I was scratching my head just a bit as I read the reply from the NJ DEP's senior fisheries biologist the other day. I had dropped her a note asking where I could see the results of New Jersey's annual Delaware River striped bass seine survey. Sounded easy enough of a request to me. (Click to enlarge)
The stock status of striped bass along the east coast is assessed and managed under Amendment 7 of the Interstate Fisheries Management Plan, or FMP. That's all ASMFC stuff. Several states with spawning rivers complete annual surveys and arrive at a spawning striped bass number or YOY index, which in part goes into determining the health of the striped bass. People wait with baited breath for the results to come out. Rivers that are surveyed are the Chesapeake, done by different states like Maryland and Virginia, the Hudson, which is done and falls entirely in New York, the Roanoke River done by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, and there's the Delaware River, which is near and dear to my house and heart.
The Delaware River gets surveyed by the NJ DEP, PA Boat and Fish Commission, and Delaware's DNREC. Now Pennsy's and Delaware's survey looks for spawning striped bass rather than the YOY, or fish less than one year old.
I have witnessed the PA scientists electrofishing the Delaware River over the years. They shock em, measure them, and tag them. They're looking for spawning aged striped bass. They also monitor the tag returns after these fish are caught. It's always interesting to see where a fish, caught
and tagged in say Bordentown, NJ, winds up after making their way back out into the ocean. You can see above where they have been caught from 1995-2022. But let's head back to New Jersey.
So what I was searching for was a simple chart or website that I could go to to get the data from the New Jersey seine survey YOY results over the last 42 years. Now, interestingly, people challenge the science, always. And what is science? What is data? How are the results arrived at? Just step into a ASMFC or any fisheries management meeting and you'll see you need a doctorate degree in statistics to figure it out. For my brain, and the way I teach at the college level is this, K.I.S.S., or Keep It Simple Stupid. I don't care if it's interpreting EKG's (toon fast or too slow), DKA, or diabetic ketoacidosis (blood sugars to high, or in general they could be to low), or the effects of left sided heart failure which could include pulmonary edema, (too much or too little fluid). You have to approach things at a basic crawl-before-you-walk mentality so you can understand them.
So to me it would simple. Any said year had a, say 1.06 number, and the next year a 2.4 number, maybe meaning things are looking better. Any less would be bad, especially if it was below some trigger level number. Triggers are put in place so that below a trigger level, something has to be done. I expected to be provided, or directed to, some place where I could see the 42 years of data.
Let's look below at the 2014 seine survey. So, these surveys aren't all about the striped bass. They say it's the primary target species, but really it's a throw out the net and count everything that you catch survey. It is then listed by abundance, with some mention of the striped bass YOY geometric mean, sometimes, in some random years.
So in 2014 2,135 striped bass were caught, and 2,070 were YOY, less than a year old. So, on that day, in that year, 97% were YOY, but no YOY index (geometric mean) was reported. There should be an easy chart showing that from year to year, but in the report for 2014 all we see is that listing of striped bass at 4.726%, the percentage that striped bass
made of the total haul. What does that tell me? Is that science? A few scientists, interns, and kids dragging a seine net on a clear day and counting fish as they flip around on the sand. Mmmmm. I hate to be an anti-guy, but, c'mon man.
In the reply email Ms. Pyle explained to me that while the seine survey has been completed in each of the last 42 years, except 2020 due to Covid, and that data is only available from 2009 until present. What? What does that mean? She states they didn't start "posted annual updates until 2009, so there aren't any missing, they just don't exist". So wait. There's not a guy or girl that is so jazzed up about striped bass that they don't have one YOY number, or even those abundance numbers, from each of the 42 seine survey results somewhere in some office? In the basement? In a file cabinet? Can I go and look for them?
And then it just got weird. If I want information, simple numbers, I would have to "complete a data request form" to the Bureau of Marine Fisheries for approval. This isn't body-cam footage of a police officer involved shooting I'm looking for. She goes on further to explain that, "This just keeps us in the
know of what people are doing with our data". Wait, "our data". Isn't this public knowledge kind of stuff. Like how many fish were in the net? If someone who questions the science, and the data, and government organizations, saw this post they'd have a stroke. Now I not suggesting any Tom-Foolery going on. I'm not picking on the NJ DEP or Ms. Pyle, but..... really?
Looking at the results of Delaware River striped bass YOY results from before the moratorium in the early 1980's until now would be interesting. I love striped bass. I love the Delaware River. When people tell me that's all they think about, like striped bass fishing and stuff, I say, no, you don't, I do. I think about them and all things related to striped bass all day, everyday, while awake and when I'm asleep. You may go and fish and catch when their around and post on your social media account, but are you really that into striped bass? Hey, to each their own, and I am not suggesting that my OCD of all this is in any way normal. For some it's just fishing, which is great, but then there's nutty folks like me.
So while you're waiting for March 1st to arrive, and maybe you'll even catch a fish on opening day, I'll be waiting for my FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request on how many striped bass that 20 year-old Stockton University Marine Biology major counted on the sands of Salem County while he thought about lunch at the WaWa around the corner.
"Science doesn't lie", they say. Okay, but something has to be done in a uniformed manner across the board, for all of the states, that create "the science". If striped bass, in my opinion, are changing the rules of engagement, by adapting or maladapting, due to several factors, then the science, and how we go about collecting, analyzing, and publishing results has to change with it. Otherwise, the sides can use that data and published results to strengthen their positions or arguments for their own gains, not for the best interest of the striped bass.
