THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 30, 1995 TAG: 9504270163
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 23 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Tight Lines
SOURCE: Damon Tatem
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
After many months of preparation, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission recently approved Amendment 5 to the Fisheries Management Plan for Atlantic striped bass stocks.
Amendment 5 will allow a dramatic increase in the commercial and recreational harvest of striped bass along the Atlantic Coast. Through several alternative management regimes supported by good monitoring programs, commercial harvest caps will be expanded and recreational bag limits will be increased. In many cases, lower minimum-size limits will be allowed and the length of fishing seasons increased.
The road to recovery of the coastal striped bass population has been a long one. After many years of good reproductive success, and an abundance of bass from the 1950s to the early 1970s, weak year classes began to appear. By the mid-1970s, the biomass began to collapse.
By the late 1970s, fishermen and managers along the coast realized that measures had to be taken to protect and rebuild a once-viable fishery. In 1981, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, composed of representatives from 15 states from Maine to Florida, formulated the Striped Bass Fisheries Management Plan.
The plan's goal was ``to perpetuate, through cooperative interstate fisheries management, migratory stocks of Atlantic striped bass so as to allow a commercial and recreational harvest consistent with the long-term maintenance of their critical habitat.'' Although the plan for recovery was superficially sound, it failed initially because it wasn't mandatory. In 1984, Congress recognized the plight of the striped bass population and realized that more forceful measures would be necessary to restore the stock.
The Striped Bass Management Act was passed, giving the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission the clout to get cooperation from state fisheries management groups. Individual states could be declared out of compliance with the plan if they failed to make their contributions to the recovery program. If cooperation still was not forthcoming, the Secretary of Commerce ultimately could issue a moratorium on the offending state's fishery.
The plan was amended several times during the late 1980s as stock status changed and new information appeared. At the same time, the rate of removal of fish from the fishery, by fishing, dropped drastically from a high of almost 65 percent from 1972-1982 to around 10 percent from 1985-1989. Maryland made a substantial contribution to this decrease by declaring a moratorium on striped bass fishing from 1984 to 1989. Conservation by recreational anglers also contributed substantially to the recovery of the striped bass population.
In 1980, only 11 percent of the recreational catch was released alive. By 1992, that figure had jumped to more than 90 percent.
In 1989, data collected in Chesapeake Bay spawning areas led to implementation of Amendment 4, which allowed states to open limited striped bass fisheries while holding fish removal rates below 20 percent.
Due to the restrictive management and low harvest rates, the population of Atlantic Coast striped bass has increased in size by 25 percent per year from 1990 to 1994. This dramatic increase has set the stage for user groups to resume a reasonable harvest at closely monitored rates.
The recovery of striped bass has been remarkable. Seldom has a deeply-depressed fishery become a viable fishery again. It has taken the support of fisheries managers, and the entire fishing community, to achieve this end. This support by commercial fishermen and sports- anglers must continue through the coming years to help maintain a healthy striped bass fishery that will provide fun and food for future generations. MEMO: Damon Tatem covers Outer Banks fishing for The Carolina Coast. Send
comments and questions to him P.O. Box 10, Nags Head, N.C. 27959.
by CNB