Stripers Forever - EEZ to Remain Closed to taking of Striped Bass

The following are just a few of the communications that SF sent out on keeping the EEZ closed to the taking of striped bass. We could go on and on, but as you can see below SF has been advocating for striped bass protection in the EEZ since commercial interests pushed the ASMFC into trying to reopen it.

Thanks to an deluge of messages from recreational anglers, and because of opposition from organizations like Stripers Forever, CCA, and the RFA , NOAA Fisheries Service has declined to reopen the EEZ to the taking of striped bass for either recreational or commercial fishermen. This is an important step toward the ultimate goal of ending commercial fishing for stripers everywhere on the Atlantic coast. Above you'll find a link to the press release (PDF) from NOAA.

Stripers Forever members – The National Marine Fisheries Service is again taking public comment on a proposal to reopen the EEZ for the taking of striped bass. The board of directors of SF has always been strongly opposed to the idea. We feel that striped bass are already being fished harder than they should be, and that the EEZ closure has effectively created a much needed conservation zone for large, prime breeding-size stripers. The real pressure to open the EEZ to fishing has come from Massachusetts and North Carolina, where commercial fishermen are clamoring to catch what they feel is a concentration of large fish that are currently off limits. We have detailed our views in a letter to the National Marine Fisheries Service that is available here on the Stripers Forever website.

1. There is no good reason to reopen the EEZ. Current commercial quotas are met well within allotted time frames, and recreational fishermen like me have repeatedly asked to keep the EEZ closed to help conserve striped bass. Good quality striped bass fishing is very important to me personally, and I do not want to see this fishery damaged by over-fishing.

3. The review document treats the ASMFC position as if it were the unanimous decision of all states. I think it is important to remember that four states voted in favor of reopening the EEZ but five were opposed. The deciding votes were cast by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and by NMFS! It is well known that only two or three states with aggressive commercial fishing voices have pushed to have the EEZ reopened and that it is largely this tiny minority that is responsible for this whole exercise. I think it is wrong to cave in to these interests or to view the ASMFC states as being aligned behind this proposal.

1. There is no good reason to reopen the EEZ. Current commercial quotas are met well within allotted time frames, and the recreational community has repeatedly and overwhelmingly asked to keep the EEZ closed as a conservation buffer. The recreational fishing community for striped bass numbers over 3 million individuals and is the real stakeholder both in economic and social terms for the striped bass fishery. Their wishes should be the overwhelming consideration, and the EEZ should indeed remain closed at this time.

2. The stated goals of increasing the population of large striped bass will not be enhanced. The EEZ provides a sanctuary for these fish. While some directed fishing activity may illegally be taking place, it is primarily catch-and-release. It is wrong to think that allowing either recreational possession or commercial activity in the EEZ – even with a fixed quota -- will not increase the catch of these fish. Filling the quotas more quickly by bringing in fish currently protected in the EEZ will result in increased illegal commercial sales, something already rampant in the system. The existence of the illegal commercial harvest is well documented through many arrests and convictions and the commercial quotas provide no estimate at all of this illegal catch.

3. Striped bass science is still very much in a state of flux. According to information from the ASMFC, there will be no full stock assessment on striped bass for the year 2006. Instead, there will be a pass and the Technical Committee will work on “extensive improvements to the stock assessment process for the 2007 benchmark…”

As NMFS representatives know, in the fall of 2004 the stock assessment showed an alarmingly high level of harvest, far over the target mortality for breeding age striped bass. In the fall of 2005 the indices to run the model were revamped, but this only dropped the harvest level to the over-fishing threshold. It is a mistake to make any decisions regarding the EEZ based on the current uncertainties in the stock assessment science.

4. The review document treats the ASMFC position as if it were the unanimous decision of all states. We think it is very important to remember that four states voted in favor of reopening the EEZ but five did not. The deciding votes were cast by USF&WS and NMFS. It is well known that only a few of the states with aggressive commercial fishing voices have pushed to have the EEZ reopened, yet those votes in the minority are largely responsible for this exercise. We think it is unfair to cave in to these interests or to view the ASMFC states as being aligned behind this proposal.

In summary, Stripers Forever thinks that the only real support for reopening the EEZ comes from a handful of part-time commercial fisherman. The EEZ is a valuable conservation buffer for striped bass; reopening it presents a considerable risk to the health of the wild striper population. Further, doing so means disregarding the wishes of the majority of recreational fishermen who have the biggest stake in the striped bass resource, not to mention the majority of ASMFC member states who have voted NO on reopening the EEZ.

While we recognize that it is quite impossible to know with any certainty what the impact on fishing effort would be if the EEZ were to be opened, we have little doubt increases in effort and mortality would occur. Most of the increased effort will come from the commercial sector as recreational anglers have made it abundantly clear in the scoping meetings and by written comment that they almost unanimously favor keeping the EEZ closed to fishing for stripers. Much of the pressure to open the EEZ is coming from commercial interests in Massachusetts and North Carolina. The respective Marine Resources arms of both states have long and well documented records of favoring commercial fishermen to the detriment of recreational anglers. We also know that the thorny issue of keeping and selling bycatch is part of the equation. In fact, you state that the proposed EEZ commercial fishery would be a bycatch fishery only. This will certainly come as a surprise to the Massachusetts folks, who have a hook and line only commercial fishery. The Massachusetts question aside, we believe that a bycatch fishery would almost immediately become a directed fishery. We think “allowing that camel to get his nose in the tent” is asking for real problems

1. The commercial catch is already terribly understated due to the presence of a large illegal harvest. Just check out the SF website www.stripersforever.org under Articles and Research. Public records are filled with hundreds of violations, some of great magnitude. Ask any New York metro area guide or hard-core recreational angler about the illegal harvest of stripers they know exists in their waters. However, even acknowledging that enforcement on both a state and federal level is lax, entire rings of illegal fishing activity have been broken up, and truck loads of illegal bass confiscated. Some estimates of the illegal commercial catch run up to 50% of the legal one, but the ASMFC makes no allowance or estimate for this illegal catch. Allowing a commercial harvest and a possession limit in the EEZ will facilitate the “legal” transportation of striped bass that will subsequently be

3. A substantial number of full recreational bag limit catches are known to be commercial catches. A so-called recreational angler can return from a weekend’s fishing with two daily bag limits of two 20-pound stripers each, and two more for a girlfriend – assuming that you are allowed two days bag in possession . Now you have 160 pounds of “legal” striped bass to sell illegally, under-the-table, for cash to a local restaurant. It is common knowledge that this happens all the time. If you are putting the gas in your boat to run the extra distance to the EEZ for what you hope will be better fishing, you are even more likely to do this. You are also more likely to high-grade or cull your catch to bring home only the two largest fish that you catch. Additionally, you report your fish as recreational catch and further slant the statistics. As you know, outside of the Chesapeake Bay area, there is no recreational quota

4. A greater commercial catch paves the way for demands for ever higher quotas. In 2004, despite the fact that we were already fishing striped bass at the target mortality levels, the ASMFC was prodded by a few commercial states to grant the coastal commercial fishery a 42% increase in quota! This will not be the last such increase they will look for. Once the EEZ is open, more fish will be caught – since we are opening a new fishing ground, how could they not be – and more pressure will be applied to get an even larger commercial quota.

5. The pressure to catch and kill more stripers comes at a time when the fishing coast-wide seems to be getting spottier – even in the face of excellent spawning year classes. Given that states have “rigid quotas”, as you have indicated in other letters, and those quotas are reached relatively easily now, why should we open up more territory? Massachusetts already fills its entire commercial quota each year in a month or less. The quota will be caught even faster, and presumably would bring an even lower price per pound.

6. To our knowledge, the legal issue of whether or not a state could prohibit the sale of legally caught fish from the EEZ has not been decided. The crew of a dragger could perhaps each select two of the largest striped bass taken in a tow and legally bring these to shore for sale, actions that are now illegal. It might turn out the state could be forced to allow the sale, and if not, the fish could be sold illegally anyway. The point is that currently the very possession of these fish in federal waters is not legal. It is a simple deterrent.

Opening the EEZ would also cause an increase in the recreational take of large stripers. There are already well-documented examples of illegal recreational fishing effort in the EEZ. Conceptually Stripers Forever has no objection to allowing recreational fishing in the EEZ, but not until the commercial fishery for striped bass has been completely eliminated.

It is unknown whether or not the EEZ holds a critical percentage of the population of large, old striped bass spawners. But we do know that it holds a significant number of these fish. The closure of the EEZ has been a sort of shotgun approach to conservation. In fact, for striped bass fishermen, it is very similar to the concept of a marine protected area. Stripers Forever is not advocating marine protected areas, but this one is already in place for striped bass and has thus become part of the current management plan. It cannot be helpful to the striped bass population to go after these fish. This is especially true since by NMFS’s own recent data, striped bass are currently being removed at rates well above the ASMFC fishing target and very possibly at or above the over fishing threshold. In short, any increase in mortality, and logically, there will be an increase, will move the fishery into an over fished state.

We’ll limit our comments here to the effects of opening the EEZ as we see them. There are plenty of other concerns about the health of the striped bass population, including the malnutrition of the Chesapeake Bay population due to the over harvest of menhaden, the spreading mycobacteriosis outbreak, and the poor distribution among year classes in the current population. In addition, there is growing disagreement as to the actual size of the population. All things considered, opening the EEZ to the harvest of stripers seems like a genuinely bad idea.