Established in 1966, the Berkeley Striper Club (BSC) is one of the largest and most active surf-fishing clubs in New Jersey. With a stated objective to promote and protect recreational fishing interests, while safeguarding our natural resources, the BSC is very active in issues and organizations supporting these causes. But you’ll find that BCS members all have one common thread – the fanatic pursuit of striped bass, whether you fish from the beach, jetty, boat, or kayak!
BSC membership is open to all individuals. There is an annual membership fee of $36 which is due in January each year. The renewal deadline is March 1. You can fill out the membership application at berkeleystriperclub.org and bring it along to your very first meeting this week!
In fact, this Wednesday, October 6 will be the “very first meeting” for a lot of new club members when the BSC returns to indoor in-person meetings at 7:30 p.m. at the Seaside Park Borough Hall in Seaside Park, NJ where the club has been meeting monthly since 1966. Professor John Tiedemann (Director, Monmouth University Marine & Environmental Biology & Policy Program) will be doing a presentation reviewing results of recent studies conducted with the club’s support. Topics to be addressed include analysis of striped bass growth rates and migratory movements based on data collected from the club’s 35-year tagging program, an assessment of the mixed-stock composition of stripers along the northern Jersey coast during recent fall runs, and an update on the acoustic telemetry tracking project initiated in 2019.
BSC’s meetings are held the first Wednesday of each month, except on every third month (March, June, September & December) when meetings are held on the first Saturday of the month. Members of the BSC through participation and fund raising help support the BSC’s Fisheries Defense Fund (FDF), which was established in 2002 to help fund organizations focusing on the preservation of striped bass. The club runs two annual “catch and release” striper tournaments as fund raisers in support of FDF which has provided more than $70,000 in financial support to such groups as the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Monmouth University’s “Stripers for the Future” research campaign, Save Barnegat Bay, Rutgers University Department of Marine Science and the Gray FishTag Research’s Northeast Striped Bass Study.
Visit the club’s new and improved website today at berkeleystriperclub.org.
