Striped bass populations have been down in recent years and, as many East Coast states weigh future regulations, fall fishermen are anxious about striper runs right now. Anglers can still expect reasonable numbers of 10-to 20-pound striped bass this season, but not many schoolies as overall populations tank.
And at some point, if these trends continue, even those medium-sized fish will dwindle, say John Waldman, an aquatic conservation biologist and professor at Queens College of New York.
“Instead of a good session with 10 schoolies, you will be happy catching one or two larger fish this year,” Waldman says. “I’m not saying schoolies don’t exist, but the numbers really pale compared to the good old days.”
Which ultimately means that, “striped bass are on the edge of being in trouble.”
It’s not the first time striped bass numbers have suffered in the famed Chesapeake Bay. Striped bass stock collapsed in the late 80s from overharvest. Fewer females meant fewer eggs, and fewer eggs meant fewer fish in general. But fisheries managers tightened regulations, even instituting a moratorium, and numbers surged back. By the late ‘90s and early 2000s, anglers started grumbling about too many striped bass. The fish were eating estuaries out of house and home, he says.
But now the story has flipped again. For the past six years, standardized survey numbers of young striped bass in Chesapeake Bay and the Hudson and Delaware rivers are down. Way down.
“Six years is a long time to go without a good year class,” he says, referencing Maryland’s dismal population surveys. “If you have a healthy population, some years will be above normal and some years will be below, some may even be way high and some low, but now it’s low year after year.”
And those estuaries where striped bass are spawning are “where the sausage is made.” Their numbers indicate where the overall population will be in another four or five years.
While the numbers are clear, the cause is anything but obvious.
Most fisheries biologists would point to usual suspects like not enough eggs, but Waldman cites decent numbers of 10-to 20-pound fish which tend to be the breeders. Invasive blue catfish also may be hurting numbers of striped bass in the Chesapeake Bay tributaries, but that wouldn’t account for low numbers in the Hudson or Delaware rivers.
So Waldman wonders if the issue could be a mismatch in plankton abundance as striped bass larvae grow.
“It’s possible a changing climate could create that mismatch,” he says, “but the answers are still not straightforward.”
Some biologists also worry about numbers of menhaden, a primary food for striped bass. However, while striped bass do feed on abundant menhaden, they also eat plenty of other prey including sand eels, anchovies, crabs and shrimp. Poaching is a problem, though not likely the entire cause.
What Waldman does know from his own fishing and talking to friends who actively pursue striped bass, is at some point, this decline will become a critical issue.
He recommends anglers consider using circle hooks for less harmful catch and release. He also urges anglers to consider throwing back even some of those striped bass they might ordinarily keep.
Meanwhile, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which manages striped bass populations across the Atlantic, is considering new fishing regulations. The plan includes new size limit regulations, changes to Maryland’s recreational season and even a possible harvest reduction, according to the Cape Cod Times. The goal will be to rebuild striped bass stock by 2029.
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“We should be conservative about removals of striped bass because we don’t always know what’s going on in the oceans, and it would be better to restrict this as much as possible until we turn it around,” Waldman says. “And the fact that we’ve had six years in a row in the Maryland waters of the Chesapeake that are abysmal makes me think this is more than a roll of the dice.”
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