Maine Striper Fishing Reports

Looks like some needed changes coming to this fishery soon!!Not only does the Maine saltwater fishing community but Striped bass fishing men and women from Maine to North Carolina win IF this passes!!! But this just the beginning lots of work ahead get ready to dig your heels in the games are about to begin!!!!!!














FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, MARCH 24, 2011
> PRESS CONTACT, TINA BERGER, 703/842-0740
>
> ASMFC Atlantic Striped Bass Board Initiates Addendum to Reduce Fishing
> Mortality
>
> Alexandria, VA – The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s
> Atlantic
> Striped Bass Management Board has initiated development of Draft Addendum
> III with the goals of reducing striped bass fishing mortality (F) up to
> 40%
> and further protecting spawning stock when it is concentrated and
> vulnerable. The addendum was initiated in order to allow managers to
> promptly respond to the results of the stock assessment update in the fall
> if necessary. Provisions of the addendum, if passed, could be implemented
> prior to the start of the 2012 fishing year.
>
> The Board’s action responds to recent trends in the fishery and resource,
> including a 66% decline in estimated recreational catch from 2006 to 2009;
> a 25% decline in estimated striped bass abundance from 2004 to 2008; and
> lowered recruitment in recent years. Additionally, states in the northern
> extent of the fishery have expressed concern over decreased availability
> of
> striped bass as a result of the diminished water quality in the Chesapeake
> Bay during the summer months that may also contribute to increased
> prevalence of mycobacteriosis in striped bass.
>
> Draft Addendum III will propose a range of fishing management measures
> including, but not limited to, adjustments to commercial and recreational
> minimum size (for jurisdictions outside Chesapeake Bay and Albemarle
> Sound/Roanoke River), reductions in annual coastal commercial allocation,
> reductions in recreational bag limits, revisions to the target F rate (for
> Chesapeake Bay and Albemarle Sound/Roanoke River), and reductions on
> fishing for striped bass in known spawning areas during the spawning
> season
> by at least 50% (for jurisdictions bordering the Hudson River, Delaware
> River, Chesapeake Bay and Albemarle Sound/Roanoke River).
>
> The commercial and recreational fishery is currently managed through
> Amendment 6 to the Striped Bass Fishery Management Plan. The Amendment,
> passed in 2003, allocates the coastal commercial quota and set a two fish
> bag limit and a 28 inch size minimum for the recreational fishery, with
> the
> exception of the Chesapeake Bay fisheries, Albemarle Sound/Roanoke River
> fisheries, and states with approved alternative regulations.
>
> The Draft Addendum will be developed for preliminary review by the
> Atlantic
> Striped Bass Management Board in August. For more information, please
> contact Kate Taylor, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at
> ktaylor@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.
>