2025 Striped Bass Regulations

[hammer4reel]

Originally Posted by 1captainron

Just curious, why get rid of the Bonus program? What' the benefit?

I depend on that so my customers can at least (hopefully) have a good eating sized fish to take home. Catch and release is going put the rest of us out of business.

Read what he actually wrote .
He included the bonus tag size fish in his fish limit size , and extended it 34” which is 3” more than you currently have .

If the limit was as he stated 24” to 34” you would have a bigger pool of fish for your fares to keep .

As far as CR putting guys out of business , I haven’t seen anyone who has been catching 40-48” fish cry they don’t have anything for the table .
Seen a lot of hoot and hollering about what great fish they are catching .

.boats south of you are railed daily for guys looking to catch those jumbos


.

[bunker dunker]

seems like this is the never ending story,striped bass and regulations.i try to understand why someone,anyone can't sit down and come up with a set of regulations that works for all involved.when i started striper fishing it was 10 fish 18" or over.i understand things change but why are we having the same conversations every year.make a balanced set of regs and that is that.

[Broad Bill]

In the 70's and 80's, the striper stock underwent significant declines due to the massacre of large female spawners by southern states commercial fisheries. Maryland implemented a moratorium from 1985-1989 and Virginia the same in 1989. The biomass immediately bounced back due to increased recruitment levels. My point is twofold. Regardless of what percentage commercial makes up of the fishery which proportionately is about the same today as it was in the 80's, if they focus their harvest on the breeding stock they've proven they can and will do substantial damage to the stock. That's why I posted a few weeks ago that allowing Massachusetts commercial interests to harvest stripers 34" and above is asinine. Second point is the female population of the stock today is three times larger than the 80's and early 90's yet struggles as recruitment is as low as it's been in 50 years. Why? Answer that question and you'll know where to focus management efforts.

Pollution in the Chesapeake, water temperatures in the bay, lower oxygen levels in the Chesapeake, too many bunker being harvested by Omega Protein. In the 80's, there was 50 million lbs. of female breeders in the stock, in 2021 there was over 160 million lbs., don't think numbers of females is the problem as there's more around now than I've seen in my life. We just witnessed that a few weeks ago. Problem is recruitment isn't keeping pace with the exponential growth of large females in the stock and a growing spawning stock population. Question is why?

Personally I don't think large fish mortality from catch and release is the problem, stripers float when dead, maybe not immediately but within a few days when they start to decompose. Anyone seeing substantial amounts of large breeders floating on the surface? Haven't witnessed that myself or heard it to be the case.

The Chesapeake has been turned into a cesspool and we've allowed a foreign owned company to decimate the bunker population which has greatly impacted the bay's ability to support recruitment for multiple species, including stripers.
Fix that problem and you'll fix not only the striper fishery but many others that are being impacted by the exploitation of bunker in the Chesapeake by Virginia, Maryland and one foreign corporation.

You want the ASMFC to make a difference and start managing instead of playing politics, convince Virginia and Maryland to implement measures that are going to bring the bay back and stop treating it as their personal piggy bank by wiping out the bunker population that for years kept the water quality at levels which could sustain strong and sustainable recruitment levels. Push Cooke Inc. / Omega Protein out of the bay, slash their coast wide quota and reassess the situation after three years.

Don't punish recreational anglers, party and charter boat operators by removing a bonus fish, that's not the problem and will accomplish nothing but put another nail in small business coffins when they have absolutely nothing to do with causing the problem the fishery is currently experiencing.

[1captainron]

Originally Posted by hammer4reel

Read what he actually wrote .
He included the bonus tag size fish in his fish limit size , and extended it 34” which is 3” more than you currently have .

If the limit was as he stated 24” to 34” you would have a bigger pool of fish for your fares to keep .

As far as CR putting guys out of business , I haven’t seen anyone who has been catching 40-48” fish cry they don’t have anything for the table .
Seen a lot of hoot and hollering about what great fish they are catching .

.boats south of you are railed daily for guys looking to catch those jumbos


.

I was replying to the comment about get rid of the bonus fish Dan. All my customers don't want to play catch & release like the SOUTHERN guys, Which is also bullshit. As far as I know the Mohawk is the only boat live Bunker fishing and yes, that's his Neitch, his customers love that. I do agree that if the limit was 24-34 that would be a plus.

[Angler Paul]

We may be looking at a15% cut though seasonal closures. Since stripers migrate to different states at different times, states would likely have the authority to set their own seasons as long as it results in the required cut. This is my best guess as to what will happen but there are many other options including doing nothing for 2025. Regardless, a new addendum will be coming out for 2026. Paul Haertel, JCAA Board member

[Gerry Zagorski]

More info here https://www.bayjournal.com/news/fish...bdeb3b72a.html

[Broad Bill]

Originally Posted by Gerry Zagorski

More info here https://www.bayjournal.com/news/fish...bdeb3b72a.html

I'll never understand how these morons can say they're actually managing fisheries. The striper fishery, for the large part, is in a free fall decline just like fluke for the exact same reasons yet NMFS, ASMFC and MAFMC focus on quota cuts while doing nothing to address the recruitment problem. The Chesapeake, which supports 70% - 90% of coast wide recruitment, has seen continuous deteriorating water quality over the years for multiple reasons, the striper recruitment solution is a 15% cut in quotas! Really, what genius came up with that proposal? Historically low recruitment for six years means the fishery is dying. Address the cause of the problem, not the result. These agencies are pathetically inept doing their job and arguably the two most important stocks on the eastern seaboard, stripers and fluke, are paying the price. Send &$#&@/! Omega Protein packing back to Canada. Let USA commercial netters net bunker responsibly in the ocean and sell them to the Canadian salmon farms.

Close the Chesapeake to netting of bunker permanently and do whatever needs to be done to manage the bay back to health. And then close the GD fluke season to commercials in September through October and the stocks will take care of themselves. 15% reduction, does anyone believe that'll change anything. That's on the heels of a 42% reduction for fluke for 2024 and 2025 which will also do nothing as evidence by this past fluke season being one of the worst in recent memory. At least in the striped Bass fishery, management has finally woken up and protected the large breeders. In the fluke fishery the regulations mandate the harvest of the larger breeders while killing who knows how many younger age class fish thrown back dead which is arguably one of the most asinine management philosophies they could have adopted. Regulations that target the harvest of the breeding population, kill hundreds of thousands of prime breeders during the offshore migration and multiple trillions of eggs in the process. And these *******s are ultimately responsible for the fate of these fisheries.

The recreational sector, ASA or all the Mid-Atlantic and Gulf of Maine states need to file a class action law suit against NMFS for complete mismanagement of these two stocks. They're literally killing these fisheries and the only thing that will change that is a court order to clean up Chesapeake Bay, kick Omega protein the f*** out and stop the commercial sector from harvesting any stock during its spawn which is the primary cause the fluke fishery is in the toilet. If ASA continues to keep their head in the sand, find out what primary manufacturers fund them through excise taxes from recreational spending and boycott those products until they get the message and support the recreational sector and stocks. There's a lot of quality knock offs out there. Virginia and Maryland politicians should be taken to court for their roles destroying not just multiple fisheries but the Chesapeake Bay itself and economic benefits of the striper fishery throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Gulf of Maine states. Two states, Maryland and Virginia, can't be allowed to benefit from the socio and economic benefits of a stock at the expense of eight other states that make up that stocks migration range. If that's the case, stop North Carolina and Virginia netters from coming into our local waters and destroying the last remaining summer flounder population during the winter.

[Gerry Zagorski]

Originally Posted by Broad Bill

I'll never understand how these morons can say they're actually managing fisheries. The striper fishery, for the large part, is in a free fall decline just like fluke for the exact same reasons yet NMFS, ASMFC and MAFMC focus on quota cuts while doing nothing to address the recruitment problem. The Chesapeake, which supports 70% - 90% of coast wide recruitment, has seen continuous deteriorating water quality over the years for multiple reasons, the striper recruitment solution is a 15% cut in quotas! Really, what genius came up with that proposal? Historically low recruitment for six years means the fishery is dying. Address the cause of the problem, not the result. These agencies are pathetically inept doing their job and arguably the two most important stocks on the eastern seaboard, stripers and fluke, are paying the price. Send &$#&@/! Omega Protein packing back to Canada. Let USA commercial netters net bunker responsibly in the ocean and sell them to the Canadian salmon farms.

Close the Chesapeake to netting of bunker permanently and do whatever needs to be done to manage the bay back to health. And then close the GD fluke season to commercials in September through October and the stocks will take care of themselves. 15% reduction, does anyone believe that'll change anything. That's on the heels of a 42% reduction for fluke for 2024 and 2025 which will also do nothing as evidence by this past fluke season being one of the worst in recent memory. At least in the striped Bass fishery, management has finally woken up and protected the large breeders. In the fluke fishery the regulations mandate the harvest of the larger breeders which is arguably one of the most asinine management philosophies they could have adopted. Regulations that target the harvest of the breeding population, kill hundreds of thousands of prime breeders during the offshore migration and multiple trillions of eggs in the process. And these *******s are ultimately responsible for the fate of these fisheries.

The recreational sector, ASA or all the Mid-Atlantic and Gulf of Maine states need to file a class action law suit against NMFS for complete mismanagement of these two stocks. They're literally killing these fisheries and the only thing that will change that is a court order to clean up Chesapeake Bay, kick Omega protein the f*** out and stop the commercial sector from harvesting any stock during its spawn which is the primary cause the fluke fishery is in the toilet. If ASA continues to keep their head in the sand, find out what primary manufacturers fund them through excise taxes from recreational spending and boycott those products until they get the message and support the recreational sector and stocks. There's a lot of quality knock offs out there. Virginia and Maryland politicians should be taken to court for their roles destroying not just multiple fisheries but the Chesapeake Bay itself and economic benefits of the striper fishery throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Gulf of Maine states. Two states, Maryland and Virginia, can't be allowed to benefit from the socio and economic benefits of a stock at the expense of eight other states that make up that stocks migration range. If that's the case, stop North Carolina and Virginia netters from coming up and destroying the summer flounder population in local waters during the winter.

Don't hold back Bill and let us know how your really feel

All valid points and it seems every fishery they "manage" gets worse, not better!

[Broad Bill]

Gerry I learned a long time ago there's times when we all need to bring more heat whether it's running a business or in this case discussing how stocks are being managed. Too many fisheries are being exploited for political, commercial and financial gain and the recreational sector, charter and party boat operators and small businesses dependent on them are taking it on the chin and being asked to accept ineffective decisions and unfair and disproportionate allocations of a public resource. It needs to end or many people's lives will change socially and economically. That's not at all the spirit which drove the Magnuson Stevens Act. A 15% reduction in striper catch will do nothing addressing the problem of the Chesapeake being turned into an absolute cesspool any more than a 42% reduction in catch quota for fluke will mitigate the damages of regulations mandating the harvest of prime breeders of the stock and a commercial sector that obliterates these stocks in September, October and November while they're spawning during their offshore migration.

Management can collect all the data they wish from scientific studies and conduct all the peer review they wish but if they continue to ignore the facts and data from those studies, refuse to address the problems causing these declines and continue making decisions based on politics and economics, these fisheries I guarantee you will be a shadow of themselves in the not too distant future.

I would argue more heat is exactly what's needed from everybody impacted by these absolutely asinine regulations we've been asked to live with for over two decades now that have done nothing more than create more problems for these stocks to the extent their futures are now seriously in jeopardy.

[hartattack]

For those of you who want to understand what's going to happen to Striper Regs this coming season, although the cynic in me thinks ASMFC will do their normal "kick the can down the road" routine...​

Important Striped Bass Meeting Dates​
Informational Webinar to Review Atlantic Striped Bass Technical Report
Date: December 5, 2024, 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
Location: Virtual, webinar registration link
https://register.gotowebinar.com/reg...14609517348697
The Commission will host an Informational Webinar to review the management options developed by the Technical Committee and provide the public with sufficient background information to inform the development and submission of public comment by December 10. No public comments will be taken at this webinar; staff can address clarifying questions as time allows but public comments will not be taken.

Atlantic Striped Bass Advisory Panel
Date: December 9, 2024, 4:30 PM - 7:00 PM
Use the link Gerry provided in 1st post,,, note- u need to install RingCentral.

Please note this is a working meeting of the Atlantic Striped Bass Advisory Panel. The public is welcome to listen in, but there will be limited opportunity to provide comments during the call/webinar.

Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board
Date: December 16, 2024, 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Location: Virtual/ In person Westin Crystal City, 1800 Richmond Hwy, Arlington, VA 22202

The draft agenda, webinar information, and the Technical Committee Report with management options for consideration will be posted on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission by December 3. The meeting responds to the results of the 2024 Stock Assessment Update (PDF), which indicates the resource remains overfished but is not experiencing overfishing.

Public Comment Guidelines

The Commission anticipates a large volume of written public comments will be submitted for this meeting. In order to compile and provide the comments to the Board in a timely manner before the meeting, written comments may be submitted via email to comments@asmfc.org by 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, December 10. Comments received after this date will not be included in the Board’s materials.