By John McMurray
[dropcap]I[/dropcap]’ve been writing about striped bass an awful lot lately. Because, in case it isn’t really clear at this point, it’s pretty damn important to me as well as most readers of this blog. I know this true because any time I discuss striped bass the number of page views far exceeds all the other posts. But this is bigger than just striped bass, as the future of our federally managed fisheries lies in the balance. I will explain.
Bass in the Surf, by Bob Sullivan.
I’m pretty sure you are all aware, but just to frame things, there’s been a precipitous downward spiral in the striped bass fishery in the last few years. And this year’s spring run has been virtually nonexistent in a lot of places. Businesses are suffering, mine being a pretty good example of that. Perhaps more importantly, the mental health of a lot of hard-core striped bass anglers is suffering. Yeah, I’m probably a prime example here also.
Yes, I saw those aerial photos of large schools of striped bass off Cape Cod. But it’s not where the fish are. It’s where they aren’t. It’s a pretty well-known fact among biologists that as stocks decline they contract. While there still may be strongholds and dense bodies of fish, the geographic distribution becomes more restricted. We saw this in Maine at the beginning of the decline. Now we have a definitive lack of fish pretty much everywhere save a few spots where the fish might show up (e.g., those aerial photos from Cape Cod). While I’ve made this point before, I thought it was worthy of making it again given the viral distribution of those photos and the tendency of people to think, “Well, that’s where all the fish are.” Like I said, it’s where they aren’t that matters.
Moving on, two posts ago, I wrote about how frustrating it was that the interstate consortium that manages the striped bass resource, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, continues to delay making critical decisions on reducing fishing mortality or even accepting the best available science and new reference points contained in the new stock assessment. You can read that post here: With striped bass, another (expletive)-show @ ASMFC. The end point was that the ASMFC can delay or simply avoid making tough decisions. That sort of thing may benefit a few special interests in the short term, but it really screws anglers like us and businesses like mine who depend on abundance.
