One of the most important things to surface during the last few National Marine Fisheries Service hearings on the proposal to reopen the EEZ was some new information from the ASMFC technical committee. This is the committee of fisheries scientists from various states that comes up with the science used to evaluate the striped bass population. One of the pdf files attached to this message (see attachment revised fish mortal above) shows the fishing mortality rate ( F ) calculated by these scientists, and the other file shows the estimated size of the spawning stock biomass – the total weight of all living, sexually mature, female striped
bass.
There are two sets of these files, the ones that some fishery managers thumped their chests and congratulated themselves on as they rushed to increase the coastal commercial catch by 42% earlier this year, and the new ones labeled update in the upper left corner. You will notice that in earlier estimates the mortality rates were creeping up, but were still below the target level of .30 and well below the overfishing threshold of .41. The updated calculations now show that we have been fishing well in excess of the target every year since 1997, and in fact are very near the overfishing level! The spawning stock biomass is not rising, as previously thought, but is falling, and is some 20% lower than had been estimated as recently as this past spring. This is very disturbing news for the future of our striped
bass fishery.
We’re not saying that the ASMFC is made up of incompetent or crooked individuals; we do not feel that way. But the ASMFC has constantly knuckled under to commercial interests who simply want bigger quotas to
give them more fish to sell. Too little consideration has been given to
the fact that 3,000,000 Americans fish for stripers, and that a higher quality recreational fishery would have far greater social and economic value than the current allocation. All fishery stock assessment work is unavoidably inexact, and invariably the estimates are high, not low.
Recreational anglers know how easily overharvest can knock down a resource, and have consistently argued for lower fishing levels.
Instead, the envelope has been pushed too far, and now the quality of this incredibly important public fishery, and all that it means to so many
people, is threatened. This is why we must remove the commercial
fisherman’s influence from striped bass management and make the wild striped bass a gamefish.
Please redouble your efforts to get your fishing friends to join SF and to write, call, and visit your congressional representatives, letting them know how important that their support of HR 1286 is to you personally.
This goes triple for guides, marina operators, boat sellers, and tackle shop owners who clearly represent the industry associated with
recreational fishing.
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