Well well well. Just in time for the ASMFC Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board meeting on October 29th. What will they do with this?
Maryland's YOY 2025 index came out and 2025 is yet again another year of poor recruitment. While it's been the best, of the worst, year since 2020 it still falls well below the target. The last solid year classes were 2018, 2017, and 2015. And the earlier are now within the 28 -31" slot limit.
Virginia came back low as well. A tad better than 2024 but below the historical geometric mean. The last year they were above that line was 2022. The Chesapeake is hurting.
Interestingly I saw Jim Hutchinson's (The Fisherman magazine) post on what we can expect during this upcoming meeting. He laid out an argument that, in fact, we could be on a solid path of rebuilding, just not in time for the hoped 2029 deadline. If you look below the graph combines two charts the ASMFC supplied during the public comment period.
Looking at the combined chart we see the SSB target is met, maybe, by 2033, just four years past that target of 2029. That could be used for those that are pushing for Status Quo- or keeping everything the same. They'll argue the data, mostly from the FES (Fishing Effort Surveys) from MRIP, are spotty at best. And if they can raise enough doubt, like they do in the courtroom, maybe the ASMFC will punt once again and keep things business as usual, promising to address things in the near future. And if they do act it won't be in time for this year's fall run where we'll hammer down on those 2017 & 2018 year class fish.
The agenda and public comment summaries for each public hearing have been published HERE. If you went to one of the meetings you can read the synopsis of any comments that people made. I commend Emily Franke for listening, taking notes, and including them in the official documents. I stood up and was heard. Below are the three points that I made,
1) For-hire (Charter and head boats) and commercial operations should be managed together, and the data about catches and mortality be combined, separate from purely recreational anglers
2) The Delaware River and Bay needs to be managed as a fishery, one body of water. Not three states having three sets of rules at the same times. NJ and Pa are 500 feet apart in some places.
3) I hated to say it, but I had to. Maybe the slot has to be expanded. Small fish one year, current slot the next year, bigger the next, and maybe even a trophy type slot every so and so years. Like no other sized harvest for that year but one fish over such and such a size, that needs to be tagged and reported like the hunters do.
It's going to be a hoot, well it'll give me chest pain, listening to those "shareholders", and the alliances between the states, fighting for votes to make change, keep it same, or just kick the proverbial can down the road.
October 29th will also just be about a week into the start of the fall run here in New Jersey. October 21st- put it on your calendar. I called it here. And I'm talking shore based of course.