It seems like the decline of the fishery is no longer a rumor, but now a regular topic of conversation on all the blogs and news feeds. You definitely picked a good topic when you started this last year, Joe. BTW, hope you are doing ok, I haven't seen you post in awhile. Hope everyone in your family is well.

http://www.warwickonline.com/pages/f...ome_news_right


by Captain Dave Monti
Jul 16, 2009 | 505 views | 0 | 6 | |


Mike Shepard, one of Aquidneck Island's great shore and boat anglers, recently reminded me of the controversy surrounding the vitality of the recreational striped bass fishery. Mike shared the article “Striper Signals” from the July/September 2009 issue of Fly Rod & Reel magazine. The article is written by Ted Williams the conservation writer, not Ted Williams the ball player.

In a nut shell Mr. Williams contends that state and federal governments are not doing enough to protect the striped bass fishery, they think it is doing fine. He believes that catch limits, commercial fishing of the species and their primary food (Atlantic menhaden), malnourished fish and disease are all playing a role in a declining striped bass population.

Williams points to preliminary 2008 recreational striped bass catch data where east coast anglers landed (released or killed) 14,107,835 fish, which was the worst year since 2000.

Additionally, Williams sites the annual U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s annual cooperative trawling operation on wintering striped bass off North Carolina. The tagging operation reports that since 1990 the best catch was 6,275 fish, the worst was 147 in 2009 and the average for the last three years was 516. Fishing guides and experts are also making claims of a declining striped bass fishery.

Of particularly interest to me, is the claim that striped bass are starving when they winter in Chesapeake Bay because of a reduced supply of Atlantic menhaden (their primary food) due to commercial over fishing. This brought to mind the story of the menhaden boat working the upper Providence River this spring muscling between recreational fishing boats and taking the bait (Atlantic Menhaden) as twenty or so recreational fisherman looked on in disbelief.

Lack of food has been substantiated by tag-recapture data studies from spring spawning grounds in Maryland and Virginia. Fish captured in autumn are the same size as fish that are starved in a lab for two months Williams relates. Malnutrition makes the population vulnerable to mycobacteriosis, a disease that causes loss of scales, skin ulcers, severe weight loss and lesions. Officials estimate that sixty to seventy-five percent of the striped bass in Chesapeake Bay are infected.


How can we help preserve the striped bass fishery?

We can do a couple of things to preserve the striped bass fishery. First we can all practice catch and release more often, particularly with larger fish which tend to be egg bearing females. We can also advocate at the State and National level, for better fishery management of striped bass and their primary food, the Atlantic menhaden.

Links for more information: Ted William’s blog www.flyrodreel.com ; the Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association’s www.risaa.org ; William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science at www.vims.edu .