Saving Seafood

Maryland plan to lift fishing ban on spawning striped bass stirs debate

May 28, 2025 — A plan by Maryland to reopen fishing for striped bass in the Chesapeake Bay during their spring spawning season has raised questions about whether it’s a good idea amid a six-year slump in reproduction by the prized migratory fish species.

The Department of Natural Resources wants to lift its current ban on fishing for striped bass, also known as rockfish, during  April and the first two weeks of May. It proposes to allow catch-and-release in April, and then, starting May 1, keeping one fish a day measuring 19 to 24 inches.

To offset that change, DNR said it would close fishing for striped bass altogether for all of August, a change from the previous two-week closure in late July. The monthlong closure aims to reduce the heat-related deaths of fish that can happen even if they’re promptly released after being caught.

DNR has asked the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to include this change in Maryland’s fishing seasons beginning in 2026, as it weighs new steps to speed rebuilding of the striped bass population from past overfishing. The commission, which regulates near-shore fishing for migratory fish species, aims to decide by the end of the year.

DNR said it wants to simplify its regulations and align the state’s striped bass fishing season more closely with Virginia and the separately regulated Potomac River. It also wants to give anglers more incentive to fish in the spring. Mike Luisi, DNR’s fisheries assessment manager, said the closures currently in effect in Maryland have essentially driven all anglers off the water and hurt the business of tackle shops and some fishing guides.

The Maryland proposal, though, has rekindled long-standing friction between commercial and recreational fishing interests. At the Atlantic States commission’s May 6 meeting in Crystal City, VA, Brian Hardman, the head of the Maryland Charter Boat Association charged that Maryland’s proposal would expand striped bass fishing greatly for anglers who practice catch-and-release while further restricting those who want to bring their catch home to eat. Charter captains have reported declines of up to 70% in bookings in 2024 after a rule change deprived their customers of the ability to keep two striped bass per trip.

Read the full article at the Bay Journal

“Tough News”: CBF’s Bay Health Grade Remains At D+

January 6, 2023 — The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) just released its State of the Bay report, which comes out every two years. The overall score for 2022 remained unchanged from 2020’s grade at a D-plus—not the result the foundation was hoping for.

The State of the Bay report looks at 13 indicators within the categories of pollution, habitat and fisheries. Each indicator gets a score, and together they provide an overall score out of 100. A score of 70 would mean a fully-restored Bay has been achieved; a 100 is the Bay’s condition before European settlers arrived in the 1600s.

This year, the score remained a 32/100. Three indicators improved, three worsened, and the remaining seven were unchanged.

Phosphorus levels came down, but overall water clarity worsened. Nitrogen, toxics, and dissolved oxygen indicators were unchanged from 2020.

CBF says one of the biggest places where Bay restoration efforts are struggling is agriculture pollution. Urban and suburban runoff are also increasing due to land development, increased stormwater from climate change, and “inconsistent enforcement by government agencies,” CBF says.

In one sign of hope, the Bay’s dead zone in the 2022 season was the 10th-smallest since the states began tracking it 38 years ago. And the Bay region has seen more farm conservation funding from the federal government and the states that should reduce nitrogen and phosphorous.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Chesapeake Bay Program recently acknowledged that the Bay states aren’t going to reach the 2025 “pollution diet” goals set back in 2010.

Read the full article at Chesapeake Bay Magazine 

Lack of Seasonal Worker Visas Straps Chesapeake Seafood Industry

May 30, 2017 — The Chesapeake Bay’s crab, oyster and bait industry has been losing its American workforce since the late 1980s, as the old hands retire and younger workers seek better paying jobs.

The packing houses turned to foreign, seasonal workers to fill the gaps, but the visa program Congress established for that, dubbed H2B, quickly reaches the 66,000 worker cap. And that’s forcing some seafood processing plants to shut down.

For example, the only sound you hear at Cowart Seafood Company’s bait fish packing facility in the Northern Neck of Virginia these days is the incessant buzz of overhead lights. Manager A. J. Erskine says normally the early morning hours are filled with the sounds of the chum grinder, bait filler, skid rollers, fork lifts and crews packing bait into boxes.

“We don’t have the seasonal labor to be able to operate this plant,” he says. “If we run out of product we lose our place in the market and another product will come in and replace us.”

Omega Protein, the Texas based seafood giant, operates a menhaden rendering plant, just down the road from Bevans with local American workers. But spokesman Ben Landry says their Gulf Coast plants compete with year-round oil company jobs, so there, they rely on H2B workers.

“We’ve taken a couple of boats out of service in the Gulf because of this,” he says. “We’ve gotten some employees from U.S. Territories like Puerto Rico. What do we do with the program in the future, I think, really depends on how this season goes because there is a lot of uncertainty with that program now.”

Read the full story at WVTF