Striper Stocks - Overall Bad News

[JoeP]

Take a look at this. Seems like bad news to me.

http://www.stripersforever.org/Home/...k%20status.doc

[JHABS]

Been saying this for 3 years , We can Not take take and TAKE..............

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by JHABS

Been saying this for 3 years , We can Not take take and TAKE..............

I agree Mr. Habs...

[MakoMike]

I guess Brad Burns now knows more about stripers than the scientists at the ASMFC?

Striped Bass Stock Assessment Indicates Healthy Stock
Total Abundance, Female Spawning Stock Biomass and Recruitment Remain High


Scientific advice presented to the Commission’s Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board today indicates that striped bass management under Amendment 6 to the Interstate Plan continues to be a success. The resource remains at a high level of abundance at 65.3 million pounds, 10 percent higher than the average stock size for the previous five years. Female spawning stock biomass (SSB) is estimated at 54.8 million pounds and is well above the SSB target and threshold levels of 38.6 and 30.9 million pounds, respectively. Recruitment of young fish (age 1) at 12.7 million is close to the average recruitment observed since the stock was first declared recovered in 1995.





The stock is not overfished and overfishing is not occurring, with 2004 fishing mortality estimated at 0.40, below the Amendment 6 threshold of 0.41. Total catch has risen to 5.2 million fish, a 33 percent increase since implementation of Amendment 6 in 2003. Recreational harvest and discards accounted for 72.5 percent of the total mortality, with the majority of fish harvested by anglers in Virginia, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland and North Carolina. Commercial catch has risen slightly to 1.42 million fish, with Maryland commercial fisheries accounting for half of the harvest.

Based on the advice of the Technical Committee, the Board maintained the states' management programs at status quo. The Technical Committee will continue to monitor the status of the stock and refine stock assessment methodology as necessary. The next peer reviewed stock assessment is scheduled for 2007.

Copies of the stock assessment will be available on the Commission website (www.asmfc.org under Breaking News) by mid-November. For more information, please contact Lydia Munger, Fisheries Management Plan Coordinator, at (202)289-6400 or <lmunger@asmfc.org>.

[l.i.fish.in.vt]

i the the question is if if striper stocks are healthy then were are the fish?nobody i know seems to be able to find them on a consistant basis, recs as well as commercial. are there that many fish that we as fishermen never see.but than maybe the people i know just don't know how to fish.

[Mr. Sandman]

Mako Mike,

The question is: did the ASMFC change the method this year to predict population as Burns cites and if they used last years method would the mortality be deemed "overfished"?

This comment kills me...he has got to go:
Paul Diodati of MA suggested that since the stocks appeared to be healthy, that maybe the stocks could be fished harder than originally thought, and that the overfishing threshold could therefore be raised.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by l.i.fish.in.vt

i the the question is if if striper stocks are healthy then were are the fish?nobody i know seems to be able to find them on a consistant basis, recs as well as commercial. are there that many fish that we as fishermen never see.but than maybe the people i know just don't know how to fish.

While I tend to believe that ASMFC changed its methods to do as Sandman stated - make it "appear" that things are OK when they are really not, I lack a sound factual basis upon which to conclude this.

However, I agree 1000% with John (and Hab's) that from a fisherman's point of view and from the point of view of most of the guys I talk to on occasion things out there in the surf are not as consistent as they should be. This alone leads me to believe there is a problem.

[eelman]

Originally Posted by MakoMike

I guess Brad Burns now knows more about stripers than the scientists at the ASMFC?

Striped Bass Stock Assessment Indicates Healthy Stock
Total Abundance, Female Spawning Stock Biomass and Recruitment Remain High

I agree I would lean towards a sceintist, Not the radicals.....

[Backbeach Jake]

Originally Posted by JHABS

Been saying this for 3 years , We can Not take take and TAKE..............

Ya got that right, aint nothing for free. If we're gonna manage the "herd", then let's manage it like we wanna keep it large and healthy.

[CANAL RAT]

OH NO JESUS MAKE STRIPED BASS A GAME FISH!!! WHY DO ANYTHING THATs COMMON SENSE!!!!.stoping comercial fishing would be one less factor for the fisheries mangers to be influened from outside sources with a agenda!!. before the white man came to the new world there was only fishing by natives seems like the fish had pleanty food with next to no fishing for them.

[tattoobob]

Stripers Forever tricked me into signing up at a fishing show
and said it was free, then tried to sell this and that to me.
I just asked them to be removed from there email list because
I was tired of reading there crap. I think they are 99% bullcrap
and 1% fact. don't believe everything some group tells you. I
also think that Brad Burns has a private agenda and it has to do
something with his fly fishing

[Squibby17]

I don't pretend to know the scientifics of this species. I do think that a major problem is the bait fish. I saw tons of sand eels this year but not many large bunker or even squid. However the bass still had fish to eat.

Since we have a bunch of guys here who fish fairly reguarly.

From a personal observation stand point would you say you caught more than normal this year? or less? small fish? large fish?

I would have to say I caught more fish this year than last year. I caught more consistantly and larger fish too. In my personal experience I thought things were looking up

[blue oyster]

i was unable to down load the article , but i caught more fish this year then any 3 years put together , not large but tons of fish 22-32 inches some days i would only fish for an hour or two because i caught so many fish . almost all on single hook barbless lures , fish kept this year none

[JohnR]

I fully agree that there is too much take happening on the biomass. The amount of "take" is not a comm or rec problem, it is the total impact on the fish. But making stripers a gamefish for recs will not solve the problem. I say cut everything back by a third BUT you will now need to feed these fish too. I feel that SF's efforts, while probably well intentioned, are misdirected and don't tackle the whole of the problem.

I am not a commercial fisherman or a comm bass guy. I don't have a dog in the comm fight. However, the ongoing comm -v- rec debate dilutes the focus on mananging the inshore ecosystem / food chain as a whole. IMO - SF dilutes the overall focus or at least misdirects the effect that they could have on the management process...

[zimmy]

I am not any sort of pro-commercial guy, but I get really annoyed how often I hear someone excuse the 2 guys they saw with 7 huge stripers because "it is the commercial guys that wipe em out." Rec's take most of the fish dangit 70 some percent by the rec's is good with me -- but we allgotta take less overall.

Wanted to comment on evaluation of ecosystem health as opposed to species focus- I think practically every scientist would agree that it is the only way to effectively manage aquatic resources. But I don't think its going to happen very fast if ever. Start talking about mpa's, try to limit companies like Omega protein and the other fisheries conglomerates and the politics completely over-rules the science. Even try to get the rec community to agree on how many stripers we should be allowed to keep or the status of the population is immpossible. You get some who rarely or never keep a fish and others who keep their limit each time they get it and would take 10 fish if allowed. I beleive overall the latter group is much bigger than some might think.

[eelman]

Originally Posted by tattoobob

Stripers Forever tricked me into signing up at a fishing show
and said it was free, then tried to sell this and that to me.
I just asked them to be removed from there email list because
I was tired of reading there crap. I think they are 99% bullcrap
and 1% fact. don't believe everything some group tells you. I
also think that Brad Burns has a private agenda and it has to do
something with his fly fishing

well said ! Bravo

[CANAL RAT]

they should also manage gamefish and forage as a whole this means restricting menhaden,mackerel and squid fishing

[JoeP]

Sorry-

I just can't believe that things like:

- the decimation of the population in the Chesapeake with tiny size limits,

- the decimation of the big wintering bass off North Carolina,

- the huge bycatch & kills reported floating dead offshore from all the draggers (especially the recent reports) that happens WAY more than we think,

- the annual increases in commercial quotas because they tell us things are "better",

- the slow increases in the recreational size & number limits from 1 at 36" just a few years back to now 2 at 28",

- decimation of main bait sources,

- etc., etc.


are not putting a really big and damaging dent in Striper stocks.

Again like Habs said, can't just keep taking & taking & taking from all over.

There is DEFINITELY a problem.