A six-hour marathon meeting of the coastal striped bass board failed to yield any forward progress, so you wouldn’t be wrong to assess it was another case of kicking the can down the road.
Yet, if you chose to take a glass half full perspective, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board came within a bunker’s scale of voting for a measure that would have, in one member’s assessment, “been a really bad outcome.”
While the rockfish population is not currently experiencing overfishing, it remains overfished relative to the updated biological reference points, according to the ASMFC presser. Moreover, as detailed in my previous columns over the years, concerns persist about the lack of strong year-classes to support a resurgence of one of the nation’s most valuable fisheries.
In fact, six of the last seven year-classes since 2015 have been below average, and only the 2018 year-class is above average. This lone bright spot in the past decade will become more available to ocean harvest in 2025.
Back to the “half glass” analogy, a key upshot of this meeting is that the probability of rebuilding by 2029 is now less than 50%. So by setting a special Striper Board meeting for December 2024 to consider changes to 2025 management measures to reduce fishing mortality and increase the probability of rebuilding to at least 50%, it is still possible the board can produce a meaningful response.
The ASMFC will put out a press release with details on the meeting date and format (in-person or virtual) as well as the projected timeline for publishing meeting materials and the public input process. This makes it all the more critical for the angler community to stay engaged and speak up.
My take, perhaps crudely articulated, is that changes to fishing regulations have not kept pace with years of intense pressure and harvest from all sectors. I’d go as far as to say some board members have been perfectly comfortable with “slow walking” a response to this slow-motion crisis as long as their particular agenda stays intact. That attitude will only accelerate the ongoing decline of a species in peril.
No question angler efficacy is off the charts, and we haven’t been as aggressive in dealing with dead discard during hot summer months for my taste. Hard conversations and harder decisions about the feasibility of continuing to allow Bay gillnets, the for-hire sector’s clients getting to keep two rockfish and New Jersey’s bonus striper tag program must be part of the conversation toward a more viable solution. (As an aside, and purely speculative on my part, I often wonder what impact poaching — both large-scale and singularly — has to have some impact over the past 15 years. The proverbial death by one-thousand cuts.
In related news, the ASMFC Menhaden Board tasked a work group with examining and ultimately making recommendations on potential precautionary management measures in the Chesapeake Bay. If you were hoping for some significant leap forward, you’re out of luck — again. Kind of like Groundhog Day, but without the chuckles.
A likely reason no consensus was reached is owed to the group’s dynamic; opposing agendas apparently resulted in a two-month grinding of gears. The eight-member group will try again to generate useful information by the ASMFC’s winter meeting.
Overall, most stakeholders remain skeptical if not pessimistic of the process. But don’t blame the ASFMC staffers — they’re doing their job. This observer also recognizes that there are thoughtful and intelligent ASMFC board members. However, one has to wonder where is the impassioned, persuasive conservation champion(s), the one(s) who challenges the status quo to put marine resources first?
Where progress gets hamstrung is the members’ collective inability to set aside short-sighted gain for their constituency for the longer term stability of a shared public resource.
Calendar
Through Dec. 10: Striper season in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries, including Maryland’s side of the Potomac River. Creel is one rockfish per day per angler. Slot size is 19 inches to a maximum length of 24 inches. See Maryland DRN website for more details.
Nov. 2: Youth, Veteran ad Military Waterfowl Hunting Day. Check Maryland DNR website for details.
Nov. 16: Free State Fly Fishers’ meeting. Jim Del Bovi talks about kayak fishing safety in tidal waters. Davidsonville Family Recreation Center, 3789 Queen Anne Bridge Road. Email rybeer@gmail.com with questions.
Send outdoors calendar listings and photos to cdollarchesapeake@gmail.com