There’s been a lot of discussion on declining bass stocks on this site as well as plenty of others. After witnessing some of the epic bass blitzes this year in Montauk, it’s hard to believe that there could be a problem. But indeed there does appear to be one.
If you are one of the skeptics, consider the below passage taken from a University of New Hampshire Department of Natural Resources document titled A Guide to Fisheries Stock Assessment. This is the document used to educate members of the fisheries management councils on how fisheries stock assessments are conducted:
“Fishermen will actively seek out areas with greater fish concentrations. As a result, their catch-per-unit effort could remain stable in the face of a declining stock. Consider a stock that contracts its range as the population shrinks, or increases its range as the population grows. Despite the changing range, catch-per-unit effort may remain relatively constant if the fishermen focus their effort on the center of the range, where fish density remains relatively stable.”
Complaints about the lack of quality fish are wide spread, and the voices are indeed becoming louder. In light of this, I offer the below letter to the ASMFC Striped Bass Management Board from Maine Charter Boat Captain Dave Pecci.
From Capt. Dave Pecc
To: Striped Bass Management Board
“I apologize for not being able to present this information in person. The reason is that because of the drastic downturn in the striped bass stock here in the Northeast, my charter business suffered a 40 percent drop this year. So I am working overtime these days in my off season carpentry business to try and recoup my losses. Many other Maine charter captains are also struggling to make up income lost during a disastrous striped bass season.
As I mentioned at the last striped bass advisory panel meeting, there has been a steady and marked downturn in Maine’s striped bass migration over the past five years– most especially in the greatly reduced numbers of trophy size stripers. In 2008, my average catch per trip dropped 80 percent! Not surprisingly, Maine’s resident anglers and our highly valued destination anglers chose to fish elsewhere, thus seriously crippling Maine’s 140 boat charter fleet and its $4 to $5 million contribution to the state’s economy.
The drastic striped bass downturn in 2008 cannot be blamed on local conditions. There was an above average, season-long presence of baitfish in Maine waters this year. For the first time in more than 15 years, we had schools and schools of adult menhaden. And as you know, the most robust populations of river herring available anywhere along the East Coast continue to thrive in Maine waters.
We in Maine have been saying for years that the coast-wide striped bass stocks are dwindling at a rate much higher than the stock assessment trends suggest. I urge you to consider the following measures which would help to correct this downturn and preserve the charter industry and the private angler fishery in Maine and along the entire Northeast coast:
1. Widen the gap between target and threshold mortality to allow for the dynamic changes typical in an 80 percent recreationally utilized stock. This would provide the cushion needed to absorb the possibility of higher species mortality due to unanticipated increases in the numbers of recreational fishermen without allowing over-fishing to occur.
2. Lower the overall mortality on striped bass to allow for a true complete restoration of age structure and to provide stock population increases throughout the historic range of the fishery.
3. Provide odelith study funding so the coast-wide age structure and population of older, trophy size striped bass can be scientifically assessed.
4. Provide MRFSS wave 1 sampling of the winter striped bass fisheries in North Carolina and Virginia. The current estimates used by the Technical Committee on landing and mortality data in these very dynamic fisheries are incomplete and most likely flawed drastically.
5. Provide mechanisms to address and reduce both commercial and recreational discard mortality.
It is my opinion that the coast-wide striped bass fishery –which is 80 percent recreationally utilized – should not be managed using the typical commercial maximum sustainable yield methodology. Recreational hook-and-line fishing is fundamentally inefficient when compared to commercial harvesting practices. For that reason a predominantly recreational fishery such as striped bass should have a larger overall biomass than a typical commercial fishery.
We should also manage our striped bass stocks to provide a true quality recreational fishery throughout the species’ historic range – a quality fishery in which trophy size fish are accessible to sport fishermen.
The five bullets listed above would help greatly to achieve a truly recovered and successful coast-wide striped bass fishery.
Thank you for your time. Again, I would have much preferred to present this to you in person, but I have to work to make up for a lost season.”
I couldn’t agree more. I think Dave his hit the nail on the head here. While I hope I’m wrong, I’m beginning to strongly believe that Maine is the bellwether state. Only time will tell. In the meantime, I would hope that managers would proceed with extreme caution when managing striped bass. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case as sates like Delaware, Pennsylvania and Virginia seek to increase harvest.