[CowHunter]

Earlier this month, a Coast Guard helicopter flew out over the Atlantic Ocean just off Virginia Beach. Its mission: protecting striped bass.
The aircraft flew beyond the three-mile limit from shore where striped bass fishing is allowed and spotted a flotilla of fishing boats. When the skippers noticed the helicopter overhead, the reaction was swift and immediate.

"It looked like the boat races back to the three-mile limit," said Col. Rick Lauderman, chief of the Virginia Marine Police.

Striped bass are a conservation and fish management success story, coming back from the brink of near collapse in the 1980s.

But these days, the species may be a victim of its own success and also a victim of anglers -- both commercial and recreational -- who sometimes flout the rules in a quest for trophy fish. Lots of them.

What is happening to the south this winter could have significant consequences off Delaware's coast this spring and summer, when the fish head north to spawn.

There is enough concern that Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission Executive Director John V. O'Shea -- at the request of member states -- this month asked the National Marine Fisheries to increase the civil penalties for illegal fishing for striped bass beyond the three-mile limit.

"This high concentration of aggregating fish in the ocean over wintering grounds off the Virginia Capes south to Cape Hatteras makes them especially vulnerable to harvest," O'Shea wrote. "Depending on their magnitude, unreported landing have the potential to jeopardize the status of the stock."

In 1982, the striped bass population was estimated at less than 9 million. Today it's believed to be around 70 million. In 2008, the harvest was 3 million, which was a 5 percent decrease from the year before. While the number of fish caught was down, the poundage was up, meaning the larger, more mature fish were taken.

Striped bass fishing is restricted to within three miles of the coast. Rules vary by state, but in Delaware's waters, the minimum size one may keep is 28 inches long.
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O'Shea asked the Coast Guard to step up enforcement in the prohibited area known as the Exclusive Economic Zone. This is considered federal jurisdiction from the three-mile limit to 200 miles offshore. Federal fisheries agents have cooperative agreements with all states except North Carolina to enforce the ban in the EEZ. But even with state help, there are still anglers -- both commercial and recreational -- who cross the line.

"The commission continues to hear from party and charter boat captains, as well as private boat anglers, that numerous vessels are fishing for and retained striped bass in the EEZ, including exceeding the bag limit," he said.

The implications
The big stripers that winter off Virginia and North Carolina will begin to swim north as the water warms up.

About 75 percent will swim into Chesapeake Bay and lay eggs in the upper bay and in freshwater reaches of tributaries such as the Choptank, Nanticoke and Pocomoke rivers. An additional 14 percent will swim north to the Hudson River to spawn, and an estimated 11 percent will arrive in Delaware Bay, move north up the Delaware River and begin to spawn when they reach Cherry Island flats off Wilmington.

Scientists believe that many of these big, offshore fish that winter to the south are mature females -- the very fish that will ensure the future stability of the population.

"There is a significant conservation benefit to keeping the EEZ closed," said John DePersenaire, fisheries policy and science researcher with the Recreational Fishing Alliance, a national advocacy group based in New Jersey. "It's not like you see small fish out there."

The EEZ has been closed to striper fishing since 1999, but beginning in 2003, pressure built to reopen it and it may be building again. On the Virginia Beach-based Virginia Fishing Center's Web site, a poll asks anglers whether they would support extending the territorial limit of Virginia's waters 12 miles offshore -- far enough out most years to legally take advantage of these big stripers.
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration looked into reopening the area but in 2006 chose not to proceed with its review.

DePersenaire said a draft environmental-impact statement pointed to major concerns that opening the EEZ would significantly increase fish mortality -- possibly beyond target levels for sustainability of the species. Among the concerns is that with a big concentration of fish in one area, they become extremely vulnerable to commercial net fishing gear, he said.

Because the area beyond the three-mile limit is a protected zone for striped bass, anglers can't catch and release the fish, nor can they possess a striper, even if they caught it in legal waters.

Where the fish go
Delaware fisheries biologists have been tagging spawning fish for years, and anglers who catch or catch and release one of these tagged fishes -- more than 6,000 have been tagged over the years -- get a prize if they report the details of their catch.

"The number of releases have gone up," said state fisheries biologist Matt Fisher. "That's a change in the attitude of the angler."

Most of the Delaware-tagged fish that are caught are caught in Maryland or Massachusetts.

Like most fish stocks, so much depends on the strength of each individual year class.

In 2004, the spawn produced a strong year class, and those fish are now reaching the legal, minimum-size limit, Fisher said. "They are 26-, 28-, 30-inch fish now."

The 2009 class was strong, too. So in 2013, there should be another large group of fish coming into keeper-size range.

There are other concerns. In the Chesapeake, some scientists and environmental organizations worry that stripers aren't as big and healthy as fish that move offshore and along the coast. The fear is that populations of a key prey fish at the bottom of the food chain -- the Atlantic menhaden -- aren't large enough to support the larger striper population in Chesapeake Bay.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission recently continued a commercial catch cap on the fishery through 2013 to help those stocks grow.
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Decline and recovery
In the early 1970s, stripers -- also called rockfish -- were one of the most important commercial and recreational fishes in Chesapeake Bay. In 1973, commercial fishermen landed 14.7 million pounds coast-wide. The following year, there was a sharp decline, and 10 years later, the harvest was down to 1.7 million pounds.





Regulators concluded overfishing was a key reason for the population bust. They also acknowledged other problems: fluctuating water temperatures in the spawning grounds, low dissolved oxygen in deep water habitats of Chesapeake Bay, acidity and chemical contamination, and habitat and water quality degradation from runoff and wastewater discharges.

Congress passed the Atlantic Striped Bass Conservation Act in 1984, and in 1985, Delaware and Maryland imposed a fishing moratorium that didn't end until 1989.

When the fishery reopened, managers were cautious and allowed limited catches, but the population continued to rise. By 1995, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission concluded that the fishery was restored.

Fast-forward to January. Inshore fishing had been brisk along the Outer Banks and Virginia, and then the water temperature dropped, bait fish moved farther offshore and the stripers moved with them.

Capt. Ken Zwirko, who runs striper charters from New England south to North Carolina -- following the fish with the season -- said once the fish moved offshore, there was no sense in fishing along the Virginia or Carolina coasts.

But not all captains felt that way.

Zwirko said he believes "it's the only place where the fish are given a break" and it should be off-limits. "I think it's a big problem ... because it's the whole concentration of the biomass" in one area.

For anglers, "it's so easy to find the fish," he said.

They look for birds working the schools of fish, and the stripers are usually there feeding.

Zwirko said that for enforcement agents, it's difficult to get a grip on violators in the EEZ because it's "just such a vast area."
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On one striper fishing message board this week, there was this anonymous account from a morning of fishing off Virginia Beach: "We were celebrating our catches. ... Suddenly we were in a situation in which the mate and captain were telling us that we were way out past the 3-miles limit. ... Their spotters notified them that the marine police were on the way out. ... We watched in disbelief as the mate gutted out our fish and threw them overboard. ... We were sickened by the entire experience."

That scenario is all too common, Lauderman said.

Anglers use everything from spotters to cell and satellite phones to keep tabs on the whereabouts of enforcement officers, Lauderman said. They use a code.

"They call us a gray boat," he said. The Coast Guard is an orange boat.

"It's almost like a game of chess," he said.

When they see marine police approaching, they'll turn and head directly toward the marine police vessel -- dumping fish off the stern of the boat along the way, he said.

Some boats are rigged with a 55-gallon garbage can on the stern. As they catch fish, they shove them headfirst into the garbage can.

"As we approach, they are actually ready to dump the fish," he said.

Last week, a Coast Guard patrol boat spotted a commercial trawler in the EEZ and boarded it to look for safety and fishing violations.

Once on board, they discovered a haul of 150 striped bass.

The vessel, the 79.2-foot Lady Samaira out of North Carolina, was directed back to port, where National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration fisheries agents were waiting.

Agents suspect some of the fish were thrown overboard in passage because they recovered 100 fish with a weight of nearly 3,000 pounds.

NOAA's Office of Law Enforcement is investigating.

Here in Delaware, illegal striper fishing hasn't been a problem this winter.

The water is just too cold right now, said Delaware Fish & Wildlife Enforcement Chief James Graybeal. In 2007 and 2008, there were a few arrests off Delaware's waters in the EEZ, he said.

An angler with a few fish likely will be fined $100 per fish. But in the case with 10 or more fish, fines can rise to thousands of dollars per fish, Lauderman said.

"It is a federal violation," he said.

For anglers, even those on a charter boat, "it's your responsibility to know" where you are fishing, he said.