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"Striped bass crashed because of overfishing in the 1980s, which was also a time when the AMO was in a phase unfavorable for their recruitment, so fish being caught were not being replaced. The ensuing rebound of striped bass stocks is often touted as a major fishery management success as managers took dramatic actions, including a coastwide moratorium, to protect the spawning stock. And it was. But Wood's work strongly suggests that managers also got lucky - their fishing moratorium coincided with an AMO shift that greatly improved striped bass spawning conditions. "Had the weather not turned, we would have been waiting longer for that recovery," he said."
This time we may not get so lucky.
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