Sunday, February 16, 2020

STRIPED BASS: WE GOT MAD. NOW LET'S GET IT RIGHT


It’s probably not news to anyone who pays attention to what’s going on up and down the coast, but a lot of striped bass fishermen weren’t happy with what went on at the February meeting of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board.

The meeting was supposed to address “conservation equivalency,” and review the forty-nine different proposals that various states had made, as such states sought to adopt regulations that differed from the one fish bag, 28 to 35-inch coastal slot limit and the 18-inch minimum size in the Chesapeake Bay that were included in the recently-approved Addendum VI to Amendment 6 to the Atlantic Striped Bass Interstate Fishery Management Plan.

Things started heading downhill early on.  

As soon as the technical reports had been presented, and the floor opened for questions, one Management Board member asked a Technical Committee representative what the coastwide reduction in fishing mortality would be if all of the state proposals were approved.  The response was that no one knew; there were so many proposals, which could be combined in so many different ways, that it just wasn’t practical to calculate all of the possible outcomes.

Thus, the Management Board was being asked to approve management measures without knowing what the outcome would be.

That didn’t go over with a number of Management Board members.  

To their credit, the representatives from New York and from the New England states did try hard to bring some order out of the chaos, and to do the right thing for the bass.  A few Management Board members from northern New England worked particularly hard for a meaningful review of the state proposals and, perhaps more important, to hold states accountable if their supposedly “conservation equivalent” regulations fell short of the mark.

Yet, in the end, they didn’t succeed.  While there is a very good chance that we’ll have consistent coastal regulations in all of the states between Maine and New York (Rhode Island being the only possible outlier), and in some states south of that as well, conservation equivalency proposals adopted for Maryland and New Jersey make it likely that Addendum VI will fall short of its mark.

And judging from the comments we’ve been hearing, that has made striped bass anglers, including many in New Jersey and Maryland, pretty mad.

The comments started coming in right after the Management Board meeting.  One observer made the wry observations that

“49 different choices on conservation equivalency were submitted, many of which the technical committee straight out said could not be modelled…
“Several Commissioners went on record calling out the [conservation equivalency] bullshit, one saying, ‘We agreed to a size limit at the last meeting, while right then and there a number of you sat in the back of the room trying to figure out how to then work up an alternative conservation equivalency in your state.’
“’Accountability’ was voted down.  Yes, read it twice if you have to.  The idea of paying for what you eat (and penalties for overages) was handily defeated.  Note to self—never invite these types out to dinner and expect them to split the bill fairly…
“A coalition of 28-35 [inch slot limit] was building coast-wide, but Rhode Island and then NJ couldn’t resist.  The visual is the grade school teacher telling each child they should take one cookie, and one cookie only.  But then two kids decide to reach in for more, the children start to fight, and the cookie jar falls onto the floor into a pile of crumbs.
“And that pretty much sums up the process of ASMFC this week.”
It was a pretty good, and remarkably polite, description of what went on.


“unbelievable [sic].  Are we trying to conserve the fish here or the wallets of those that profit off their harvest.
“Solid job to the people at the ASMFC.  They really need to go, every single one of them,”

“And now we’ve avoided accountability.  I’ve lost all respect for the ‘August Body.’  They should all be ashamed of themselves.  Time for NOAA to manage striped bass, it’s beyond the abilities of these pikers.”
In the wake of the meeting, there were many more comments of that kind, but they began to taper off after a few days.  At that point, Maryland and New Jersey came out with their final rules, and the conversation grew more specific.

Maryland decided that, instead of adopting the Addendum VI rule of a one-fish bag and 18-inch minimum size for striped bass in the Chesapeake Bay, it would instead establish a complicated set of regulations that prohibited catch-and-release striped bass fishing prior to May 1, and pushed back the start of the season until that date.  

For the first two weeks of the season, the size limit was set at 35 inches, to give Maryland’s recreational fishermen a chance to kill the big, fecund females that are protected from anglers everywhere else on the coast; for the remainder of the season, the size limit falls to 19 inches, with a 2-fish bag for anglers on for-hire vessels and a 1-fish bag for everyone else.  The commercial fishery would take a 1.8 percent cut in quota; since Addendum VI called for an 18 percent cut for both the commercial and the recreational sector, Maryland anglers will have to take a greater than 20% cut in fishing mortality to make up the difference.

In Maryland, the commercial and for-hire sectors won at the expense of the recreational sector and the striped bass.


“To call them ‘conservation measures’ is a joke.  Maryland Department of Natural Resources Fisheries has failed yet again to make meaningful changes to protect the future of our fishery.  Pathetic.”
Another noted that the Maryland announcement said that

“The department will announce a public comment schedule for those regulations in the coming weeks,”
and responded

“Why bother?  You ignored the overwhelming, collective voice this go around in favor of self interest.  Your sole responsibility is to protect the fishery and you’re wholeheartedly failing in that regard.”
A third person speculated for the reasons behind the Maryland regulations, writing

“It’s time the appointees stopped handing out political favors to their base and started working to conserve our fisheries resources for everyone in Maryland.  These regulations look more like feathering the nest for a future run for office—not even close to conservative action to protect the resources…”


“Conservation equivalency has not proven to be effective in the past,”

but that

“New Jersey has proven to be a thorn in the side of the states trying to turn this [striped bass decline] around.”
However, such comments were in vain.  Those who managed to get into the meeting were confronted with a list of all of New Jersey’s possible striped bass management options, including the 28 to 35-inch coastwide slot.  But a few of those options, for a 28 to 38-inch slot limit, and a continuation of New Jersey’s “bonus” program, which turns over bass supposedly “saved” when the state outlawed commercial striped bass fishing to the recreational sector, which kills them in the commercial fishermen’s stead, were already highlighted in red.  

As part of its new regulatory package, New Jersey will move up the start of the bonus program, which targets 24 to 28-inch striped bass, from September to May 15, thus giving the state’s anglers the chance to remove even more of the big 2015 year class from the population before it matures and has a chance to contribute to the spawning stock.

Given that the highlighted options were selected before the first angler even entered the meeting room, making many anglers agree with the sentiment that, as one for-hire fishing boat operators’ association expressed it, “The fix is in.”

The reason for that was perfectly clear, and perfectly understandable, given the mentality of the people making the decision.  As the Asbury Park Press reported on its website,

“The [New Jersey Marine Fisheries] council settled on the option it felt gave fishermen the most opportunity to keep a fish.”
Of course, the whole point of Addendum VI was to end overfishing and reduce fishing mortality to the point where the spawning stock might have the opportunity to begin rebuilding, so providing fishermen with “the most opportunity to keep a fish” might not be the best way to achieve the addendum’s goals.

But, of course, it suits New Jersey’s goals quite well.  The bass will just have to look out for themselves.

The question now is what responsible anglers, in Maryland, in New Jersey, and everywhere else along the striper coastm, ought to do.

First, everyone must recognize that change needs to come from within the angling community.  It cannot be imposed from outside.  So responsible anglers must continue to do what they’re doing, releasing most or all of their bass, handing them properly, and setting an example for other anglers to emulate.  Each of us has the opportunity to educate other fishermen on the need for conservation every time we set out on the water.

A good example of that comes from Maryland.  

Although that state bent over backward to let its for-hire fleet kill as many fish as possible, some charter boat owners are making their own, principled stand.  Capt. Nick Lombardi, who operates his Redbeard Charters out of Annapolis, is one person trying to lead the way.


“Throwing trophies back is not real popular around here.  We need to make a drastic shift in culture here on the bay…Just because it’s legal doesn’t make it right.”
Lombardi has no plans to allow customers to take more than one bass per day, either; his customers will be limited to a single, smaller fish caught during the regular season, which begins on May 16.  He will also avoid the summer catch-and-release striped bass fishery, which sees high levels of release mortality due to the warm waters and lower levels of dissolved oxygen.  He noted that

“You’ll be out on a hot day and pass 40 or 50 dead fish on the way to a spot.”
Instead, he’ll target species such as red drum, cobia, Spanish mackerel and bluefish because yes, despite the claims of the Maryland fisheries managers, there are other things to fish for in the Chesapeake Bay besides striped bass.

All of us, even though we don’t run charters, can strive to emulate Capt. Lombardi’s example.

But the one thing we can’t do is quit.  Whatever anger we feel must fuel future action.

No, Addendum VI’s outcome wasn’t as good as we might have hoped, but at least we’re only dealing with two rogue states, Maryland and New Jersey, when we could have been dealing with many more.  And the comments of a number of Management Board members made it clear that we’re being heard, even though it would be nice if a few more people were listening.

In the end, though, Addendum VI and the February Management Board meeting were only preliminary scuffles.  The main event will be the debate over Amendment 7 to the striped bass management plan.

That will be a long, difficult fight, but it is of the utmost importance, because the outcome of that debate will shape the way striped bass are managed for a very long time, and shape the health of the stock well into the foreseeable future.

For those of us born before man set foot on the moon, it will probably be, for all practical purposes, the last and most important striped bass fight we’ll face in what remains of our lifetimes.

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