Starving Bass?

[relentless]

Here is an interesting article from tonights's Newburyport Daily News. I think we are seeing the results from the herring trawlers taking huge amounts of forage fish, resulting in virtually no GFT around until late in season and staring bass.

Dave

Ocean blues: Striped bass in local waters show signs of decline
By Matthew K. Roy
Staff Writer


This summer, local fisherman saw signs of a dismaying possibility — a crash in the striped bass population.

The fish were thinner. They appeared in fewer numbers. And a few showed symptoms of a disease that scientists say has infected 70 percent of the bass in Chesapeake Bay, the great body of water between Virginia, Maryland and Delaware where more than half of the bass that swim in local waters originate.

"They look like little pink cancer spots on the side of the fish," said Scott Maguire, the fisherman owner of Summer Job Charter of Newburyport.

The often fatal disease, called mycobacteriosis or fish tuberculosis, is one of the factors scientists speculate might have contributed to the perceived decline in fish's survival rate.

The bass could also be threatened by pollution and starvation. Research indicates the menhaden population, the fish that constitutes much of the striper's food supply, has been significantly depleted.

Stripers are the most popular gamefish in the area, drawing droves of shoreline fisherman to the banks of the Merrimack River, Joppa Flats and the beaches of Plum Island and Salisbury.

On the water, boaters ply the river, ocean and favorite fishing spots throughout the Great Marsh of Newbury and Rowley in search of stripers, which can grow to 40 pounds or more.

The foreboding evidence of the striper's decline alarms scientists and fisherman because it harks back to what happened in the 1980s, when overfishing compelled the federal government to ban the fishing of striped bass from North Carolina to Maine. Thanks to the moratorium, followed by the institution of recreational-catch limits and commercial-harvest quotas, the species rebounded. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission declared it "fully recovered" in 1995.

In 1997, mycobacteriosis was first seen in Chesapeake Bay striped bass, infecting an estimated 10 percent of the bay's population.

Maguire said this summer's trips on the Merrimack River have produced "slightly fewer" bass compared to years past, and he did not notice as many smaller fish on the water's surface.

But Maguire's story is not necessarily the norm for local fisherman.

"It depends on who you talk to and where they are fishing," said Kurt Daniello, a recent customer at Surfland Bait and Tackle on Plum Island.

Daniello, 45, had success hooking bass in the spring, but his catch numbers dropped sharply during July and August. His bad luck, Daniello said, could have been attributable to the summer doldrums, when bass retreat to deeper, cooler waters for relief from the summer heat.

Neil Allen, 23, a Surfland employee, said he had a good summer bass fishing. He caught a lot of fish, but their dimensions were noteworthy.

"The fish around here are a lot thinner," he said.

Exercise is not the explanation; the fish most likely don't have enough to eat.

Kay Moulton, owner of Surfland, said bass could face peril because of the thinning herring population.

The high demand for herring might mean bass are having difficulty finding something to eat, said Moulton. Herring is used for lobster bait, for feeding fish farms in aquariums and even in lawn fertilizer. Moulton has struggled to get the fish in stock.

"It's not good for bass," she said, "they'll have nothing to feed on."