ASMFC Fails To Protect Striped Bass & Menhaden
***This blog post will be updated with more information and a link to the official ASMFC press release when it becomes available.
It was a tough week for conservation at the ASMFC Annual Meeting.
In the face of sound science and new insights, the commission failed to protect both striped bass and menhaden. On October 28, the menhaden board voted to reduce the quota but missed the mark by nearly 80,000 metric tons. This despite revelations that major errors led to a massive overestimation of the biomass during the last stock assessment leading to extreme overfishing of the stock of more than 275,000,000 pounds (137,500 tons) per year. Menhaden are the most important food source for striped bass, redfish, dolphin, whales, osprey and everything in between. And as a filter feeder that removes algae and other particulates from the water, large schools of menhaden are vital to keeping the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem healthy.
Cooke Inc., a Canadian company and owner of Omega Protein, is by far the largest exploiter of this fishery. Cooke/Omega, whose reduction fishery fleet operates out of Reedville, Virginia, has a long history of regulatory and environmental violations, but as a major employer in an impoverished part of Virginia, exerts a lot of pressure on the legislature there to the detriment of the fishery. Our ecosystems, fisheries, anglers, and coastal economies will suffer so that a foreign-owned company can profit. Let that sink in.
On October 29 the striped bass board met to take final action on Addendum III to Amendment 7 of the Striped Bass Fishery Management Plan. After a full day of discussion and debate, the board approved an amended version of Addendum III. Despite seven straight years of failed striped bass reproduction in the upper Chesapeake Bay, the board voted to maintain status quo. No reduction of commercial quota, and no guardrails or harvest reduction for the recreational fishery. This reckless decision (one that seemingly favors special interests of a minority user group) accelerates our journey down the path toward a total collapse of the striped bass fishery.
By the ASMFC’s own data the striped bass spawning stock biomass (SSB) is below target levels, and seven years of negligible reproduction means there are simply not enough fish entering the stock to replace those that are removed. What’s more, the coastal commercial size limit focuses that harvest on the very fish needed to reproduce in the spring (while commercial and illegal nets in the Chesapeake whittle away at the population there before they can even grow to sexual maturity).
History seems poised to repeat itself, yet the stewards of this fishery continue to display callous disregard for the health of the fishery and the concerns of the angling public. They set admirable goals but year after year fail to take any meaningful action to achieve those goals. And now history appears to be repeating itself as we are inevitably headed towards disaster. The impact of the ASMFC’s lack of urgency, logic, and foresight means the impact of their decisions will soon be felt by the Atlantic coastal communities that will pay dearly due to collapse of the striped bass fishery and the multibillion-dollar economy it fuels.
If there was any good news, it came in the form of an amendment from Marty Gary of New York to “establish a Work Group to develop a white paper that could inform a future management document. The Work Group should include representation from all sectors in addition to scientists and managers. The goal of this Work Group is to consider how to update the FMP’s goals, objectives, and management of striped bass beyond 2029, in consideration of severely reduced reproductive success in the Chesapeake Bay.”
Keep in mind that 2029 is the deadline the ASMFC set for achieving the goal of restoring striped bass to healthy abundance, so it seems they are admitting what has been clear from the start: they will not succeed. Does that mean 2025 was a tipping point, and that, despite the lack of action at the annual meeting, the ASMFC ASMFC Striped Bass Management Board is setting the table for meaningful action in the coming year? Only time will tell.
Stripers Forever continues to act as the voice of wild striped bass, and we continue to advocate for the only policy that has worked to restore striped bass in the past. We believe an equitable coast-wide harvest moratorium is the only way to rescue striped bass and restore a vibrant, vital, and sustainable fisher for the future of fishing generations to come. Thank you for standing with us in this important fight.
