Like many of you I was working during yesterdays ASMFC Striped Bass Management Board Meeting. Luckily I was able to kind of keep abreast of what was going down by folks who kept a running commentary on Facebook. Ross Squire's 1@32" Pledge page is where I followed.
I wasn't able to listen so I surmise this from the slides I followed and commentaries I have read. The big ticket item in the room and interest to most surf and boat, non-commercial, anglers was what was the vote going to be for Option 2, which is continuation of the 28-31" slot.
Is the 28-31" slot a good thing, no it is not. Let's say a school doesn't admit any students for three years in a row, likes grades 4, 5, 6. Then in two years they prepare for the graduation and order the programs, balloons, awards, etc. On the big day there are people in the audience but no one on the stage. Why, because there's no students. With the slot, we are in effect, hammering down on successive years classes for years in a row. Well in 10 years, from say 2016, 17, 18, 19, when we are looking for fish in the 34-38" range they will not be here. And if we continue a fixed slot we will also be eliminating potentially spawning fish when they start getting into their true groove at age 6 - 8 years, although they become sexually active, and may take the spawning run, earlier that that.
So, while slots may be good for some fish it may not be all that good for a fixed slot in consecutive years for striped bass. But. It's better than the other options. If, this year, increased the slot by inches, it's really giving back, and away from conservation. If you belong to a union shop at work then you know what I'm talking about. Never give back in negotiations. Not a personal day. Not a dollar. Nothing.
When it came to vote and move towards conservation New York and New Jersey balked, as expected, and the vote went 14-0. Tom Fote continued his usual antics. Please can he just leave already. Tom must have shared a room with Mike Luisi, from Maryland, who was trying to keep things opened up a little wider on the Chesapeake Bay. Up for a vote were the size limits and a mode split, where the for hire sector would get to keep two fish while the poor schlub on the shore can take one. Well in the end the vote went to the 19-24" slot with no mode split. It was the two roomies, Fote and Luisi, who voted against it. Imagine paying $800 for a charter and coming home with a 20" striped bass, a three year old fish that may weigh 5 pounds.
And thanks to Tony Friedrich of the ASGA for information he posted on The Guidepost about the commercial reductions. The public comments came back with an overwhelming opinion to reduce commercial harvest by 14.5%. Sounds good right? If the recreational sector is being told to cut back then the commercial should as well. And you know how I feel about charter and head boat operations, they make money, it's a commercial operation. Those blurred lines really throw off all of the data. A recreational angler on the beach throwing a Clouser is not the same as a guy on the stern of a head boat tossing a live bunker into blitzing 40 pound bass.
But in a big reversal of a 14% commercial reduction, the vote went to reduce commercial landings by a mere 7%. Dead fish = money. And no one on the commercial side wants to make less money. They question, repeatedly, data that shows that sectors impact on striped bass numbers and that's where the finger pointing with the rec side begins.
Dr. Mike Armstrong, from the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, ran the meeting and chairs the management board. From the jist I get he is fair and conservation minded. As the meeting came to an end there was still a big decision to make. By then I was unable to follow and got the flow from Friedrich's ASGA post. So after the votes are in then what? Well, it has to be thrown back to the states for a submittal date, where the states submit their plans for meeting any new reductions etc., and then a implementation date has to be set. Now, we know weeks and months matter in fishing. Let's say they took the ballsy move and did seasonal closures in the Raritan Bay. Just pick three weeks. April 1st to the 21st. Well if you have an implementation date of May 1st then this really wouldn't go into effect until 2025. And the hammer will drop during spring 2024 and there will be 100,000 more dead bass.
So the submittal date has been set for March 1st with implementation set for May 1st.
There continues to be things, in my opinion, that need to be addressed. First, somehow the rules need to be across the board for all of the 11 states involved. No more split regulations on states that share the same waters. If New Jersey shuts down the bays and rivers during the winter, then Connecticut should do the same and shut down the Housatonic. No river herring in New Jersey, then it should be the same in the Hudson. For-hire operations numbers need to be under the commercial sector, period. Bonus Tag programs, well only New Jersey has that, should be abolished altogether, or allowed across those 11 states. I spoke yesterday about changing tactics, maybe no more live or dead bait, no more treble hooks, whatever it is we can clean it up a bit. And all of this is naught if you don't have enforcement of the rules. We have cops and security guards all over every place everywhere you go, well if people are serious then step up enforcement with fines and banning them from fishing and set an example. Poaching is a huge, huge problem up and down the East Coast and a large portion of F, fish mortality, that isn't talked about. Taking someones $35 Walmart rod with the bell clamped onto the broken tip isn't enough.