During the May 7th meeting of the New Jersey Marine Fisheries Council, the results of the 2025 Striped Bass Bonus Program (SBBP) were released to the public. In a presentation by fisheries biologist Brendan Harrison who is in charge of tracking SBBP data, the number of 24- to less than 28-inch stripers harvested under the SBBP in 2025 (2,896 fish) was the fewest since 2018 (1,101 fish).
Since striped bass is a “no commercial harvest or sale” gamefish in New Jersey, there’s a unused commercial quota allotment of 200,798 pounds that gets redistributed to the recreational fishing community in New Jersey by way of the voluntary SBBP. In 2025, 10,875 individual anglers (a 7% increase from 2024) and 162 for-hire boats (same as in 2024) participated in the bonus program, with a total of 20,415 permits issued out of the total allowable permit allotment of 25,100.
According to Harrison, at an average weight of 7 pounds, the 2,896 striped bass tagged and reported to the New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife totaled 20,141 pounds accounting for just 10% of the total allowable quota. Since 2015, the bonus harvest by anglers eclipsed the 20% threshold only twice (28.9% in 2023, 28.3% in 2024), with the lowest bonus harvest coming in 2018 when just 3.1% of the total quota was utilized through the SBBP.
The New Jersey striped bass bonus allowance opened up on May 15, and anglers interested in participating in the program must possess the state-issued SBBP tag and agree to report bonus harvest while maintaining and submitting catch logs back to the state. For more information on the striped bass bonus program contact the NJFW’s Nacote Creek office at 609-748-2020 or sbbp@dep.nj.gov.
In other striper related news from the council meeting, New Jersey conservation officers have been putting in extra effort this spring in enforcing regulatory compliance on striped bass in and around the Raritan Bay. Lieutenant Christopher Moscatiello with the state’s bureau of law enforcement told council members that more than 50 summonses for over-sized, under-sized and over the limit striped bass had been given already during the spring run of stripers in and around the Raritan, with other citations handed out to some of the poachers who failed to register with the state angler registry (saltwaterregistry.nj.gov).
When asked if these were all private angler scofflaws or businesses cited for striped bass infractions, Lt. Moscatiello replied, “I don’t there were any for-hire violations.”
