ASMFC: ASMFC takes the wrong turn on striped bass

[DarkSkies]

This was posted by Captnemo under "Where are the striped bass".

You can view that thread here:
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/showthread.php?p=31820#post31820

I also put it here for people to see, and maybe discuss.




[This came from a CCA press release. I guess those guys on that board are all smoking dope, or they are influenced by the commercial rapers.





Coastal Conservation Association

6919 Portwest, Suite 100, Houston, TX 77024
Email: twvenker@joincca.org (tvenker@joincca.org) Website: www.joincca.org (http://www.joincca.org/)



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feb. 11, 2010 CONTACT: Ted Venker, 1-800-201-FISH




ASMFC Takes Wrong Turn on Striped Bass

Signs pointing to cause for grave concern met with proposal to up commercial harvest




After hearing a litany of significant concerns about the health of the striped bass population presented by its own Technical Committee and by law enforcement personnel, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) Striped Bass Management Board did the last thing anyone expected at its meeting last week - directing staff to draft an addendum to the management plan which would increase the coastal commercial striped bass harvest.

The stunning turn of events left conservationists shocked at the Board’s apparent disregard for strong evidence pointing to numerous problems with the Atlantic striped bass population. Unlike the 1970s when rampant overfishing was the primary cause of the stock’s crash, the current picture painted by scientists and officers is all the more bleak because of the wide variety of factors that are negatively impacting striped bass.

“This is just the latest indication that the ASMFC has lost its way as an agency committed to proper resource management,” said Charles Witek, chairman of CCA’s Atlantic Fisheries Committee. “As bad off as the stock was in the late ‘70s, the fix was rather straight-forward. What we are looking at today could be much more difficult to reverse. The very last thing anyone needs to discuss during this time of uncertainty is increasing commercial harvest.”

Among the information presented to managers was a report on the declining trend in the striped bass Juvenile Abundance Index, a report from law enforcement personnel on suspected “significant and unreported” poaching in the Exclusive Economic Zone, and a report on the potentially devastating impact of Mycobacteriosis in Chesapeake Bay, the primary striped bass spawning ground for the entire Atlantic Coast, where 70 percent of the fish sampled had lesions associated with the disease. In aquaculture, Mycobacteriosis infections are virtually always fatal, and since infected striped bass that are tagged and subsequently recovered never show any signs of recovery, the disease has dire implications for striped bass everywhere on the coast.

Such reports by fisheries professionals, viewed with the well-documented decline in spawning stock abundance and decreasing recreational harvest at the northern end of the striped bass’ range, paint a troubling picture of the species’ future.

“This stock has problems mounting on all fronts, and managers seem content to wring everything they can from it before the party ends,” said Richen Brame, CCA’s Atlantic Fisheries director. “This is not the stance anglers have come to expect from the same commission that was widely credited with making the hard decisions needed to save striped bass just over three decades ago. They say those who forget history are doomed to repeat it, and that is a road anglers don’t want to go down again.”



###


CCA is the largest marine resource conservation group of its kind in the nation. With almost 100,000 members in 17 state chapters, CCA has been active in state, national and international fisheries management issues since 1977. For more information visit the CCA Newsroom at www.JoinCCA.org (http://www.JoinCCA.org) ]

[DarkSkies]

This is an example of fisheries management not taking into account the anecdotal evidence in front of them and blindly siding with scientific data, which may or may not be completely accurate.

This was one of the dangers of removing fishermen from their places on the management committees, something they began doing years ago. It's time for us to insist that they put real fishermen back on these boards. Some of these decisions do not follow a logical path, and we should be concerned about it.

[DarkSkies]

Here's a post by Jigfreak, also in that thread, that pertains to this as well:




This is absolute BS. To say with all the evidence they were presented with that striped bass are not even in a slight decline, it almost seems like some special interest gtoup paid off these guys.
Here is something I found from an ASMFC site- reading it to me seems he is blaming it on natural striped bass mortality -- W T F is thatm about?




SHEPHERD: We can get more specific. As pointed out by the recent public comments there, the catches have varied by state, but generally there has been a decrease in the last couple of years...Maine has seen a decrease; New Hampshire, likewise, a very steep decline in catch. Massachusetts, the discard numbers have decreased steadily, although the landings have remained relatively stable after the initial decline. Rhode Island has decrease... Overall the recreational landings and discards have decreased in the last few years with the exception of those states in the New York Bight, which is outside of the Hudson River Area.


We’ve done some projections of the estimate of eight-plus abundance in the spawning stock biomass. Because of the incoming year class strength, the projection of abundance would suggest that it should remain relatively stable for the next two years and increase a little bit as we get particularly that 2003 year class start moving into the system, but then a decline over several years of those weak year classes that were evident in the recruitment pass through the system...



We also did some projections of harvest. If the status quo fishing mortality of 0.2 were to continue, we would expect to see a declining trend in harvest, which is landings and bycatch, for the next several years; a slight uptick three years out with the incoming stronger year classes; then a continuation of declines through that.




The conclusion from the assessment update is that it is currently not overfished or subject to overfishing according to the definitions... Specifically for the Chesapeake Bay – well, when we look at the model with the two period – this is total coast – actually, the F is a little bit higher but M is much greater than the 0.15 that we’ve been using in the catch-at-age model. It’s anywhere from 0.28 to 0.43 in 2008. So these additional tagging models would suggest that has been an increase in natural mortality, and that’s something that we intend to look further at in the next go-around for use in the physical catch-atage model as well as to look at the effective variable and an increasing M. It’s thought to be primarily from the outbreak of myco in the Chesapeake


* the lower spawning numbers in the Chesapeake
* the growth of the myco disease in the Chesapeake
* the increased mortality rate from stripers as a result of myco
* the fact that this increased mortality rate has not ben factored into the Tech Committee's model's


http://www.asmfc.org/meetings/winter...ementBoard.pdf (http://www.asmfc.org/meetings/winter2010/AtlanticStripedBassManagementBoard.pdf)).

[finchaser]

Why are you shocked once again the Commercial Lobbyist got to the right politicians.
Especially in Virginia,NC ,MD and PA very corrupt states when it comes to commercial lobbyist on fishing:(. Look what just happened with the Omega /bunker situation. This is why its critical to support the RFA and other groups.

[surfstix1963]

#1 clean the damn water it doesn't matter what you do restriction wise if the water is polluted and causing a decline due to myca and other bacteria this should be the first thing that is handled instead of using it for another lame excuse of the decline.How about the EEZ decline millions of egg carrying females are caught every day theres your decline no eggs= no fish=decline anybody care about that because theres an issue. Any idiot can figure that out don't need a marine biologist to come up w/ that, are you smarter than a 5th grader. Screw there facts and studies you just get what they want you to hear I've got a pen and pad do you want me to scribble down some numbers. As a matter of fact the world was alot better off without all these clowns, common sense has kept this country running and and there seems to be a total lack of that nowadays.Time to do what we feel is right and the hell w/ these people telling us what to do this was supposed to be a free country and the word United is falling by the wayside.Can you spell Obama socialism because he's trying to shove that down your throat & make his job a whole lot easier DO AS I SAY NOT AS I DO democrat my _ss he wouldn'tknow a democrat if he tripped over one its bad enough China owns half of us now.Theres a fact.This is my sole opinion I believe it falls under Freedom of Speech& I think that used to be in a thing called the Constitution.I'm done w/ my country telling me what I can and cannot do.:burn::moon::burn::moon::2flip::2flip:

[fishinmission78]

Yep it took a lot of genius to make that move. Give more quota to the commercials. Aren't they they ones that destroyed the cod, and the bass back in the 80's? I wonder how much money exchanged hands under the table for that to happen.:burn:

[finchaser]

Yep it took a lot of genius to make that move. Give more quota to the commercials. Aren't they they ones that destroyed the cod, and the bass back in the 80's? I wonder how much money exchanged hands under the table for that to happen.:burn:

Yep and more sophisticated commercial gear. Also this time there's probably 75% more recreational guy's to add to their demise. IMO they will get wiped out even faster :(and it won't be long at the present rate of harvest by both groups.http://www.thebassbarn.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=24784&d=1266440085

[basshunter]

They're just going to increase the commercial limit? Where will that come from and for which states? Will they take from the recreational guys to do that?

[voyager35]

Why are you shocked once again the Commercial Lobbyist got to the right politicians.
Especially in Virginia,NC ,MD and PA very corrupt states when it comes to commercial lobbyist on fishing:(. Look what just happened with the Omega /bunker situation. This is why its critical to support the RFA and other groups.

What he said, support the RFA, and come to the march on Washington. Act before they give all the quota away. We need groups like the RFA who can get involved on the political level.

This giving up of quota despite evidence that doesn't support it is ridiculous.

[BassBuddah]

This was a complete boneheaded move. Like finchaser and others said, the fix is in.http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/images/icons/icon13.gif

[DarkSkies]

After hearing a litany of significant concerns about the health of the striped bass population presented by its own Technical Committee and by law enforcement personnel, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) Striped Bass Management Board did the last thing anyone expected at its meeting last week - directing staff to draft an addendum to the management plan which would increase the coastal commercial striped bass harvest.

The stunning turn of events left conservationists shocked at the Board’s apparent disregard for strong evidence pointing to numerous problems with the Atlantic striped bass population. Unlike the 1970s when rampant overfishing was the primary cause of the stock’s crash, the current picture painted by scientists and officers is all the more bleak because of the wide variety of factors that are negatively impacting striped bass.




Why are you shocked once again the Commercial Lobbyist got to the right politicians.



They're just going to increase the commercial limit? Where will that come from and for which states? Will they take from the recreational guys to do that?


I wanted to address some more of this but haven't had time until now. You are all justified in feeling disgusted, or angry. It seems like it's a slap in the face of recreational fishermen. As Finchaser and others said, it seems like somehow their vote was influenced by unseen forces.

We don't have all the answers to this one yet. It could go one of two ways:

1. Commercial quota could be increased by taking quota away from the Recs. Although many would be angry about this, it's easier to understand. It would be an allocation issue. Doing it this way would indicate they agree there are some issues with the striped bass biomass, and are on the same page with the stories that are being told by hundreds of recreational fishermen.



2. Commercial quota could be increased by increasing the overall TAL/TAC (total allowable limits) for Comms. This would not be painful to Recs because they would still have the same limits.




However, it's the worse of 2 evils. Let me try to explain why. If they did this, it would indicate a fisheries management issue. Doing it this way would be an indication that their actions are so far removed from the voices of fishermen,the supporting Chesapeake studies, and scientific studies that...

there is some serious corruption on the board..
OR
we as fishermen don't matter to them, and never will.

Therefore the 2nd scenario is the most disturbing.

We'll have to see how this plays out. The actual process for doing this commercial quota increase hasn't been worked out yet.

Either way, as Finchaser and others have been suggesting for a long time now, it indicates that we as fishermen need PAC groups like the RFA in our corner, whether we support everything they do, or not.