9/16 NJ Striped Bass Public Hearing 6-8PM
 

See below for those interested in attending the NJ meeting on September 9/16. This is an in person meeting only, not a webinar.

Also see below to submit public comments which are due by end of day on 10/3.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, AUGUST 27, 2025
PRESS CONTACT, TINA BERGER, 703.842.0749

States Schedule Public Hearings on Atlantic Striped Bass Draft Addendum III

Arlington, VA – The Atlantic coastal states of Maine through Virginia have scheduled hearings to gather public input on Draft Addendum III to Amendment 7 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Striped Bass, which considers management measures to support rebuilding the stock by 2029. The Draft Addendum also addresses commercial tagging programs, a coastwide definition of total length for size limit regulations, and changes to the Maryland recreational season baseline.

Some hearings will be conducted in-person, and some hearings will be conducted via webinar, or in a hybrid format. If you are unable to participate in your state’s scheduled hearing, you are welcome to participate in any of the virtual or hybrid hearings. The public hearing details follow:

Tuesday, September 16

In-Person Hearing

6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection



Hearing Location:

Stafford Township Fire Co.

133 Stafford Ave, Manahawkin, NJ

Joe Cimino

609.439.1681

Submitting Comments

The public is encouraged to submit comments at any time during the public comment period but no later than 11:59 PM (EST) on October 3, 2025. The Draft Addendum is available at
https://asmfc.org/resources/manageme...ublic-comment/ or via the Commission’s website at Atlantic Striped Bass Action Tracker.



There are four ways to submit comments:

Written comments via Atlantic Striped Bass Action Tracker or comments@asmfc.org
The public comment form, which was developed to facilitate the gathering of input on the Draft Addendum’s specific options
Mailed written comments addressed to Emilie Franke, FMP Coordinator, at 1050 N. Highland St., Suite 200 A-N, Arlington, Virginia 22201
Verbal comments provided at any of the scheduled public hearings


More info on this from NJDEP

NJ's Public Hearing
September 16
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) has issued a Press Release announcing public hearings on Draft Addendum III to Amendment 7 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Striped Bass.

The Draft Addendum considers changes to recreational and commercial management measures to support rebuilding the stock by 2029, as well as commercial tagging programs, a coastwide definition of total length for size limit regulations, and changes to the Maryland recreational season baseline.



New Jersey’s public hearing will be held in-person:

sbbp1
In addition, ASMFC will hold a General Public Hearing Webinar for those that cannot attend their state’s hearing:

sbbp2
If you are unable to attend New Jersey’s Public Hearing or the General Public Hearing Webinar, you are welcome to participate in any of the scheduled virtual or hybrid hearings.

Hearing Presentation Recording

For those who cannot attend any in-person or virtual hearings, ASMFC will also post a recording of the hearing presentation on ASMFC’s YouTube page so that stakeholders may watch the presentation and submit comment at any time during the comment process. This recording will be available by early September.

Submitting Comments

The public comment deadline is October 3, 2025. Public comment can be submitted via:

Written comments via Atlantic Striped Bass Action Tracker or comments@asmfc.org
Public comment form, which was developed to facilitate the gathering of input on the Draft Addendum’s specific options
Mailed written comments addressed to Emilie Franke, FMP Coordinator, at 1050 N. Highland St., Suite 200 A-N, Arlington, Virginia 22201
Verbal comments provided at any of the scheduled public hearings
Please contact Brendan Harrison with any questions about these public hearings.

Re: 9/16 NJ Striped Bass Public Hearing 6-8PM
 

Well it looks like from the lack of responses here and on Facebook, no one seems be interested or wants to get involved or have just given up. I have some fight left in me but not going to fight this by myself.

Re: 9/16 NJ Striped Bass Public Hearing 6-8PM
 

I did 12 years of river clean ups and in those 12 years you know how many fishermen showed up, 3. Two showed up for one clean up and the only one still going is Luke.

Re: 9/16 NJ Striped Bass Public Hearing 6-8PM
 

Yep a lot more people complaining then actually doing something about it. :rolleyes:

Re: 9/16 NJ Striped Bass Public Hearing 6-8PM
 

I see posts on Social Media of guys striped bass fishing from the banks on the lower Delaware river and the places are trashed. I ask them if they spent 15 or 20 minutes picking up some trash, they get mad at me and ask "why would I want to do that !"

Re: 9/16 NJ Striped Bass Public Hearing 6-8PM
 

Welcome to my world. It's a punch to the stomach, sad and lonely feeling when you fight for so many people's benefits, including the fisheries themselves, and get virtually zero support isn't it?

Re: 9/16 NJ Striped Bass Public Hearing 6-8PM
 

well ill bet if the things we"fight" for went our way once in awhile,there would be more support.we have had our own elected officials lie right to our face.we try everything from fund raising,protests,marching on dc and more,just to be
lied and forgotten about.its really quite sad but lets face facts,its all about the monies and who is making it.the real sad part is that we only ask for"fair" regs.

Re: 9/16 NJ Striped Bass Public Hearing 6-8PM
 

Applaud your effort Gerry. I was always in it to win it for years now , no sense stopping now so let me know what you need!

Re: 9/16 NJ Striped Bass Public Hearing 6-8PM
 

Because there has never been a united front demanding change .
The marches in Washington had better turn out from states thousands of miles away than it did from Nj .
We didn’t even fill 2 buses at the slowest time of the year for fishing either year
Would have thought we could fill 10 buses just with people from the NJ for hire fleet.

Re: 9/16 NJ Striped Bass Public Hearing 6-8PM
 

All they care about is "limits" and "keepers"

Re: 9/16 NJ Striped Bass Public Hearing 6-8PM
 

A fair point Dunker... It is discouraging and frustrating because things typically have not gone our way. In fact, when is the last time we've had an increase on anything? It always gets worse, not better.

A big tell in my mind is what they do with Seabass next year since it's been 2x rebuilt, based on their own data. If we don't get significant increases in measures and regs, they've totally lost the public trust. Enough is enough and we may have to use some nuclear options like go out of compliance or go higher up in NOAA and call them out.

There is no way they pass the red face test on this since a decision to give us nothing is totally illogical and unacceptable!

It also seems to me that've

Re: 9/16 NJ Striped Bass Public Hearing 6-8PM
 

Gerry I'm not familiar with the process and consequences of going out of compliance, I only remember when this was discussed back in 2018 it means closing the fishery involved to both recreational and commercial harvest. If true, there is no way the commercial sector or powers to be would allow that to happen not to mention the impact it would have on the recreational sector. Small business owners would get crushed.

Going higher up in NOAA won't help unless it involves a lawsuit as NOAA, NMFS and the Department of Commerce are the agencies directly or indirectly putting these ridiculous regulations in place.

Anyone every hear of the Boston Tea Party?

Re: 9/16 NJ Striped Bass Public Hearing 6-8PM
 

If we have the right Governor in place who would support going out of compliance and now we have a seemingly more fishermen federal level people in place this might be the right time to. Just like Fluke back in the day, once it got escalated to a federal level, underlings were told to " figure it out" before we were actually out of compliance.

Re: 9/16 NJ Striped Bass Public Hearing 6-8PM
 

Gerry stripers have a lesser percentage of the fishery allocated to commercial than recreational compared to fluke so you might be right. I still don't see the states influencing the Secretary of Commerce, NOAA, NMFS, ASMFC or MAFMC without a lawsuit involved or commercial agreeing to go out of compliance and agreeing to a closure which would be shocking if they ever did. Again I'm not sure how that entire process works but you know commercial will try to influence or fight that decision from ever being made. They have the money, the lobbying effort and the ear of the Department of Commerce, I think it's that simple but pray I'm wrong.

Re: 9/16 NJ Striped Bass Public Hearing 6-8PM
 

Each state is for themself NJ is a producer state and the limit should reflect it.

Re: 9/16 NJ Striped Bass Public Hearing 6-8PM
 

i am not saying we should ever stop trying,just saying the loss of interest is growing and growing.a great point made about the 2x growth of sea bass in our area and we have to wonder if the will cut the limits??

Re: 9/16 NJ Striped Bass Public Hearing 6-8PM
 

I remember that well Dan, I sat on that bus and watched the competition shape up that day, I was beyond pissed. I stayed active many years not looking for thanks but for survival. The clowns of years past are still the clowns today with nothing to show for themselves. Seems nothing will ever change.

Re: 9/16 NJ Striped Bass Public Hearing 6-8PM
 

so who are the clowns?? the peeps that go full bore,give it there all with no results or the peeps who just sit back and watch because they know what the outcome will be after watching for 40 years???.this whole thing su*&s for sure.

Re: 9/16 NJ Striped Bass Public Hearing 6-8PM
 

Unfortunately I couldn't attend this evenings meeting in Manahawkin. Anyone on the site attend and if so I'd appreciate an update how it went. Thanks.

Re: 9/16 NJ Striped Bass Public Hearing 6-8PM
 

Hey Tom I couldn't attend either but here's an attached summary from Nick H:

Re: 9/16 NJ Striped Bass Public Hearing 6-8PM
 

Larry.....thanks! Unimaginable that's where this fishery might be headed. Party, Charter boats and small businesses will be devastated and forget fall blitz fishing in NJ or Montauk for that matter. If the stock is in this much trouble, it's an indictment on just how bad the last decade or more of management of the stock has been yet were expected to believe that same management has found religion and a closure is the formula for the road to recovery. Wow!

Re: 9/16 NJ Striped Bass Public Hearing 6-8PM
 

Summary of Meeting (In addition to Nick's comments)

80 to 100 people in attendance. Meeting started with Emile Franke of Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) providing a summary of Striped Bass Addendum III Amendment 7, including displaying of various tables and charts contained therein which ASMFC is using to show why the proposed actions under the addendum are necessary to meet their 2029 Striped Bass Stock Target. The meeting was then opened up to questions.
Many excellent questions very asked regarding these tables and charts.
The meeting was then opened up to comments. All of the comments presented were in favor of the New Jersey Marine Fisheries Commission position of Status Quo, except for one person who spoke in favor of the addendum.

Stephen Machalaba
Hi-Mar Striper Club

Re: 9/16 NJ Striped Bass Public Hearing 6-8PM
 

Here’s another summary

This is my take on the Striped Bass meeting last night in Stafford Township Volunteer Fire Hall. It was all about the reduction of harvest in our recreational community.

I arrived right at 6 pm last night, representing American Angler and our 275-member organization. I also manage and own a small local tackle shop in Ocean County, and noticed that there were just over 100 other participants in attendance for the meeting, which lasted just over two hours. The goal of this meeting was to get suggestions from the recreational angler on how to increase Striped Bass Biomass by reducing the Striped Bass recreational harvest by 12 percent. This could mean closed dates, no harvesting, or even worse, no targeting. It's a very complex issue with the Atlantic States Fishery Commission (Board). Details regarding these estimates, guesses, and assumptions are provided, but the following points stood out to me personally.

1) One Charter Captain asked the question, "Has the board taken into consideration the financial/economic impact of this reduction if these new rules are implemented"? He further said, "It would affect him personally by 36 percent, again if implemented". The answer to this question by the coordinator was "Yes, the board has always had this in mind when making decisions and suggestions on the Striped Bass. However, she admitted the last study on this was in 2015, and no new data has been provided. My 2 cents on this is, do not implement these rules until you have ALL of the data! Out-of-date data and no real-time information should be present when making any decisions related. Especially when the decisions impact anglers, retailers, and manufacturers heavily.

2) The chart shows a recent decrease in the biomass of the Striped Bass. Along with that, the board indicates there is still a 9 percent fatality rate on "Catch and Release". Even though back in 2020, the Circle Hook rule was added, and the end of the Snag and Drop rule. Either they have not considered this impact or done any studies on these new rules, which should change the 9 percent fatality rate substantially. And if not, why have it? Personally, I love the Circle Hook rule as I believe it works. I have seen many anglers give special care to make sure the Striped Bass return alive.

3) Multiple times it came up that they get their information on the current Striped Bass Biomass from data, studies, VTR's and phone calls. It was pointed out by NOAA that the results of the 2024 study of the Biomass population of Striped Bass can be off as much as "30 to 40 percent." That being said, in my 40 years of fishing for Striped Bass, I have only been asked once "what I caught" by an official of the state, and that was because it was from a friend whom I recognized when leaving the beach. So, where is this phone book of "registration" that we had to implement back over a decade ago? Natta!

4) The board reconizes that closures in New Jersey will not have the same effect in other states along our coast. However, because of the migration of the Striped Bass in the spring and fall, New Jersey may have one of the worst impacts of these closures. I do not think they are seriously taking all of this into consideration.There seems to be no way it would be fair along our coast if closures are accepted.

5) Most, if not all, of the commentators last night felt that New Jersey should keep the Status Quo for the regulations in 2026. That is from 28 inches to 30.99 inches. It seemed to be united on this suggestion.

So in my opinion, the data is flawed, and there is little to no real science to prove that the Biomass of Striped Bass needs to be increased by having more restrictions on the recreational angler. We at American Angler feel the Status Quo should be implemented in 2026, and let's also take into consideration that there are so many anglers out there that cannot or will not (a whole different subject) abide by the new and possibly difficult-to-understand and remember the new regulations. Again, Status Quo!

P.S. I have thought long and hard on how to improve the accuracy of the data of the Striped Bass population. I believe there is a possible solution that has proven in the past to help improve the accuracy of the Striped Bass. However, it would cost time, money, and more work for the recreational angler. And in my inner circles of related fishing friends, I brought this idea up and have been crucified by it, and therefore tabled the idea for now. But, in the meantime, we are facing a moratorium on the Striped Bass due to bad science. Which one of these is the lesser of two evils?