Saving Seafood

ASMFC leaves rockfish regulations unchanged

December 27, 2024 — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board has left rockfish regulations unchanged.

The decision responds to the 2024 Stock Assessment Update, which indicates that while the resource remains overfished, it is not currently experiencing overfishing. Projections estimate an increase in fishing mortality in 2025 due to the above-average 2018 year-class entering the current recreational ocean slot limit, combined with the lack of strong year-classes behind it. To address these concerns, the Board plans to explore a range of reductions for both recreational and commercial fisheries, including adjustments to season and size limits that account for regional differences, as well as potential no-harvest and no-targeting closures.

“We understand that many will be disappointed in the Board’s decision to initiate an addendum versus taking immediate action,” said Board Chair Megan Ware from Maine. “However, after deliberating for more than three hours about the path forward, the Board came to the conclusion that the best course of action is to proceed with an addendum which will allow for clarity on 2024 removals and additional analyses.”

Read the full article at Shore Daily News

MARYLAND: Striped Bass Fishing Season in Maryland Kicks Off Amidst Controversy Over New Regulations

May 19, 2024 — On the opening day of striped bass fishing in Maryland, recreational anglers and charter boats ventured out onto the Chesapeake Bay, but not all were enthusiastic about the start of the season. New regulations set by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) aimed at bolstering the struggling rockfish population in the Chesapeake have left some captains and guests apprehensive.

Charter boat captains, such as John Motovidlak, voiced concerns about the impact of the regulations on their business. “I’m gonna say I’m between 30 and 40 percent short on my bookings,” Motovidlak lamented.

Under the ASMFC’s new rules, only one fish within the 19 to 24-inch slot size is allowed to be kept, with larger fish over 25 inches designated as breeders. Some charter guests expressed frustration, deeming the regulations overly restrictive and detrimental to the industry.

Read the full article at WBOC

MARYLAND: Rockfish Season In Limbo As Atlantic Commission Rejects MD, Potomac Management Plans

April 1, 2024 — All fishing for striped bass in Maryland, Pennsylvania and the Potomac River could face a shutdown, unless fisheries managers in Atlantic coast states can resolve issues over how to meet new catch limits.

After an at-times testy debate, the striped bass management board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted March 26 to reject plans by Maryland and the Potomac River Fisheries Commission over how they would meet required commercial catch reductions. It also rejected Pennsylvania’s plan because it sought to delay imposition of  mandated recreational catch limits.

The Atlantic states commission, which regulates inshore fishing for migratory species, voted in January to tighten both recreational and commercial catches of the fish commonly known in the Chesapeake Bay region as rockfish. They did so in response to a worrisome spike in the recreational catch along the coast in 2022, along with a five-year stretch of poor reproduction of the fish in the Bay, their primary spawning and nursery grounds.

Under rules scheduled to take effect May 1, recreational anglers will be limited to just one fish per day within narrow minimum and maximum size limits. Commercial fishers face a 7% reduction in their annual quota.

The cutbacks are particularly controversial in Maryland, where on March 8 groups representing commercial watermen and charter fishing businesses filed a federal lawsuit challenging their legality. The case is pending.

At its March 26 meeting, the striped bass board approved all but three (Maryland, Potomac River, Pennsylvania) of the affected East Coast jurisdictions’ plans for tightening catch rules.’

Read the full article at Chesapeake Bay Magazine

ALASKA: Southeast Alaska yelloweye rockfish fishery remains shuttered in 2024

February 1, 2024 — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced this month that fishing for yelloweye rockfish is again prohibited in Southeast Alaska this year. Yelloweye are a popular species of rockfish but their populations declined significantly in recent decades, which has Fish and Game biologists concerned.

There are seven species of demersal shelf rockfish (DSR) lurking in the depths of Southeast Alaska – quillback, China, rosethorn, copper, canary, tiger rockfish, and yelloweye. According to Fish & Game, all of them have experienced population decline in recent years but yelloweye are the most populous and perhaps the most popular.

The Fish & Game announcement earlier this month isn’t a change – the commercial fishery in southern Southeast Alaska for demersal shelf rockfish closed in 2020. The fishery in the northern part of the region shuttered in 1995. In the intervening years, the Board of Fish has added restrictions to sport and recreational fishers as well.

All DSR species are still fair game for Southeast subsistence fishers. Nonresidents fishing in any capacity are banned from retaining any demersal shelf rockfish.

New harvest regulations are looser than in previous years. In 2021, retaining any DSR was illegal for a recreational fisherman. This year, Ketchikan residents can take home up to three rockfish, as long as none are yelloweyes.

“We support regulations,” said Chris Baldwin, who has run a charter fishing boat for over a decade. “If Fish & Game thinks that they’re declining, then they need to be protected. That’s kind of my take on the closure.”

Read the full article at KRBD

Striped Bass Survey Shows Juvenile Rockfish Numbers Are Dropping In “Disturbing Trend”

October 17, 2023 — The annual juvenile striped bass survey results are in for Maryland and Virginia, and the news keeps getting worse. This time, it’s not just Maryland where the prized Chesapeake fish appears to be in trouble. Virginia’s count also came in significantly lower this year.

Maryland’s juvenile rockfish numbers had already been sitting well below average for four years. This year, they were the second-lowest they’ve been since 1957—the index sitting at 1.0 compared to a long-term average of 11.3.

Even Virginia, where the survey has been generally much more positive in recent years, saw poor recruitment in 2023. The Commonwealth’s rockfish index was significantly lower, with a mean value of 4.25 fish, well below the average of 7.77.

The results in both states show a recruitment failure, fishery experts say. Recruitment refers to the number of surviving fish that were spawned in the spring. The group of fish hatched this spring will grow to fishable sizes in three to four years, giving a snapshot of the predicted rockfish harvest a few years down the road. The Maryland survey is conducted by Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Virginia survey by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) on behalf of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. This Chesapeake Bay Foundation video shows how the surveys work.

Maryland DNR points to ongoing climate conditions as a cause. “The warm, dry conditions in winter and spring during the past several years have not been conducive to the successful reproduction of fish that migrate to fresh water for spawning,” said DNR’s Fisheries and Boating Director Lynn Fegley.

Read the full article at Chesapeake Bay Magazine

Genes Reveal How Some Rockfish Live Up to 200 Years

November 12, 2021 — Few groups of animals encapsulate the extremes of longevity more than fish. While coral reef pygmy govies survive for less than ten weeks, Greenland sharks can endure more than 500 years. So when a team of biologists at the University of California, Berkeley, wanted to explore the genetics of aging, they grabbed their fishing gear.

Their preferred catch was rockfish. Found in coastal waters from California to Japan, rockfish are a colorful group of more than 120 species in the genus Sebastes. Some of these closely related species live for only a decade. Others, such as the rougheye rockfish, can live for more than 200 years.

Read the full story at Scientific American

 

Fishery managers set deadline on rockfish rebuild

October 27, 2021 — At its 2021 Annual Meeting last week, the Atlantic Striped Bass Board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) took a positive step toward rebuilding our beloved rockfish stock from its currently depleted condition.

The move came in response to news from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (MD DNR) that its 2021 Juvenile Striped Bass Index was 3.2, well below the annual average of 11.4 for the third consecutive year. In fact, it
has been below average for ten of the past 16 years. Virginia’s index of 6.30 was closer to, but still below, its long-term average of 7.77.

Concern about rockfish has been building for at least five years, and ASMFC’s Striped Bass Board initiated development of a new amendment (number 7, but the first since 2003) to the fishery management plan last winter. The Board’s May meeting sketched out six priorities for the Commission’s Plan Development Team to build into the amendment. The team submitted its draft for Board approval at last week’s meeting.

Read the full story at Chesapeake Bay Magazine

 

Key Southern California Rockfish Species Survive Capture Over the Longer-term Following Release

October 26, 2021 — Deep-water rockfish reeled quickly to the surface often emerge from the water with eyes and organs bulging like alien beings—due to the sudden change in pressure—a condition known as barotrauma.

Now new research shows that if fishermen return fish to their natural depths quickly, their bodies return to normal and they can survive any ill effects. The research focused on cowcod and bocaccio, two historically overfished rockfish species caught off the coast of Southern California. They were returned to the depths using special descending devices that are now standard for many recreational fishermen.

Prior to this research and the use of descending devices, it was widely assumed that deep-dwelling rockfish could not survive catch and release due to their extensive barotrauma injuries. “We now know that these deep-dwelling rockfish species can survive,” said Nick Wegner, a research scientist at NOAA Fisheries’ Southwest Fisheries Science Center and lead author of the new research. “That is good news for the fish, and good news for the fishermen who go to the trouble of trying to release them properly.”

The research was published in ICES Journal of Marine Science. Scientists used acoustic transmitters to track released cowcod and bocaccio for up to a year on an underwater seamount approximately 40 miles off the coast of San Diego, California. They were captured at depths of 75 to 183 meters, or about 250 to 600 feet. By tracking the fish for extended periods, researchers found that most fish survived beyond 30 days. Of those fish that died, 40 percent died beyond the typical 2-day tracking window used in many fish survivorship studies.

Read the full story at NOAA Fisheries

 

Local Divers Plunge into Puget Sound to Count Endangered Rockfish

June 17, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Counting fish can be difficult. Fish move, hide, and reproduce; they eat and are eaten. Many have evolved coloration patterns and body shapes that help them avoid being seen. The small size of young fish makes them especially hard to see. They may show up at inconsistent times and places, or not at all, depending on unpredictable environmental conditions.

This was the quandary rockfish experts faced in 2017. The federal recovery plan for bocaccio and yelloweye rockfish in Puget Sound called for annual surveys of the endangered rockfish produced that year, also known as young-of-the-year fish.

Very little is known about how young fish join rockfish populations in Puget Sound, a process called recruitment. Sometimes few fish recruit into the population, despite adequate abundance of reproductive adults. When climatic and oceanographic conditions align, however, rockfish recruits arrive in near-shore habitats in great abundance. Understanding the conditions that lead to these boom years is key to developing management actions to protect and recover rockfish in the region.

That still left the difficult question of how to count tiny (less than 10 centimeters long) rockfish recruits throughout Puget Sound. The best option for NOAA was a collaborative effort with partners throughout the region, including community scientists who are also scuba divers. Scuba diving offers the opportunity to observe fish directly, including taking photos, with minimal disturbance or disruption of their behavior, and no mortality.

Read the full release here

New rockfish moratorium possible warns architect of ban that saved species 36 years ago

June 10, 2021 — The architect of a historic fishing moratorium that saved the rockfish in the Chesapeake Bay nearly 36 years ago is warning that it could happen again.

Former Maryland State Senator Gerald Winegrad told WUSA9 Wednesday that efforts to stop an alarming slide in the population of rockfish are not working and action has to be taken now.

It is a drastic prediction, because the iconic Chesapeake Bay species amount to a half-billion-dollar industry in the Eastern U.S., according to one study for a recreational fishing organization.

“It’s a potential if we wait two, three, or four years to really start cracking down on the harvest,” Winegrad said. “It is a potential that we would be forced into such a drastic measure.”

“Back in the 1980’s we were experiencing similar declines,” he added.

The famous five-year rockfish moratorium engineered by Winegrad and supporters in 1985 is credited with saving the species from complete collapse.

Read the full story at WUSA 9