News: Going against the flow, Maine fishermen favor reduced striper catch

Charter guides are ‘thrilled’ that regulators are tightening bag limits to protect the dwindling recreational fish, but other Northeast coastal states are not on board.

[dropcap]F[/dropcap]rom Cape Cod to the Chesapeake Bay, charter boat fishing captains are angry about a mandate to reduce the number of striped bass that can be caught by recreational fishermen.

Saltwater fishing guides in Maine, however, are swimming against the tide. They think it’s about time for tougher regulations – and some say it may be too late to help the struggling species rebound.

By Timothy Knepp [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

“We are thrilled there is a reduction coming. There isn’t a guide here who’s not thrilled,” said Capt. Mike Faulkingham, president of the Maine Association of Charterboat Captains. “In Maine, a whole group of people absolutely are concerned about the fish and absolutely want to do what’s right for it. People really are adamant.”

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which manages the migratory fishery in state waters along the East Coast, is requiring states to reduce the 2015 recreational harvest of striped bass by at least 25 percent from 2013 levels. The catch has dropped precipitously in Maine since 2006 and is declining elsewhere along the Northeast seaboard.

The striped bass harvest in Maine fell from 4 million fish in 2006 to a low of 160,610 in 2011, according to the Department of Marine Resources. In 2013, the most recent year for data, the harvest was 443,789.

Biologists are at a loss to explain exactly why the striper population has declined. Possible causes range from overfishing to an infectious disease affecting the species in its chief breeding grounds, the Chesapeake Bay.

“The striper situation is not as bad here as it is in Maine. But there has still been a pretty precipitous decline,” said John McMurray, a charter captain on New York’s Long Island and a member of the commission’s striped bass advisory board.

“I would say probably 50 percent of guides aren’t too thrilled (by the upcoming reductions),” McMurray said. “All those guides out in Montauk, the so-called ‘Striper Central,’ they say there is plenty of fish around. They’re afraid if we go to a one-fish bag limit they’ll lose business. I don’t think you need to kill two fish to survive as a business. But those guys don’t like this regulation.”