Striper Numbers Up

[Fly Rod]

Accordingto the Maryland Dept. of Natural resouces has found that a record number of juvinile striped bass were born in the upper Chesapeake Bay last summer. The average haul was 25.8 baby stripers per survey site, more then double the long term average of 11.9 and the highest count since 1970.
For the study, biologists collected 3,399 young of the year striped bass from the fresh water estuaries where they are born. Heavy spring rains and cooler then average tempertures are credited for last years bumper crop of baby striped bass.
The program,which has been in place since 1954 collects and counts young striped bass from 22 survey sites on four major spawning rivers.

[flatts1]

Fly Rod, thanks for passing that along.

That's great news.

[striprman]

When they "collect" the baby stripers, are they harmed? or do they put them in a bucket and keep them alive until they can be released?

[fishsmith]

I think they give each baby striper a couple booster shots before they're let free to prevent polio and chickenpox.

[Fly Rod]

Taste just like "smelt"

[Sweetwater]

Numbers of stripers are definitely up, and the projections based on 2003 recruiting class are excellent. These numbers and those since 1992 show that if everything goes well, the number of fish in the 13+ year class (30 pounds +) should be quite high in 2006 and beyond.

However, the emergence of mycobacteriosis which is a bacteria that has a wasting effect, slowly kills older fish. 50% to 70% (by some estimates) of Chesapeake Bay stripers (which are the majority of all stripers) are infected. This does not bode well.

Biologists and Fish Management believe that part of the cause is the reduction in menhaden (pogies) in the Chesapeake Bay due to massive over-harvesting coupled with higher than normal water temps. Pogies' high oil content is essential to preventing the stress in stripers caused by the higher temps. We need to seriously consider supporting legislation to curtail such over-fishing of menhaden.

Also, this bacteria can infect human skin as well. If you catch a fish with skin lesions, it should be handled with gloves. I understand that the flesh, if cooked thoroughly, is still safe to eat.

---- Tight Lines!

[Fly Rod]

Sweetwater!!!

Nice report! !
This means that there is an abundance of stripers.
When disease is prevellent ,which is usaully from an over abundance of fish in any given area ,then we have to cull whether it be from recreational and commercial.
At one time there were not enough stripers in the ocean because of over fishing. Now there are to many. Stripers are getting sick. To many fish in any given area.
w
We the angler may be the stripers worst enemy. We have learned how to bring the striper back from almost extinction, but we still haven't learned to maintain a healthy stock.
Beleive it or not we may be doing the striper and ourselves an injustest with over protection.
Is that good or bad??????

[Sweetwater]

TOO many stripers!? What kind of silly talk is that?

Seriously though, I agree with Fly Rod, that ironically the success of the conservation effort means numbers are up but the fish are more stressed and diseased.

However, having sufficient forage (pogies) could go along way to reduce stress by improving the stripers' nutrition and warding off this bacteria, which I understand is almost always fatal.

As a recreational fisherman, I would like to first see more controls placed on harvesting menhaden than to reduce controls on harvesting striped bass.

--Tight Lines!

[Fly Rod]

We haven't had any sunificate numbers of pogies up this way in twelve years. We get small numbers of pogies in our river.It takes a couple of hours to catch a dozen. Our waters are ten times cleaner then years past.

This past week there were three days of commercial fishing meetings. the best that came out of these meetings was that the government took away a hundred thousand tons of herring quota here in the north atlantic area.They were allowed 330 thousand metric tons now they are down to 230 thousand metric tons.

[MakoMike]

Fly rod,
That quota reduction really wasn't much of a big deal. They were only catching around 100 tons of them anyway, so whether the quota was 200 or 300 tons really didn't make much of a difference.

[Fly Rod]

I don't know about that!!!
The two herring boats that come here every 2-3days unloads about 600 thousand lbs. So that is 3,000 ton per boat about every three days. Each boat is capable of holding one million lbs.

Also i did say 100,000 thousand metric tons reduction. Not 200 tons.

They lost 100 thousand metric tons.

[CANAL RAT]

why doest anybody do somthing about this pogie overfishing

[striprman]

Nobody will do anything about pogie overfishing because in a few years the good striped bass fishing may be a thing of the past. The more I read about Chesapeake Bay, "dead zones" and oxygen depletion as well as the decline in blue crabs and oysters,
and the bacterial fish disease in bass, well.. enjoy it while it lasts.

[Nebe]

true Striprman, so true

[striprman]

http://www.town.oxford.ma.us/Boh/FishSafety.htm
http://www.sierraclubri.org/mercury/swampscott.htm
http://www.health.ri.gov/environment/risk/fish_faq.htm
http://www.mde.state.md.us/CitizensI.../faq/index.asp
http://stellwagen.noaa.gov/about/sit.../hlthcont.html