stripercrazy
02-12-2016, 11:41 AM
Just read this, wondered what you guys think?
http://www.27east.com/news/article.cfm/East-End/469719/Striped-Bass-Recovery-Gets-A-Boost
Feb 9, 2016
By Michael Wright
Some good news on striped bass is coming out of the scientific world. Preliminary studies indicate that last year?s striped bass spawn by the largest individual population of stripers produced a very large young-of-the-year class.Counts of young-of-the-year stripers in the headwaters of the Chesapeake Bay were among the top 10 highest in the last 30 years, on par with some of the large classes that drove the species recovery in the late 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s.
The big spawn also comes just four years after the very large 2011 year class, which scientists have said will be a key to helping the species- overall population rebuild again after nearly a decade of very poor recruitment.
This preliminary count comes just from the state of Maryland, which is where most young striped bass are born, but past years' counts in Maryland have mostly mirrored the coastwide numbers, on account of the Chesapeake population making up such a dominating portion of the total stock.
It's very good news.
For one, it reminds us how well a reduced stock of striped bass can rebound if given the right conditions by Mother Nature.
And, if the numbers hold up, a big 2015 year class, combined with the 2011 year class, would generally match the two big year classes in 1989 and 1993 that sparked the 15-year striped bass boom.
Those years were then boosted by the 1996 year class, the largest ever recorded, and by the 2002 year class, the second-largest on record, which represents the main body of 15-to-25-pound stripers we are catching in the last couple of seasons.
So we can't count our chickens quite yet. There is a nice number of young stripers out there growing toward spawning size, but we're going to need at least one more year class like it, if not larger, to really solidify the foundation of the stock and help keep robust the numbers of fish roaming our waters. We?re still ahead of where we were in the 1980s, since the total existing stock has not sunk to the depths of the collapse early that decade.
The extent to which the reductions of striper limits to a single fish were embraced in most regions is encouraging, suggesting that public sentiment will be to err on the side of caution for a long time before any thought is given to loosening harvest limits. If we'd been conservative on our catch allowances 10 years ago, we may never have gotten to the shaky position we're in now.
http://www.27east.com/news/article.cfm/East-End/469719/Striped-Bass-Recovery-Gets-A-Boost
Feb 9, 2016
By Michael Wright
Some good news on striped bass is coming out of the scientific world. Preliminary studies indicate that last year?s striped bass spawn by the largest individual population of stripers produced a very large young-of-the-year class.Counts of young-of-the-year stripers in the headwaters of the Chesapeake Bay were among the top 10 highest in the last 30 years, on par with some of the large classes that drove the species recovery in the late 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s.
The big spawn also comes just four years after the very large 2011 year class, which scientists have said will be a key to helping the species- overall population rebuild again after nearly a decade of very poor recruitment.
This preliminary count comes just from the state of Maryland, which is where most young striped bass are born, but past years' counts in Maryland have mostly mirrored the coastwide numbers, on account of the Chesapeake population making up such a dominating portion of the total stock.
It's very good news.
For one, it reminds us how well a reduced stock of striped bass can rebound if given the right conditions by Mother Nature.
And, if the numbers hold up, a big 2015 year class, combined with the 2011 year class, would generally match the two big year classes in 1989 and 1993 that sparked the 15-year striped bass boom.
Those years were then boosted by the 1996 year class, the largest ever recorded, and by the 2002 year class, the second-largest on record, which represents the main body of 15-to-25-pound stripers we are catching in the last couple of seasons.
So we can't count our chickens quite yet. There is a nice number of young stripers out there growing toward spawning size, but we're going to need at least one more year class like it, if not larger, to really solidify the foundation of the stock and help keep robust the numbers of fish roaming our waters. We?re still ahead of where we were in the 1980s, since the total existing stock has not sunk to the depths of the collapse early that decade.
The extent to which the reductions of striper limits to a single fish were embraced in most regions is encouraging, suggesting that public sentiment will be to err on the side of caution for a long time before any thought is given to loosening harvest limits. If we'd been conservative on our catch allowances 10 years ago, we may never have gotten to the shaky position we're in now.