On Tuesday, April 30, 2019 the Striped Bass Management Board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will consider a management response to the 2018 stock assessment that revealed the extent to which striped bass stocks on the Atlantic seaboard have and continue to decline.
The history and politics of the decline in striped bass numbers is somewhat complex. The best place to read about what has happened to our fishery over the past 50 years is the American Saltwater Guides Association website. They provide an excellent analysis of both the latest scientific data and key legislative moments.
After reading through the analysis provided by the American Saltwater Guides Association as well as the pertinent data and legislature, we have provided 5 key points to help anglers makes sense of the current moment in striped bass conservation.
1. Striped bass ARE overfished and overfishing DOES occur: The first step in fixing a problem is admitting that there is one. While anglers who have fished through multiple decades can speak to a severe decline in the quality of striped bass fishing, there is still a strong contingent of fishermen who see this decline as a temporary anomaly. The fact of the matter is that the each year’s data indicates a steady decline in juvenile bass born each year. The population is shrinking and the overharvesting of fish is to blame.
2. The problem is not commercial fishing, but recreational fishing: When we think of overfishing we often think about commercial fishermen with huge drag nets scooping fish out of the ocean at unreasonable rates. In reality, commercial fishing for striped bass is highly regulated and monitored in real time. On the other hand, recreational angling is both less regulated and more loosely enforced. Think about it: how often have you been asked to show your fishing license or prove that the fish you intend to keep meet size minimums? Also, there are far more recreational anglers than commercial anglers. So much so that recreational fishing accounted for 90% of the fishing mortality in 2017.
3. The solution lies in new size limits: Poachers aside, the real problem facing striped bass fisheries is the decline in spawn biomass. That is, the number of eggs that are laid and subsequently fertilized. This is because the current keeper size of 28” was only designed to make sure that that a fish could spawn once before it was eligible to be kept. If we want to restore our striped bass stocks, we need to increase the spawn biomass by ensuring that fish can spawn multiple times before they are eligible to be kept. By increasing the keeper size to 36”, we could decrease fish mortality and ensure that fish are able to engage in multiple spawns.
4. Catch and release mortality is a red herring: An increase in the size limit would mean more fish being released back into the water. While most catch and release anglers see this as a good thing, those who keep what they catch and would like to see the 28” size limit remain in place argue that an increase in the size limit will mean an increase in catch and release mortality. However, this is argument is poorly supported. The best available scientific data indicates that catch and release mortality is about 9%. When you do the math, you find that more fished are saved through a higher size limit than are lost to catch and release mortality. Think about it, a 9% catch and release mortality rate is quite a bit better than the 100% mortality rate that occurs when you throw a fish in the cooler. While we don’t like the idea that one of every ten released fish die, those fishes bodies don’t go to waste. If released these fish merely return to the ocean’s food web, to feed eels and crabs and other, smaller animals.
5. They key to rebuilding is reducing fish mortality: There is just no way around it, if we want to rebuild our striped bass fishery we need to kill less fish. A higher size limit would achieve much of this goal, but it is also imperative the catch and release anglers learn how to properly fight, handle, and release fish.
This last point is both the most important and hardest to achieve. Luckily the Fish Need Water Alliance (FNWA) exists to educate anglers on how to reduce catch and release mortality through sustainable practices. Visit their website here, or stay tuned for our upcoming blog segment “Conservation Tip” in which we take FNWA’s fish handling techniques and provide specific advice for striped bass fishermen.
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