[JohnR]

Sadly we are long past the time where half measures work. At minimum we have to protect these year classes.


Baldwin had a great post the other day on FB Striped Bass Pledge Group
- will capture a big part of it but also link it:

Let ASMFC know you care about your striped bass fishery and want the previously successful tactics for rebuilding included in the regulation changes scheduled for 2025.


You may or may not have read my posts on the Atlantic Striped Bass Technical Committee’s report on the striped bass Spawning Stock Biomass and options for regulation changes for striped bass in 2025 in response to the estimated chances of the current plan succeeding in rebuilding striped bass Spawning Stock Biomass by 2029. If not, just check my previous post on this site for a link to my FB site and read it if you’d like. Or you can just scan over my notes below.



Either way, it’s important for us to be able to let our fisheries managers know that we care about our fishery and have strong feelings about changing the status quo that has not been working, in favor of sensible and proven tactics that were successful in rebuilding the stocks before.



Below are some of my thoughts on the options, followed by most of my letter I’m sending in. It’s quick and easy to get your letter in, instructions are at the bottom of this post.



1) Keeping the present slot limit would keep the sizeable, though reduced at least to some extent so far by that slot, 2015 year class in the crosshairs as well as including the larger specimens of the 2018 year class. Those 2018s are the last good year class we’ve had, as every one of the 6 years since has seen spawning failure in the Chesapeake, which supplies up to 80% of the Atlantic striped bass stocks. 2023 spawning in the Hudson was way down, as well. I heard the 2024 Hudson recruitment was also low, but I’m not sure about that, as the numbers aren’t out yet.


2) Moving the slot limit up a year to protect the 2018s would keep the 2015s in that slot. That’s the other relatively decent year class that we should be protecting.


3) ASMFC says that there is not a close correlation between the abundance of spawning age females and recruitment success. My thought is that it should be obvious that adding a buffer layer to that spawning biomass is always a good idea. Even a better idea when we’ve been losing year classes for several years in a row.



4) Moving the slot down a few years would fish down much smaller year classes. It’s true that there aren’t many in those more recent year classes to catch, but that’s the point. Better to fish down a smaller bunch than depleting the ones that are our best hope for the future. By the way, protecting the larger year classes is what worked to rebuild the striped bass after the collapse of the late ‘70s, early ‘80s.



5) No Target closures don’t work. Just as fishermen still fish J hooks on bait for stripers, and claim that they’re targeting bluefish, any lure someone casts for stripers can also be claimed to be intended for bluefish or weakfish. Any bait used to catch stripers can be explained as intended for bluefish, fluke, or even sea robins. Conservation Officer: “whatcha fishing for, buddy?” Fisherman: “anything but stripers, officer.” Law enforcement officers are saying that those closures would be impossible to enforce.


6) Seasonal Closures would only be acceptable if equitable. A closure during the 4th wave (July and August) would be devastating to striper fishermen in Maine. That pretty much brackets the entire time the stripers are up there. They don’t get weakfish, fluke, false albacore, bonito or other fish that can be substituted like can be done farther south, either. A Third Wave (May/June) closure or a Sixth Wave (November/December) would be fine with Maine, but would be problematic for New Jersey fishermen. Even separate closures at different times would be inequitable if they were of equal length. Northern states have stripers available for a shorter piece of the year.



Public comment will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. (EST) on Tuesday, December 10, 2024, and should be emailed to comments@asmfc.org

https://www.facebook.com/groups/433685153423751/