Dark Skies Conservation Corner

[DarkSkies]

Lately a lot of ya's have seen my incessant posting about the striped bass biomass, the corroborated decline, and poor YOY stats.......
Because there is so much misinformation out there, I have been involved in intense discussions with commercial fishermen, and recs as well, who claim there is nothing wrong with striped bass populations....

What I have found, is there are various hidden agendas for saying that, and these discussions sometimes get ugly.



In the off season, I will probably getting some more folks highly irritated with me....but this is too important, it goes beyond me, and what folks think of me......

It's about the future of the striped bass fishery, and whether or not our children will be able to fish for them, as we do today...

You will see my name more and more on different internet forums.....I cannot stand by and let folks post the mis-information about how healthy the SB fishery is right now....because there is always a good chance others will believe them.....

It's time for some reality and real facts to enter these discussions....
To me, that's more important than whether someone "likes" me, or not.....
Overall, I feel we are probably headed for some sort of short or abbreviated moratorium....with the ASMFC probably not acting until 2015, it may be too late by then......




**The striped bass spawning biomass (SSB) is now 1 Million lbs from the ASMFC being forced to declare that overfishing is occurring.......I'm going to try the best I can to continue raising awareness of this, whether some folks are happy with that....or not.......



Thanks as always, for reading......

[DarkSkies]

darkskies the conditions today are exactly as they existed before the moratorium with clusters of bigger fish and many areas of no fish. I feel there are no solutions except to shut the fishery down. Folks are not listeninig. The asmfc is politically controlled and commercially influenced. I am sorry to sound negative but there is not enough support in the angling community to get things done. Folks don't rally around a cause like they did decades ago.

It pains me to hear you feel that way clamchucker. Unfortunately quite a few of the veteran fishermen your age I know have said the same thing. I am trying to remain optimistic but in the end I feel you may be right.

I'm still going to try to hope for the best, and continue to try to promote awareness. Thanks as always for your insightful contributions.

[surferman]

"Let's kill as many as we can before we have to save them."

I just read this. Can you or any one else explain to me why if stripers are in trouble they are saying its ok to kill more of them?


Maryland DNR Drops a Thanksgiving Turkey

Category: Fishing Reports








"Let's kill as many as we can before we have to save them." That seems to be the attitude of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Tuesday, just before closing for a five day Thanksgiving weekend, DNR fisheries dropped a turkey on recreational striped bass anglers by announcing a 14% increase in harvest in the Chesapeake Bay. At a time when striper stocks are steeply declining and states up and down the Atlantic seaboard face impending cuts mandated by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), Maryland & Virginia are grabbing more fish. Here?s a link to the press release and a quote:

Determination of the Available 2014 Chesapeake Bay Commercial Striped Bass Quota
For 2014, it was decided that fishermen could safely harvest 8,652,528 pounds of Striped Bass without detriment to the Bay population. The previous year?s quota was 7,589,937 pounds and for the first time in many years the quota has been increased in the Bay. This increase of approximately 14% is attributed to a large number of fish from the 2011 year class (fish that hatch and enter into the population in a given year) which are just now reaching the legal minimum size of 18 inches.

I hope you find that as unbelievable as I do. I've tried to keep fisheries politics out of this blog lately because I want to concentrate on the fun parts of our sport, but when something this egregious comes out, I think it's important to spread the news and let our fisheries managers know just how pissed off recreational anglers can be.


At a meeting in Georgia last month, commissioners on the ASMFC's Striped Bass Management Board formally acknowleged problems with the stock and started the process to reduce fishing. Unfortunately for the fish, changes from the ASMFC take a long time. Amendments were drafted and a public comment period was scheduled with the goal of implementing harvest reductions in 2015.

Recreational anglers up and down the coast who are seeing fewer and fewer fish are disappointed that action wasn't taken right away, but most of us are resolved to participate in the change process in hopes of an even more conservative approach next year. In the mean time, concerned anglers and conservation-oriented fishing organizations are calling for voluntary harvest restrictions. Simply put, we want to save as many fish as we can until the federal government formalizes mandatory reductions. Here?s an editorial in Forbes Magazine from Monte Burke calling for voluntary cuts: Time For Recreational Anglers to Voluntarily Limit Their Catch.

Enter Maryland DNR. Now, you'd think that an organization charged to protect striped bass in the state where almost all of them are born and grow up would also consider reductions, wouldn't you? Maybe even take action ahead of ASMFC restrictions? You know, a watch-out-for-the-stock-that-just-happens-to-be-the-state-fish, kind of decision? Nope. Instead, they delivered a square slap in the face to conservation minded fishermen in Maryland and all over the East Coast by increasing harvest by over a million, that?s right a million pounds, bay-wide.



Here's their thinking as I understand it: We've had one good spawning year for stripers out of the last six. That was 2011. Those fish are just now growing to be 18-inches long, the lower limit for harvest in Maryland. Since there will be more legal fish in the Bay, they think it?s okay to kill more, especially since we usually come in below the quota the ASMFC currently sets for the state. Never-mind that once new ASMFC standards are adopted, surveys will show that striped bass have been overfished six out of the past nine years, or that overfishing is likely to occur in 2014. The attitude in Maryland seems to be that we should kill as many fish as we can before they grow up and leave the Chesapeake Bay, and before the ASMFC forces reductions.

Did I say I was pissed? I hope you are too. I believe the 2011 year class is the future of the striped bass fishery. It's the fish you and I will be trying to catch for the rest of our lives. This 14% increase isn?t likely to change because it?s already been announced and commercial quotas are set for Maryland, Virginia, and the Potomac River. One thing should change though, and that's the attitude of Maryland fishing managers. The days of managing for maximum harvest have to end. We can't just keep killing fish simply because they're here in the Bay and their heads are finally big enough to get stuck in a gill net.

Please talk to everyone you can - your friends, your neighbors, your co-workers, your pastor, and especially your politicians to make sure they know about the great striped bass grab of 2014. Share on social media and do everything you can to spread the disheartening news. You can bet that DNR managers will be working all this very long holiday weekend to clean up their justifications and polish their excuses. Speaking of polishing, maybe this isn't a turkey after all but something that smells a lot worse. You can't polish a turd, and this decision stinks.

http://www.chesapeakelighttackle.com...giving-turkey/

[basshunter]

I cannot stand by and let folks post the mis-information about how healthy the SB fishery is right now....because there is always a good chance others will believe them.....

It's time for some reality and real facts to enter these discussions....
To me, that's more important than whether someone "likes" me, or not.....
Overall, I feel we are probably headed for some sort of short or abbreviated moratorium....with the ASMFC probably not acting until 2015, it may be too late by then......

**The striped bass spawning biomass (SSB) is now 1 Million lbs from the ASMFC being forced to declare that overfishing is occurring.......I'm going to try the best I can to continue raising awareness of this, whether some folks are happy with that....or not.......
.

darkskys how can you possibly correct them when there are so many? by the way I applaud your efforts though I am not sure how many will listen. Keep up thegood work. the misinformation you are talking about goes on every day. Some examples:

the government says its fine.... the ocean never saw so many bass..... WHATS THE PROBLEM !!!

The stocks of striped bass dramatically improved when the Gov stopped the commercial fishing for them. Its not the rod and reel recreational guys that decimate them. I see just as good if not better striper fishing right now than I did 10 years ago. These fish are in no way endangered in NJ..... Maybe we should kill more stripers since its a common theory that stripers are feeding on weakfish and making their stocks lower than years past.

these guys just don't get it. The commerical industry is what will kill this fishery not the recreational guys. I have been fishing these waters since the 70's and have seen highs and lows and right now we are on a high and I may not know everything but I can tell 100% it will not deplete the striped bass stocks by keeping a couple bass! These guys need to get a life or go hug a tree!

[Monty]

This is just an idea, likely many reasons it will not happen. It's also based on perceptions I have on the RFA, please correct me if I am wrong. I don't know of any organizations that have the influence as the RFA has. I also think the RFA currently has no interest in anything like this at this time because of where they get their support ($$) from. So here it goes:
I think the Recreation Fishing Alliance is the largest organization that is supposedly representing the recreational fisherman. I do believe they are involved in lobbying. If they would take a stand and declare that based on fisherman's opinions and realistic data the Striped Bass Biomass is in trouble and immediate action needs to be taken to preserve and increase the population to support recreational fishing (individuals, charter boats and party boats). That regulations need to be one bass per person 36" or larger and that the bonus tags are eliminated. That the commercial quota is to either be eliminated or reduced 75%, something like this. By the RFA stating fishing pressure (recreational and commercial) along with the pollution in the Chesapeake Bay has the striped bass population in severe trouble I feel there is a possibility a large amount of the recreational fisherman will rally around and provide support.
If something is going to be done to curtail the downward spiral of the striped bass biomass an organization that has some political power/voice needs to get involved in a big way. Major press releases, calling out the ASMFC for steering this striped bass population towards another moratorium, getting political support.
Something like this will need to happen....soon, to save us from having a very limited amount of Striped Bass to fish for.
Just my .02 after a huge turkey meal.

[DarkSkies]

darkskys how can you possibly correct them when there are so many? by the way I applaud your efforts though I am not sure how many will listen. Keep up thegood work. the misinformation you are talking about goes on every day. Some examples:

Basshunter sorry for the delay in responding. I have been trying to get a lot of projects done I haven't been able to do in a while, and busy with other committments.
I thank you for taking the time to C&P the comments. I am not familiar with the context of the conversation they came from so I don't want to judge the folks who made the comments.

Rather than address them all, it seems there are several mis-interpretations evident here......I'll try to address them one by one....and hopefully this way, folks reading will not see this as criticism of others, but some broad based observations I have come to see, about when and why folks can easily mis-interpret what they see out there.........


1. The commercial industry will kill this fishery.
This is a common statement, repeated over and over throughout the internet.



What are some of the reasons folks have this interpretation?

A. They see videos of commercial bycatch, dead striped bass, laying by the thousands on the ocean surface after gillnetters have thrown them back dead.

B. They see videos of commercial beach netting operations off of Hatteras, which is a limited and specific fishery every year....

C. nonetheless, these types of videos induce horror and anger among fishermen as they come to believe that this is what is causing the real problems when bass fishing seems to decline in an area.

**We react to these videos, IMO, because they naturally provoke an emotional response.....no one likes to see dead bass floating on the water, a complete waste of the resource....

D. Poaching/Overlimit catches of striped bass by Commercial netters.....
It's no secret commercial netters are involved in many illegal poaching operations every year....a Google search will reveal dozens of prosecutions of watermen from VA to RI, being caught with bass they are not allowed to have.

This also will produce an emotional reaction, causing some of us to think that the commercials are killing thousands of unpermitted bass....and they are......

Is that where the biggest numbers of dead bass comes from?







**The Sum Total....of the harvest, illegal and legal, by the Commercials, is less than what we are now taking from the Recreational side...
If (and when) another moratorium is declared, fault will rest squarely on the shoulders of us, the Recreational fishermen.

[DarkSkies]

2. "If I can see bass in front of me, by the thousands, then they are not in danger!"

This is a common mis-perception by charter, private boat, and party boat anglers who go out amidst thousands of feeding bass, get their limit quickly, and honestly cannot understand what these other "whiners" mean when they claim striped bass are overfished.

In the past I have come down hard on folks making statements like this....it has usually ended in arguments.....
In looking back, over when and why we argue, I have developed a less confrontational outlook.......

A. Some of these folks, fishing amidst thousands of feeding fish, do not realize they are in the "middle" of the action.

B. They (incorrectly) assume that the action they witness, is the same up and down the coast (as it was 8-15 years ago) without wanting to understand what they are seeing may be limited to a specific area.

C. They don't have much of an understanding of Striped bass migration, or how long it takes a bass to develop to legal size (in most cases 6-7 years)

D. When they see folks ranting on the internet about there being less bass, they don't realize that most of the folks who feel that way, are fishing on the edges...or fish quite often....
The Biomass is contracting...but they cannot see it, fishing in the middle.

E. When the fishery is healthy, fish will be in the middle, as well as the edges.....there will be good representations of all the year classes through the range of catching and harvesting....
When the fishery is not healthy (like it is now), you will start to see it first, on the edges
(do a Google search for
"m&m theory" striped bass
to learn more about this.)



**Many fishermen, if they are catching, just don't want to take the effort to get that involved in thinking about bass....so to them, as long as they are catching, the fishery is healthy.....

[DarkSkies]

3. With all the bass we saw in front of us today, there is no way rod and reel fishermen could put a dent in the striped bass fishery!


Another common mis-conception.
A good friend got into an intense argument in a tackle shop with a party boat mate who made that statement. His assessment was there are more bass than ever before.....followed by the above statement.





This fails to take into account, the fact that there are severe gaps in the striped bass year classes.

1. Many of us on the northern NJ beaches have noticed a lack of smaller ocean fish in the fall. In the past, even before the "fall run" was officially declared, many of us could catch a few small bass, salvaging the trip. Lately, that isn't the case.

2. In the last week, some smaller fish have moved inshore....these are commonly known as the "death rats" because the smaller fish, being more tolerant of colder water, generally signal the end of the run..,,this is a pattern we have come to rely on every year......

3. However, the fish in point 2 above are not the ones I am talking about.....it seems that many of our resident fish in NJ, are no longer there in numbers.....
To learn more, do a google search for
"NJ's resident bass, why have they abandoned us?"

4. This decline in smaller fish, correlates with a decline I have been noticing for the last 6 years in my fishing logs.....and a decline in YOY totals for each of the last 6 years, except 2011.

[DarkSkies]

This fails to take into account, the fact that there are severe gaps in the striped bass year classes.

.

4. "Can't wait to catch my next trophy bass! Looking for a 60 lber!"


The grim truth is....many of those bigger fish are dead........
With the heavy emphasis on catching trophies in the last few years....fever over Greg Myerson's record bass from the CT rockpiles...we, as Americans, still have the "bigger is better" mentality in a lot of things we do.....

Bass fishing is no different....
Weighing in a 25 lb bass or posting a pic on the internet....garners some praise.....
But we all know...that weighing in a 40lb, or posting the pics......gets much more attention...

So much attention that fewer and fewer bigger bass are being caught regularly....
We have "over-harvested" that segment of the striped bass population.

Don't believe me?
Do a search of fishing reports of headboats, charters, private boats...on any major fishing site.....
Even at Montauk, you will see the average size of the bigger fish being caught is 20-25 lbs.

Are there bigger ones caught?
Absolutely....but if you fish regularly, you have to have noticed the average size is declining every year......
One reason being that we are over-harvesting the big girls......and they are not being replaced quickly enough.......it takes a 35lb bass an average of 15-20 years to mature to that size.....many folks are not understanding that part of the equation.....they are not like Doritos...ya just can't make more......

[DarkSkies]

5. "There are no bass inshore because there is too much bait offshore!"


There are times when the above statement makes logical sense.
It would also make sense to say that the bass are not close in some areas because of the extensive beach replenishment.

However, this statement doesn't take several instances into effect. The years 2011 to 2013, some areas of NJ coasts had miles of bunker just 1/4 mile offshore for several late Spring months into Summer. In some cases these vast schools of bunker stretched for up to 20 miles.

Bunker is arguably one of the best and most desirable food sources for striped bass....and a preferred food source.....









**For the above statement to always be true, the converse - that when there are miles of bunker in close, there should be thousands of bass on them - should be true as well....
For parts of 2011- 2013, it was not.......what we had in the late spring, after the first wave of bass moved north, was a dead sea filled with miles of bunker.....and not many bass at all under them........

This fact supports the statement that the biomass is declining......and I offer it as proof in the argument here in hopes that some who don't get out there to fish a lot, will begin to re-assess their thoughts and think of the other possibilities why they are not seeing bass in front of them......

Thanks for reading.....

[nitestrikes]

The Biomass is contracting...but they cannot see it, fishing in the middle.

E. When the fishery is healthy, fish will be in the middle, as well as the edges.....there will be good representations of all the year classes through the range of catching and harvesting....
When the fishery is not healthy (like it is now), you will start to see it first, on the edges
(do a Google search for
"m&m theory" striped bass
to learn more about this.)



**Many fishermen, if they are catching, just don't want to take the effort to get that involved in thinking about bass....so to them, as long as they are catching, the fishery is healthy.....

I'm sorry to say it but most of these people saying that are clueless. It would be nice if they wanted to learn but they don't. My .02. The ones who care already know.

[jigfreak]

Dark what do you think of this. Sharkhart posted in another thread. Capt Sal Cursi of the Cathy Sea charters. Says the bass stocks are healthy because of all the rats around right now.

"
We have been invaded by small stripers!The talk early in the year was "Wonder were all the small schoolies are''?Seems like they don't show up as much on the clam beds like they did a few years ago.It is a great sign to see them in mass quantity as the future looks good.It is a changing fishery with multiple year class stripers at different times of the year.I would much rather eat a 28" bass then a fat 43" spawner.In fact I wish we had the slot fish and could keep one 26" for dinner.No matter what with the hughe mass of small stripers in our waters is a good thing.All the fish we have been jigging are released with out being harmed.Great sport and and an occasional keeper for dinner!Looks good for my grandchildren.
__________________


I can't believe hes a captain. Where did he get his captains license a box of cracker jacks? All the talk about the bass numbers being around and this chump is talking about numbers of small bass as being a sign from Allah that all is well. These small rats show up every year how could a professional capt not be aware of that? He has no credibility. Absolute fool.

[DarkSkies]

Dark what do you think of this. Sharkhart posted in another thread.

I'm putting a response together....will post when I get a chance....the best I can say right now is the original claim tying this in to the health of the fishery, is misleading.

This is something that happens every year toward the end of the run as the last stragglers will be the smaller fish schooling up to make the Winter trek up the Hudson. There are thousands of small fish in Ambrose and other channels of the NY Bight right now.....

You can launch inside NY harbor and easily catch 50 or more baby bass/man/per day by bucktailing under the barges when the tide is running...my brother and I did it years ago from a boat...and this same pattern has existed for decades, (after 1985) where we see these small fish, give or take a few weeks, at the end of the season......










**It has no reflection on the health of the fishery...it is a migrational pattern.....most who fish regularly know that and would not mis-interpret that information.......

SharkHart contacted me via text and showed me where he tried to point that out, on another internet forum, and his response was ignored....

I'll come back with a more detailed response when I get time to compose it...thanks for reading.....

[dogfish]

I can't believe hes a captain. Where did he get his captains license a box of cracker jacks? All the talk about the bass numbers being around and this chump is talking about numbers of small bass as being a sign from Allah that all is well. These small rats show up every year how could a professional capt not be aware of that? He has no credibility. Absolute fool.

By us it is usually the folks with a comm license who keep on saying how healthy the bass are no matter what the numbers really are. Some of the part-time capts who come here for the limited MA comm season can make up to 40k in a few short weeks. Do you really think they are motivated to tell the truth? The only motivation is the almighty dollar. That and buying the wifey a new SUV or the kids the fancy electronics they want for xmas. My .02

[robmedina]

Dark, do you think trout anglers have a decent blueprint for how to save a fishery?

[finchaser]

Dark, do you think trout anglers have a decent blueprint for how to save a fishery?

No because they have to stock every year to keep it viable

[DarkSkies]

Rob, Fin has a valid point there...so before I give you one of my standard 500 word replies....what aspect of trout fishing are we talking about here?

1. Stocking program? (Fin answered that point correctly)
2. Licensing with special stamp for trophy fish?
3. No kill areas like they have on some river sections?
4. Promoting conservation by education and raising awareness?

If you could be more specific, I'll try to answer your question in a few paragraphs or less. Thanks for thinking out of the box.

[robmedina]

I guess I was saying with reverence. Trout are almost sacred. Some purist wont even touch the trout with their hands. They land them in nets, the take the barbless hook out with forceps and release back into the current. They organize , they lobby, they protect. It just seems that trout get so much respect from those that fish for them that they move mountains.

[robmedina]

so I guess #4.

[DarkSkies]

I guess I was saying with reverence. Trout are almost sacred. Some purist wont even touch the trout with their hands. They land them in nets, the take the barbless hook out with forceps and release back into the current. They organize , they lobby, they protect. It just seems that trout get so much respect from those that fish for them that they move mountains.

Rob, that's an admirable way to treat fish, if you are releasing them.
I don't want you to think I am criticizing trout fishermen here, or downplaying your ideas....it's all good....



What I see out there, is a disconnect between many fishermen, and those who C&R.......
There are fishermen out there who have never released a legal fish in their lives.....they have trouble understanding those who do....I still get that from some family members when I tell them of a good day/night out there...and they ask me why I am throwing so many keepers back.......

This has allowed me to see, that many folks out there just don't understand.
As I illustrated above, by always fishing in the middle of the action, and seeking the highest areas of activity, they have trouble comprehending that bass are in trouble. The attitude is, well the bass are there, you just have to burn more gas to get to them.....

(As in the case of the Golden Eagle this early fall, who was at one point burning lots of fuel to travel up to 50 miles each way to the Captree LI area bite......)


Many don't see the absurdity of that....when there were lots of fish, widely distributed, as in the past, boats haven't had to travel up to 50 miles one way to get to them......