A recreational fishing organization is pressing the Massachusetts Legislature to end commercial fishing for striped bass — the great inshore migratory prize whose stocks have yo-yoed over time, and now show signs of declining again.
Stripers Forever, a Maine-based group and the author of the bill to make stripers strictly a game fish, couches the argument in economic as well as conservation terms.
"Fundamentally," said Jeffrey Krasner, spokesman for Stripers Forever, "our argument is economic. What we're saying is that striped bass are worth a lot more as a game fish than as a commercial fishery."
The organization has also highlighted data showing a precipitous decline in recreational catches of stripers — harvested and released — from the National Marine Fishery Service.
According to NMFS, the catch along the Atlantic coast after peaking at 28.6 million fish in 2006 declined each of the next three years, to 19.1 million fish in 2007, 14 million a year later and 6.9 million last year.
The recreational striper catch in Massachusetts followed the same pattern: from 9 million in 2006, to 6.1 million, then 4 million and finally 2.6 million last year.
According to NMFS data, the 2009 catch in Massachusetts was lower than any dating to 1995, when the striper was rebounding from near wipeout status brought about by the industrial pollution of the great estuaries where the bass spawned, the Hudson, Delaware and Chesapeake Rivers, and indiscriminate fishing.
Striper catches bottomed out in the 1980s, then the bass was put under the protection of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which negotiated size minimums. Meanwhile, beginning in the 1970s, states and the federal government began to trace and prosecute polluters.
At its hearing on the bill last Thursday, opponents far outnumbered proponents before the Legislature's Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture. The committee has not scheduled an executive session to vote on the bill which was filed for Stripers Forever by Rep. Matthew C. Patrick, D-Falmouth.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission considers the declining catch in recent years a return to more normal levels after optimal growth, and continues to believe stripers are "one of the healthier (stocks) along the Atlantic coast," said Nichola Meserve, the striper coordinator for the commission.
Gloucester's striped bass guru, Al Williams, who fishes recreationally and commercially, holds a similar view.
"My personal opinion is they are still in pretty good shape," said Williams. "We're fishing below the peak, but the peak ... four or five years ago ... was pretty phenomenal."
Williams said he believes the stocks have not declined so much as they have been drawn into deeper waters away from the fishermen following bait fish.
"Migratory patterns have changed," said Williams "I've gotten similar observations from Montauk (Long Island, N.Y.) and Connecticut."
Chuck Cassella, a recreational charter boat captain, said he opposed the ban on commercial fishing for stripers.
"Fisheries shouldn't be managed through legislation," said Cassella, who charters out of Winthrop. "There is a dynamic aspect to reacting to stocks on a yearly basis. We have a regulatory process in place that responds to stocks."
The commercial catch in Massachusetts is limited to 1 million pounds, and is typically surpassed slightly.
The commercial season is in mid-season, until the catch limit is reached, and then closed.
Stripers typically return to Cape Ann waters around May 1 and the last laggard doesn't leave until the end of October. Some of the stock also stays over in the Essex River and other estuaries.
Stripers also winter in the south-facing rivers along Southern New England, but most of the stripers return to their spawning waters or aggregate into massive schools that live partially dormant lives off the Middle Atlantic Coast.
Richard Gaines can be reached at 978-283-7000, x3464, or via e-mail at rgaines@gloucestertimes.com
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