Why It Matters: With an estimated 7.5 million anglers who pursue Atlantic striped bass, it is the most economically and culturally important recreational fish species from North Carolina to Maine. It is vitally important to communities along the mid and upper Atlantic Seaboard that striped bass are sustainably managed for abundance and access by the angling public. While the latest stock assessment indicated that recent cuts in recreational harvest opportunities have achieved their goal of reducing fishing mortality, the increasing population of older striped bass may not reach the biomass target by 2029 as planned. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) Striped Bass Management Board is considering additional management options and the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) weighed in.
Highlights:
- The ASMFC is considering further reducing angling opportunities for Atlantic striped bass to slightly increase the probability of hitting the population goals by 2029.
- Recreational fishing restrictions implemented over the last two years have been successful in reaching the fishing mortality target to rebuild the population.
- The lower projected probability of rebuilding has more to do with low recruitment than fishing effort and, as such, CSF does not support making any additional changes to the existing regulations.
Today, the ASMFC’s Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board is considering whether additional harvest restrictions on the Atlantic striped bass fishery are needed, given the latest stock assessment and the current projections that the stock has a slightly lower chance of rebuilding by the target year of 2029 than originally expected. However, since the current restrictions on recreational fishing have reduced fishing mortality levels to their lowest point in thirty years, and because the population continues to increase in abundance, CSF pushed back on the need for any further changes in a comment letter to the board.
Marine fisheries management is very complex, primarily relying on projections of what can be caught in the future given what was landed in the past. These projections are based on a number of assumptions, like how many young fish will be entering or adding to the population annually and what the overall biomass of the population should be. The only thing the ASMFC can control is fishing effort, which they have done through recent slot limits and bag limit reductions. In fact, these recent management changes over the last two years have reduced fishing mortality to the target mortality levels that allow rebuilding, likely even lower.
One of the variables the ASMFC cannot control is recruitment or the number of juvenile striped bass produced each year. Historically, the Chesapeake Bay (Bay) accounts for 70-80% of all striped bass production in the Atlantic. However, over the last several years, that recruitment has been well below average and likely due to changing environmental conditions in the Bay, including a shorter suitable water temperature window in the spring for spawning.
Due to the fact that fishing mortality is where it needs to be to rebuild the population, even in a low recruitment scenario, and the population continues to rebuild as a result even, though slightly slower, CSF believes it is not necessary to impose further restrictions on anglers and the business they support along the Atlantic Coast.
