EEZ Opening for Stripers Considered Again
 

Idea of opening EEZ for Striped Bass to be Revisited

Striped Bass fishing in the EEZ was banned by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in 1995 in support of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) efforts to restore the stocks. In 1995 ASMFC declared the stocks to be restored. ASMFC has now requested NMFS consider reopening the EEZ as part of the already adopted Amendment 6 of the Striped Bass Management Plan.

The EEZ is the limit of federal jurisdiction for fisheries management beginning at 3 miles from the coast out to 200 nautical miles. Coastal states, acting through ASMFC retain jurisdiction for Striped Bass management within the 3 mile limit. The coastal states through ASMFC set commercial landing limits along the entire coast.

If the EEZ is reopened to taking of Striped Bass, ASMFC has no plans, nor will it entertain increasing the commercial landings quota. However, it will allow fishermen to take Stripers from traditional fishing grounds they enjoyed for years.

NMFS published it’s intent to consider reopening the EEZ in the Federal Register on April 24. NMFS is seeking comments from interested parties until May 24, 2006. Copies of the scoping document may be obtained and comments on it may be sent to:

Tom Meyer, State-Federal Fisheries Div.
Office of Sustainable Fisheries, NMFS
1315 East West Highway, Room 13248
Silver Spring, MD 20910

Or, email to:
Striped-Bass.Comments@noaa.gov.

Well with the gas at $3+ there should be no problems with people running off shore to get them!!

except for me :hee:

I wouldn't bet on it, Joe. Crab Ledge and the entire EEZ east of Chatham/Monomoy will be just a crowded this year as it has in any to the past two or three.

to all r.f.a. members please send in the postcard you have recieved , every little bit will help

I wouldn't support that....I don't know if I am in the minority or not...but I am enjoying the healthy rebound of Stripers...I say keep it the way it is.

I am against it - already sent cards

I think this is good. Personally, I want to be able to fish offshore rips away from the summer lunatics inshore and not have to worry about getting pinched.

I would support them opening it up. The "old" numbers would be back in play legally. Hooper we have to talk kid.:kewl:

That place acts as a reservoir for the genes that grow huge bass. Many very large cows winter over in the EEZ off North Carolina and even Nantucket (believe it or not), out of range of draggers. With large fish being taken at huge rates inshore, we need those offshore cows to keep the genes for fast growth in the population. Otherwise, genes for early maturity at small sizes will become more prevalent in the population. This has been scientifically shown in cod and swordfish in the wild and silversides in the lab. The same genetic processes work for stripers. Would you rather catch some very large fish for a relatively short time, or keep them around to catch until we ourselves die off? I know what I'd choose.

If the commercial landings quota isn't increased, I don't have an issue with expanding the area in which stripers can be caught. I can see Baldwin's point in not wanting to artificially select for small-sized fish, but the flipside in that argument is that allowing harvest of fish in all areas will promote genetic diversity, as long as all effort does not concentrate on the "larger offshore cows". I have a feeling that, as macojoe said, because of gas prices, some fishermen will continue to target the inshore fish. We will also be able to find out what the deal is with the fish offshore. People will find out where they are, and we may be able to get better figures on relative abundance, migration patterns, etc. This opening of the EEZ could actually be good for the striped ones.

Are you saying there are two distinct groups of stripers? Inshore vs. offshore? Could you clarify this a bit? Bass swim, inshore, offshore, upside down, without regards to a line on a chart. The same fish caught off Bearse's today could be at the BB Bouy the day after tomorrow, how am I effecting the stock if I catch them at the BB as opposed to off Monomoy Point?

Keep the limits the same and theres really no problem I would think....

I think I would have to agree.

I would like the limits reduced to one fish per day with a slot limit, making keepers above 24" but below 36". I'm not a fisheries expert, but allowing more fish to hit breeding size and then protecting those that have reached it, 36" + seems to make sense.

I'm not insinuating that they're two distinct stocks, just that info I received said that many of the very large bass winter in the EEZ. I agree that the same bass we catch inshore may be found far offshore soon after. Maybe, though, they do find areas they prefer to feed in, and tend to frequent those spots. I've seen some tagging study results that show that some bass tend to return to the same places year after year. They do, though, cover a hell of a lot of water during migration.

Well, here's the issue for me. I have a hard time with a guy, recreational skipper or charter guy, or even a hook and line commercial fisherman, catching bass in federal waters. Having said that, the law is the law and should be adhered to, period. Any violation is subject to penalty, ok, fine. But, what is worse here.... a charter skipper fishing Orion Shoal with a family and gets written up by the Coasties, or the dragger at the BB Bouy in the fall dumping 30+ pound bass back in the water to die because they are not allowed to keep them?

Hu? What is that? The whole thing just demonstrates that our fisheries laws are really archaic and make not sense at all.

Exactly. All it will take is someone with some nads to force some sensible regs. MA learders are connected at the hip with the commerical fishing industry. You must fire every single one of them starting at the top and start anew.

Look, IMO no striped bass should ever die usless like that. In fact there should be a serious fine for doing so. If a comm fishermen takes them as a by catch or by accident or out of season AT A MIMIMUM they should come off the top of the comm quota, not die useless at sea unacountable.

this could be done, but then it'd only take a few draggers to kill the season for everyone.

draggers are bringing up net fulls long after the seaon is over..you still have dead fish reguardless.

the old com. gang will still fish offshore where the fish are reguardless of any line on any map or gps till they can no longer stand up in a boat.

now what?..point is...you'll never stop them unless there is no selling season ANYWHERE.But thats only for the hook an line guy....draggers will always kill ..season or no selling season.

ps...saveing the bait is what should be looked into...no bait- no fish.

Exactly, Now you see my point! This is an issue that all comm fishermen must work out amongst themselves. Who is going to kill the SB? My point is that it needs to be limited to whatever the quota is an no more...for any reason. If they overshoot the quota, it comes off the top of the next years quota.

This is why I see no need for a rod and reel SB comm fishery. (and I have a lic) The quota can be reached with the by-catch of full time comm fishermen alone. whats the point? I have asked this very question to the director himself and his answer was..."it is an historical fishery"....my response was "so....that is not a reason, slavery was "historical" too but we got past that"

Bait or no bait...overfishing and waste needs to be stopped. Bait is not the entire problem. dumping perfectly good dead fish is wrong and an outright waste of our resource.

on the flip side, most stripers are lean if not downright skinny.
If you don't cull the heard, their food supply (bait) with starve them.

alot of big draggers are owned by lawyers-doctors-corp. companies as an investment..those same folks also donate lots of funding to our rep's in the goverment....they win..not the fish.

As a general rule overages do come out of the next years quota in sb.

I'm sorry to say that 96% of the com. fisherman I know would never get together on anything...they'll do what it takes to catch the very last fish swimming in the sea.

The problem with commercial dragging is that it's very indiscriminant. If laws were passed to limit poundage of bycatch, the fisheries would be closed after a couple days. Not to say that bycatch is a good thing, but how much can be done to limit it if gear technology just can't do anything about it? People like to eat what is caught by the comm. guys. And although it's not talked about much, they do contribute to the economy. Maybe not as much as recreational fishing, but comm. boats use fuel, ice, gear, and supplies, too. They keep the fish houses, distributors, and sellers in business, as well as shipyards, technology suppliers, and even cleaning ladies.

Anyhow, while bycatch is wasteful, and methods of returning fish to the water are, let's say, not so effective at keeping fish alive, the striped bass stocks are not doing real bad. There are alot of other species we need to worry about, including what alot of other people have been mentioning, which is the bait fish. Many mackerel trips are coming back brokers because there's nothing to catch, and the draggers are having a hard time finding haddock because bait stocks are so squirrelly. I think the first step in managing all fish stocks should be working from the bottom up. But what is common sense to most seems not to be sinking in with fisheries management. We'll see what happens in the next couple years.

One of the buyer's never reported their poundage till the season was over,,so you can take 200,000 off this years take. only 800,000 for the 07 season now.

Where do most of the EEZ poachers originate from? Looking at a map, it would seem logical that Chatham is the poaching capital of the east. Is that correct?

North Carolina is big on that, too.

So long as one is fishing farther than 3 miles from shore they are in the EEZ, violations occur everywhere in every state, not n Chatham alone.