, which considers management measures designed to support stock rebuilding by reducing fishing mortality to the target in 2024. Some hearings will be conducted in-person, and some hearings will be conducted via webinar, or in a hybrid format. If you are unable to participate in your state’s scheduled hearing, you are welcome to participate in any of the virtual or hybrid hearings. New Jersey is in the process of scheduling a second hearing; the details of this hearing will be released when they become available. Additional details on participating in the webinars can be found later in this release.

New striped bass fishing curbs eyed amid poor spawning in Chesapeake Bay

October 22, 2023 — Acting on the heels of poor striped bass spawning reported again in the Chesapeake Bay, East Coast fisheries managers are considering new catch restrictions aimed at curbing the decline of the highly sought-after migratory fish.

At its annual meeting in North Carolina, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s striped bass board voted Oct. 18 to seek public comment on a suite of conservation measures that could be imposed starting in 2024.

The “draft addendum” to the commission’s striped bass fishery management plan lays out options for setting a variety of limits on the number and size of fish that anglers could catch in the Bay and along the coast. It also proposes reducing the commercial harvest quota by up to 14.5%, on par with the reduction sought in the recreational fishery.

The commission, which represents state fishery managers from along the coast as well as federal agencies, will hold a series of hearings and take public comments in writing on the plan over the next two months.  It intends to choose among the options and take final action at its next meeting in January in Arlington, VA.

The commission vote came less than a week after the Maryland Department of Natural Resources reported that its annual seine survey of state waters for juvenile fish yielded an average of just 1.02 little striped bass per net haul, far below the long-term average of 11.1. That is the second lowest tally since 1957. It also marks the fifth straight year of seriously subpar reproductive success for the species.

Read the full article at Bay Journal

Striped Bass Management Is Key and Complex

June 2, 2023 —  On May 2 of this year at its annual spring meeting, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission made history in the now decades-long saga of America’s great “gamefish,” the striped bass.

By a vote of 15 to 1 (with New Jersey standing alone in opposition), and for only the third time in the body’s 70-plus-year history, “emergency action” was invoked, allowing the commission to rapidly augment the regulatory structure of a threatened fishery. That action in this case amounts to narrowing the coastwide slot limit, so as to ban the recreational harvest of striped bass under 28 inches and over 31 inches for a period of 180 starting no later than July 2.

The commission also initiated the development of an amendment to its current Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Striped Bass. This so-called Addendum II is intended to “address the concerns about increased removals and stock rebuilding beyond 2023.”

While leaving many asking if it’s too little, too late, the measure is undoubtedly a win for conservation advocates and wild fish activists. Whether it will be a win for the stripers has yet to be determined.

The commission’s rationale for taking this action was straightforward. From 2021-2022, harvest of striped bass in the Atlantic more than doubled, ballooning from close to 16 million pounds to more than 35 million pounds.

Read the full article at Vineyard Gazette 

Striped bass are in trouble again. Can an emergency measure save them?

May 24, 2023 — To understand the emergency catch limits being rushed into place for recreational anglers who chase striped bass — by far the most popular saltwater fish in the Northeast and the centerpiece of a multibillion-dollar industry — you have to understand “the slot” and how the “class of 2015″ is swimming right into it.

The slot refers to the size range of fish an angler is allowed to keep. In Massachusetts, where an estimated quarter-million anglers chase “stripers” each year, the slot has been 28 to 35 inches since 2020.

As a management practice, the restrictions allow for the harvest of wild food — licensed anglers can keep one slot fish per day — while protecting the larger fish, which are the most important breeders, requiring they be released back into the ocean to replenish the population.

Read the full article at the Boston Globe