Striped Bass, the condition of the fishery

[Crafty Angler]

Well said again, Flap...

Whoops, this is how it started the last time....

Relative to legislative actions to protect the fishery, I've almost finished reading Striper Wars - and at this point I think I can say at least the Prologue was accurate for the most part in terms of the basic biology and reproduction cycles...and after that it begins to swirl around the drain at a increasingly faster rate in some of the following chapters.

There are some real leaps of logic in the book regarding conservation that are glaringly obvious to me if you actually know the stories beforehand as well as a number of other important points that Russell either passes over quickly or ignores altogether. You do have to pick and choose through material wisely I guess -

Anyway, from my perspective, Flap has hit it dead on the nuts - fix the forage base first to reduce the stress if you want a more robust stock. And that's a very tall order.

Given the importance of the subject, let's try to keep the discussion gentlemanly and intelligent - while most of us are in the grips of the shack nasties, at the very least, we can agree to disagree.

We've got a good collection of pretty smart guys here at S-B from a lot of different disiplines and backgrounds and perhaps we can come up with an idea for an effective solution beyond what has already been proposed.

[inTHERAPY]

Well put gentlemen. So far so good. I am in no way a proponent for Stripers Forever. That is a totally different discussion. Issues of particular concern are the facts that ASMFC has not acknowledged any health isssue, claiming stocks to be in good health through 2015 (!), and the really low YOY class fish at 3.9. I may be incorrect but isn't the number considered "healthy" 8.0

[MakoMike]

Originally Posted by inTHERAPY

Well put gentlemen. So far so good. I am in no way a proponent for Stripers Forever. That is a totally different discussion. Issues of particular concern are the facts that ASMFC has not acknowledged any health isssue, claiming stocks to be in good health through 2015 (!), and the really low YOY class fish at 3.9. I may be incorrect but isn't the number considered "healthy" 8.0

As I recall anything over around 5 is considered good. 8 is very good and those were the kind of numbers that brought the bass back. Recent years have seen very low YOY indexes, but, those fish wouldn't have entered the breeding population yet anyway. ASMFC has said NOTHING about 2015, or any year beyond 2009. All they have said is that the stck is still in good shape as of 2008.

[inTHERAPY]

Originally Posted by MakoMike

As I recall anything over around 5 is considered good. 8 is very good and those were the kind of numbers that brought the bass back. Recent years have seen very low YOY indexes, but, those fish wouldn't have entered the breeding population yet anyway. ASMFC has said NOTHING about 2015, or any year beyond 2009. All they have said is that the stck is still in good shape as of 2008.

The source, Capt. Jim White's article in the RISAA newsletter, Myobacteriosis, paragraph 8, has a quote from ASMFC say SOMETHING about 2015. I have included the article as an attatchment in the first post. have you read it and know that quote to be false. Art

[JohnR]

Couple different tracks with the same total problem - condition of the fishery and stocks.

Closing the commercial fishery is not going to do much to help the stock - just rearranges the deck chairs a little. It is an allocation issue. If you want to reduce pressure on the fish, reduce the take by all parties.

Forage, Pogies FohRevvah! - This is what we need - protect the forage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jim White's take on Myco - yes, there are a lot of assumptions. Sadly Fisheries Managements deals a lot in assumptions. Assuming () that things are half as bad as Jim assumes, than we have a problem. This NEEDS to be looked into and factored into the stock assessments.

Sorry, I'm not big on Gamefish Status and I really don't have a dog in that fight. I really think Stripers Forever could do far more good for the Stripers we all want to keep for Forever if they focused their attention on the fish, not who gets to pursue them.

[DZ]

I lived through the "Striper Wars" and found Russells book quite accurate. Here is a posting from his website.

STRIPED BASS IN TROUBLE AGAIN:
WHAT IS TO BE DONE
By #^&#^&#^&#^& Russell
December 13, 2008

The comeback of the Atlantic striped bass has been called the foremost example of a fisheries management success story, proving that if strong enough regulations are put in place, even a fish population in the worst straits can make a dramatic turn-around. As I documented in my book, Striper Wars: An American Fish Story, this was only achieved because of the pressure applied on public officials by fishermen all along the coast. I also warned, however, that this could be all for naught if attention was not paid – and quickly – to a chronic bacterial infection among the Chesapeake Bay’s striper population, a disease that seems to be linked to their not getting enough to eat. The menhaden, their food of choice, is being overfished by a single corporation, Omega Protein, that grinds the little fish up into fish-meal and processes them into fish-oil.

Since my book was published in 2005, the situation has not gotten any better. In fact, all indications this year are that it’s a whole lot worse. The annual index showing how well striped bass have spawned in the Chesapeake is the lowest since 1990, when they were only beginning to emerge from their near-total collapse. At the same time, marine biologists at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science have released a report stating that the mycobacterial infection is a “stress disease” now detected in more than 60 percent of the bay’s stripers and one that ultimately proves fatal. Among their findings, the scientists noted that older females are more likely than males to die from the disease. No surprise, then, that spawning success is way down.

Fishermen in many different locations along the Eastern seaboard are reporting their worst seasons since the dire days of the early 1980s. There is a lack of forage for stripers in New England waters too, where “factory-sized” midwater trawlers are encircling huge schools of herring with nets as big as a football field. Never has the need for an ecosystem-based approach to management been more apparent. Yet the big commercial interests continue to have inordinate influence over the supposed regulators.

In the Chesapeake region, a group of scientists came out in early December to flatly state that the 25-year, $6-billion effort to clean up the bay has been a dismal failure and needs to be completely revamped. A few days later, the federal EPA asked for an exemption to exclude poultry farms from the environmental reporting required of other industries – even though they release pollutants into the air from millions of tons of manure left by their flocks (as much as one-third of the nitrogen fouling the bay waters comes from the air). This is yet another example of the Bush administration’s blatant gutting of environmental laws in its final days.

So what is to be done? In the 1980s, faced with a pollution problem that everyone knew could not be solved overnight, there was only one thing to do: stop the fishing pressure. Moratoriums and no-sale laws went into effect all across the coast. As the striped bass population heads for what may be a second great crash, it’s time to move in that direction again. Already there is no commercial fishing for stripers allowed in Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia and South Carolina, nor in federal waters beyond the three-mile state limit. A bill will soon be pending in the Massachusetts Legislature to follow suit and make striped bass a no-sale gamefish.

I am not someone who enjoys advocating that commercial fishermen be put out of the striped bass business, or denying supermarkets and restauranteurs the right to sell the fish. I’ve resisted calling for this extreme a measure for a long time. But I’m afraid its time has come, coupled with stronger limitations on the millions of recreational anglers who are taking far too many of the big spawning females – and with curtailing the slaughter of tons of baitfish, menhaden and herring. The striped bass has been called the aquatic equivalent of the American bald eagle. We can’t let this most majestic of our fish species once again find itself on the brink of disappearing.

[steve]

This is just ones fisherman's opinion, and certainly in no way scientific, but the state of the striped bass is in trouble, I think. I have been chasing striped bass almost 36 years now but for the past 5 or 6 years I have noticed a dramatic decline of the numbers of stripers I have encountered . During that period I have fished,in the surf, about the same number of times( 85 to 110 trips) and in the same places with exception of last season. In '08, I could not fish every location I generally do because of a physiscal problem, however, I did manage about 86 trips in alot of good striper holes.. Anyway, during the last few seasons I have landed approx. 150 to 250 bass. Previous to that, I would routinely catch that many by the end of May, and by the end of each season, catch and release anywhere from 600 to 800 bass. What is very disturbing is the lack of small fish, the schoolies. Save for the early to mid spring, I have not seen any numbers of this size fish for the rest of the season. The" Fabulous Falls " have been almost non existent over the last 5 to 6 years. School sized fish could even be counted on even in the so-called bad years before the moratorium. I don't know where they are now! Yes, ther are alot of big fish around for some, just like the late 70's and early 80's but look what happened back then! Moreover, talk to bass fisherman from Maine. Their season was an all out bust in '08. Charter Captains gave up the ghost and went smallmouth bass fishing I'm told. Something is wrong and as others have said, we need to get all the data we can and make some intelligent decisions, soon.

[JFigliuolo]

What really gets my nuts in a vice (and I'm not singling anyone out) is guys that in one thread (not necessarily this one) say the bass are in trouble... Yet post pictures of BIG dead bass they kill for a contest or sale...

I keep fish to eat, don't get me wrong. But if YOU think there is a problem how about changing YOUR actions as a first step.

-putting on my asbestos suit.

[Crafty Angler]

Originally Posted by Crafty Angler

...Whoops, this is how it started the last time....

...Given the importance of the subject, let's try to keep the discussion gentlemanly and intelligent - while most of us are in the grips of the shack nasties, at the very least, we can agree to disagree...

Well, it sounded good on paper, anyway.........