[dropcap]S[/dropcap]tripers Forever, a non-profit, internet-based conservation organization, seeks game fish status for wild striped bass on the Atlantic Coast in order to significantly reduce striper mortality, to provide optimum and sustainable public fishing opportunities for anglers from Maine to North Carolina, and to secure the greatest socio-economic value possible from the fishery.
The Release A Breeder Club program is an important new initiative. Striped bass spawning success has always been unpredictable, and nature designed these fish to produce a lot of eggs over a long life to make up for it. One of the best things we can do for the population is to release these large breeders.
Click on this LINK to read about how the program works and by visiting the guide and angler pages you can see who has signed up and which anglers have been sent their release certificates. It is a decent start, but the striped bass need much more help than they have received so far.
Here is what you can do to help:
- Getting ready to book a trip with a guide? Check out the ones listed on the guide’s page. You’ll find handy links to their websites.
- If your favorite guide hasn’t registered yet on the site, contact him and ask him to go to the SF website and register now. It will help business!
- If you have released a fish of 36” or larger yourself this season, complete Angler Application form on the Release a Breeder Club home page. Register your fish and get a certificate and recognition of your catch.
Stripers need our help now, and if we aren’t a part of the solution we are a part of the problem. These magnificent fish are being driven to the edge by ineffective management, and we need to set a strong example with widespread, voluntary catch and release and to put pressure on the ASMFC to do the right thing.
As always, Stripers Forever will let you know how and when to make your comments to the fishery managers, and will be consistently advocating for greater striped bass conservation, including the curtailment of the destructive commercial fisheries.
Stripers Forever is a not for profit corporation in the State of Maine.
Sweet release. Photo by Nick Murray.
