THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 5, 1995 TAG: 9510050425
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines
Twenty-five years ago, the population of striped bass hit record lows and some fisheries managers worried that stripers, one of the Atlantic Coast's most prized sports fish and one of the region's most valuable commercial fish, would disappear forever from the region.
This fall, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will nearly quadruple the quota of striped bass that can be caught by North Carolina fishermen in the Atlantic Ocean. And the National Marine Fisheries Service plans to lift a 5-year-old ban on fishing for striped bass in offshore waters.
The recovery of striped bass, also known as rockfish or rock, is one of the few good news stories along the Atlantic Coast, where fishermen from Massachusetts to Florida are faced with declines in fish stocks and increasingly stringent regulations.
New England experts expect harvest bans will push more than 22,000 of the 46,721 people working on groundfish boats out of work the next few years. About 2,600 Florida gill net fishermen lost jobs when a near-shore fishing net ban took effect July 1.
Fishermen in North Carolina are facing a probable ban on weakfish in federal offshore waters this fall because of population declines and overfishing.
But thanks to a 20-year effort by state and federal fisheries managers and sports and commercial fishermen, striped bass have recovered in most areas along the Atlantic Coast.
Commercial fishermen say natural cycles also heavily contributed to the species' comeback.
``The Atlantic Ocean striped bass fishery has seen a 3.5 fold increase in the commercial quota in 1995,'' said John Field, ASMFC striped bass coordinator. ``In the latter half of the 20th century, that's a pretty remarkable feat in fisheries management.''
But while it's fishermen who will benefit the most from the striped bass' recovery, in fisheries management, the story of the striped bass also proves that it's often fishermen who pay the price, even when fishermen alone haven't caused a stock's decline.
The story of striped bass:
One of the premier sports and commercial fish since Colonial days, the story of striped bass is linked to the Chesapeake Bay, home to between 70 and 90 percent of the Atlantic Coast's stock of striped bass. Other populations from the Albemarle Sound, Delaware Bay and Hudson River provide the remainder of the stock.
Deteriorating water quality in the upstream sections of the Chesapeake Bay combined with pollution caused by acid rain decimated the stocks of striped bass in the late 1970s. Biologists say over-fishing also contributed to that decline.
``In the late 1970s, when the population crashed, we saw a variety of factors at play there,'' said Field. ``But after all the studies were done, the principal culprit in the decline of striped bass was excessive fishing mortality.''
During the boom days of the industry in the 1970s, between 60 and 70 percent of the striped bass born each year were being captured and taken out of the system as soon as they reached legal size, according to Field.
High fishing mortality took its toll in the number of young fish that were produced each year by causing the spawning stock to decline, he said. ``Low juvenile abundance, skyrocketing mortality and declining biomass - that is a recipe for disaster,'' said Field.
The declines in striped bass population on the Chesapeake Bay were felt all along the East Coast. About 7,500 jobs and $220 million in economic activity were lost, according to one Department of Commerce study.
By 1981, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, composed of representatives from 15 states from Maine to Florida, devised a coastwide plan to help striped bass recover. But compliance with the plan's recommendations was only voluntary on the part of ASMFC member states - and it had little effect on population declines, Field said.
Three years later, the U.S. Congress mandated compliance with the Atlantic Coast plan, prompting stringent restrictions on striped bass fishing. States were assigned quotas based on reducing the striped bass catch by 80 percent from historical landings and fishing bans were instituted in some areas.
``Everybody had to reduce their catch,'' said William T. Hogarth, of the National Marine Fisheries Service office of interjurisdictional fisheries management. ``They had to let the stocks rebuild.''
``It wasn't easy,'' he said. ``The fishermen suffered through a moratorium in several states.''
But by 1989, fisheries managers had seen enough of a recovery to amend the ASMFC fisheries management plan to lift some of the restrictions on striped bass. From 1990 to 1994, the striped bass stocks started growing at about 25 percent a year. In 1994, ASMFC striped bass managers were confident enough in the stock's recovery they declared that the Chesapeake Bay population would be considered recovered as of January 1, 1995.
They approved the fifth amendment to the ASMFC striped bass management plan that will increase North Carolina's Atlantic Ocean commercial quota from 96,000 pounds to 334,000 pounds.
But the recovery of striped bass has not been without costs - both in terms of dollars and in terms of effects on the fishing industry.
Field said the monetary cost is ``tough to pin down'' but estimates that for scientific research, travel to meetings for state and federal fisheries managers, tagging programs and monitoring, the figure totals in the millions of dollars. by CNB