Repent, or Relax? Current State of the Striper - The Fisherman

Repent, or Relax? Current State of the Striper

2018 11 Repent Relax
The first wave of good stripers arrived along the Jersey Shore after the second weekend of October, as Dan DiPasquale shows off one of several stripers he caught and released while fishing with Alex Fatenko.

I know there’s a bit of concern within the striped bass fishing community, particularly within the steadfast “catch and release” segment of our fishery, so I’m hoping this news out of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in mid-October will allow folks to breathe a little easier in the days ahead.

According to Maryland’s DNR, the results of its annual young-of-year striped bass survey in Chesapeake Bay show healthy reproduction with a 2018 young-of-year index at 14.8, higher than the 65-year average of 11.8. It’s also the 8th highest recruitment figure since the historically unprecedented 1996 juvenile index that led to the amazing recreational fishery that existed in the early to mid 2000’s.

Subsequent spikes in the Chesapeake young-of-year striped bass survey in 2001, 2011 and 2015 have some researchers optimistic.

“Consecutive years of healthy reproduction is a great sign for the future of this iconic species,” said Maryland’s Fishing and Boating Services Director David Blazer said. “The survey results are encouraging and complement our efforts to conserve and protect the striped bass fishery throughout the watershed for the benefit of anglers, commercial watermen and the species.”

The juvenile striped bass survey is conducted annually to measure spawning success and help predict future abundance. The index represents the average number of young-of-year – those hatched in the current year – striped bass captured in each sample. DNR has been monitoring the reproductive success of striped bass and other fish species in Maryland’s portion of Chesapeake Bay annually since 1954, making it one of the oldest fish community surveys in the nation.

2018 11 Repent Relax Map
Better than average recruitment numbers on Chesapeake young-of-year striped bass in 2001, 2011, 2015 and 2018 have some researchers optimistic.

Twenty-two survey sites are located in the four major spawning systems: Choptank, Potomac and Nanticoke rivers and Upper Chesapeake Bay. Biologists visit each site three times during the summer, collecting fish with two sweeps of a 100-foot beach seine net. The fish are evaluated for age, size and other factors, and then returned to the water.

Look, I don’t deny that our climate is changing and I’m not going to blow sunshine up your oilskins in telling you that all is fine with our striped bass fishery. There’s most certainly something going on with our coastal migration in spring and fall that’s kept some of the bigger fish away from our beaches. General opinion has ranged from offshore bait abundance to rising inshore water temps and even sand mining and beach replenishment efforts as leading individual causes; my guess would be that they’re all contributing factors.

And what about general overfishing of the stock? Opinions vary on that one; but according to the 2016 Atlantic striped bass stock assessment, the striped bass fishery is not considered “overfished” nor is it experiencing “overfishing” as it relates to the biological reference points. According to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) which manages the striped bass resource, while the stock is not overfished, the female spawning stock biomass (SSB) has continued to decline since 2004.

Despite those recent declines, ASMFC believes the stock is still well above the SSB during the moratorium that was in place in the 1980s. But we’ll know more about that in the coming days, weeks and months as work is well underway for the next benchmark stock assessment for striped bass. We’re actually in the final phases of that process, with the final step coming in the form of a formal peer review which will be conducted at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s 66th Stock Assessment Workshop from November 27-30.

The Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board will then be presented the findings of the benchmark stock assessment and peer review at the ASMFC’s Winter Meeting in February 2019. Fingers crossed.

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