Moratorium: Striped Bass Moratorium? Life without bass?? Almost a reality?
The exerpts from the article were sent in by Finchaser, thanks. :thumbsup:
Reprinted courtesy of the Fisherman weekly periodical.
www.thefisherman.njstriper.com
The Fisherman Magazine, New Jersey's premier sportfishing authority since 1973.
Respected outdoor writer Tim Coleman recently authored an article titled:
The Bass Moratorium - Life without bass - almost a reality
It was well-written, and raises some valid points and comparison to the East Coast Striped bass Moratorium in the early 1980's.
We already have a thread here called "Where are the Striped Bass?"
That thread documents a decline in YOY birth numbers for striped bass. It has plenty of scientific and anecdotal evidence that we may be close to another moratorium if we don't start making greater conservation choices.
Here's the thread for anyone who wants to read:
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...t=striped+bass
I thought this article was important enough to merit its own discussion.
Finchaser and some of the older members here and throughout the fishing community have been bringing up the possibility of another moratorium for years now.
The problem ....few were listening. :huh:
However, in recent years, the matter-of-fact logic, minus the ranting and rhetoric you usually see in these discussions, has been winning over converts to this theory. Additionally, guys like Finchaser and others, who have fished for 40 or 50 years, are sharing their experiences and drawing the parallels.
As time permits, I'll be sharing these exerpts with you folks out there. Whether you agree or disagree with these ideas is up to you. The important thing, as I have always asked, is to read for yourselves, and make your own decisions. :learn:
Positive or negative, all opinions are welcome here.
Thanks for reading, people. :HappyWave:
Tim Coleman: The Coming Striped Bass Collapse
In case I don't get a chance to post up the Fisherman excerpts quickly, here's something Tim Coleman wrote in Sept for the Providence (RI) Journal.
Reprinted under fair use doctrine, courtesy of Providence Journal.
Tim Coleman: The coming striped bass collapse
01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, September 11, 2010
By TIM COLEMAN
The Rhode Island state fish is the mighty, beautiful striped bass. Sometimes weighing over 60 pounds when caught, the striper is a prize to many Rhode Islanders. For some, it’s one of the main reasons they choose to live and work in the state.
Back in the 1970s, lack of sufficient management led to a drastic decrease in our striper population. The decline was so great that eventually conservation measures were implemented that brought the fish back to levels of abundance starting in the late 1990s into this decade.
However, many New Englanders once again are voicing concern over our striper stocks. These are people who fish from the shore. Their willingness to step forward is similar to that of shore anglers in the mid-1970s who voiced worries about the decline of the cod stocks, a decline that continues today.
Shore anglers may be considered the canary in the coal mine, the first sign of something wrong, voiced by the “small” people without benefit of academic pedigree. What they do have is many decades of experience fishing our waters, and they often keep detailed records of their declining catches. Will anyone listen?
Andy Gagarin’s family has owned a home in Watch Hill since the 1920s, and he’s lived in it full-time since 1975. He looks out his front window at the surf and its population of striped bass. At the height of the striper resurgence, he caught an astounding 1,500 smaller stripers from the lighthouse rocks. By 2009, that number had dropped to 150.
Steve McKenna of Cranston is a lifelong Rhode Islander, now retired after 27 years as a state parole officer. He has fished all over the state from Little Compton to Napatree, always from the shore. He estimates the decline in his catch over the last five years as “at least 50 percent,” and also said he is catching fewer large bass over 30 pounds and is seeing an alarming drop in very small stripers — the seed stock for the future.
Five seasons ago, he caught 600 to 700 bass a season, with one or two of those in the 40-pound class and seven or so in the 30-pound class. Today, he struggles to catch a few 30-pounders during the year and his records show he landed 248 bass in 2008, and only 189 in 2009. His catch this year will be at, or even lower than, his worst season since 2005.
David Pickering of Lincoln is a retired schoolteacher and a well-known freelance writer whose articles on Rhode Island surf casting have appeared in many regional magazines in New England. In the bass heyday, he landed roughly 1,500 stripers fishing in upper Narragansett Bay and the south shore. This year he predicts he will be lucky to catch 500 fish. He also said he has never worked harder to catch fewer fish. The reason is obvious to him: We are killing too many stripers.
Dennis Zambrotta lives in Newport and works at the Navy base on Aquidneck Island. He is a lifelong surf fisherman, fishing both lower Narragansett Bay and the scenic rocky beaches along the Cliff Walk and Ocean Drive. His catch declined by at least a third the last five seasons: fewer big bass and on the other end, fewer smaller bass coming up the line. Dead fish cannot spawn, so there are fewer little ones to populate the future.
Surf-casting friends of his on Aquidneck Island all saw the same decline as reported in other parts of the state. It’s a situation that reminds Zambrotta of the last time stripers went into decline — late 1970s into 1984.
Meanwhile, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, charged with keeping bass at viable levels, maintains that striper stocks are healthy and do not require fishing cutbacks at this time. The panel said last fall that the striped bass “stock assessment update indicates that the resource remains in good condition. . . .”
All the above residents are aware of the difference in estimates of the health of the stock. One local summed it up by saying the government agency gets its data in a computer in an office a long way from the Ocean State. Locals get numbers from years and years of watching what goes on in the ocean off our coastal towns, some of them fishing the same waters as their fathers and grandfathers. They know when fish are increasing or decreasing, and the striped-bass catches of those who fish from the shore are going down.
If your neighbors are correct, as they were in the 1970s in predicting the cod collapse, will anyone with the power to change course listen to their concerns?
Tim Coleman is a Westerly-based writer specializing in fishing and other coastal matters.
http://www.projo.com/opinion/contrib...6.2982c3d.html
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Will Bob Pond be forgotten?
Some may know Bob Pond, as mentioned above, was one of the most well-known early Conservationists. He came from Mass, and LIVED to fish. :fishing: He loved to make plugs as well, and loved the outdoors.
In recent posts some out there are questioning whether conservationsists are PETA freaks or not. I was told Bob killed and ate his share of fish, you certainly couldn't accuse him of being a PETA freak. :kooky:
Yet, he was smart enough to recognize patterns. He saw his yearly catches of bass declining, confirmed this with others, and was forward-thinking enough about it to try to raise awareness.
The chart below, sent in by Finchaser, shows a possible pattern developing in just one state, Mass. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know, if you fish a lot, that similar things are happening in other states, like NY and NJ, as well. Thanks for the chart, Fin. :HappyWave:
Attachment 13179
The patterns have returned
Quote:
Originally Posted by
DarkSkies
I was told Bob killed and ate his share of fish, you certainly couldn't accuse him of being a PETA freak. :kooky:
Yet, he was smart enough to recognize patterns. He saw his yearly catches of bass declining, confirmed this with others, and was forward-thinking enough about it to try to raise awareness.
I kill and eat fish. I don't like anyone telling me not to. It's my right to take my limit, or to not take it. That being said, I have never seen greater participation in the striped bass fishery in all the years I have been fishing. They have cut down on our flounder season, fluke limits, and the sea bass season has been chopped up in pieces. I understand tighter blackfish regs because of the poaching and they are slower growing, I get that. With the other 3 species left besides stripe bass, they make it like it almost isn't worth it to fish for them anymore. So what do anglers do? They fish for striped bass, because they are relatively easy to catch, and put meat in the box.
All these fisheries minimized, and with more people gravitating towards bass, you would think the kill numbers would naturally be greater. And they're not. How could more people in a specific fishery, with all the latest electronics, catch less fish?
Either every single person who fishes is lying, or there are less fish. I don't need a NOAA scientist to tell me that. I know from how my numbers have diminished. And the lack of small fish is what concerns me for the future as well.
