May at ASMFC

Charles Witek with a primer on the upcoming Striped Bass Management Board meeting.

ASMFC’s Spring Meeting will take place during the week of May 11, down in Alexandria, Virginia. The Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board will meet on the 13th, when it will hopefully put together a draft addendum to the fishery management plan that will determine how bass will be managed for the rest of this decade.

LINK (via; One Angler's Voyage)

Massachusetts attempting to circumvent commercial striped bass tagging program

An important action alert from Stripers Forever.

In February at the 2012 ASMFC Striped Bass Management Board Meeting, the Board moved to incorporate recommendations by the Interstate Watershed Task Force (IWTF) and ASMFC Law Enforcement Committee (LEC) on reducing illegal commercial harvest of striped bass.

It was the unanimous recommendation of the IWTF and the LEC that all fish harvested for sale be required to be tagged immediately upon possession. The LEC presented the persuasive argument that the longer the fish remain untagged, the harder it is to enforce harvesting rules and the easier it is for illegal activity to occur.
Unfortunately the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries is proposing that in Massachusetts commercially caught stripers need not be tagged when harvested but later when they are sold. Doing so will effectively undermine the intent of the tagging program as outlined by the Law Enforcement Committee of the ASMFC. The purpose of tagging at capture is for law enforcement to quickly determine harvesting compliance, to avoid tag sharing and high grading and to reduce the under-reporting of both fish and weights.

If the Law Enforcement Committee recommendations were adopted a commercial fisherman in possession of a fish that is not tagged would be breaking the law. The proposal by the MDMF to not have to tag a commercially harvested fish until it is sold - if it is ever sold - is an open invitation to circumvent harvesting rules and contradicts the intent and goals of the ASMFC recommendations.

This is an outrage that we must do our best to correct. There are two public hearings coming up soon that will give each of us (you) an opportunity to express our (your) feelings on this proposed rule change.  Please attend the hearing nearest you and speak up in favor of tagging at point of capture. Stripers Forever will submit organizational testimony. Each of you should write/speak as an individual, interested party.

MDMF Public Hearings
Feb.11, 2014 - 6 PM
Plymouth Harbor Radisson
180 Water Street
Plymouth, MA

Feb. 12, 2014 - 6 PM
Gloucester High School Auditorium
32 Leslie O. Johnson Road
Gloucester, MA

If you can't get to a meeting then please email Jared Silva and ask the MDMF  to follow the ASMFC tagging recommendations. Insist that commercially caught stripers be tagged immediately when they are caught.

Stripers Forever 2013 Fishing Survey

This survey is an important part of Stripers Forever's work as it shows fishery managers how the public perceives the trends in the quality of the fishery.

Please take the time to take the survey, your response plays an important role in the protection of striped bass.

LINK

Things just don’t look good for striped bass right now

Capt. John McMurray writes about the impact illegal fishing in the Exclusive Economic Zone is having on striped bass.

LINK (via: The Surfcater's Journal)

Striped bass moving over Bonneville Dam?

Last week a commercial fishing crew caught a 52-pound stripped bass in the Columbia Gorge.

A few days ago, counters photographed what appears to be a striped bass (see bottom of photo) going through Bradford Island count station at Bonneville Dam.

LINK (via: The Spokesman-Review)

There is 8 percent hooking mortality rate for striped bass caught and released by recreational anglers in the marine environment

John Tiedemann & Andy Danylchuk cover the proper care and handling of striped bass in the latest issue of On the Water  Given the vast amount of striped bass that are released every year (NY anglers released close to 1.5 million in 2011) proper handling is a critical component of the striped bass conservation effort.

LINK (via: On the Water)