ASMFC to Hold Hybrid Hearing in Delaware Sept. 18 on Striped Bass Management Plan
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will hold a hybrid public hearing on Thursday, September 18 to gather public input on the Draft Addendum 3 to Amendment 7 to the Atlantic Striped Bass Interstate Fishery Management Plan. The plan is intended to increase the probability of rebuilding stock to the target level by 2029 by reducing the fishery removals by 12% through management measures that would be implemented in 2026. This would include a quota reduction for the commercial fishery while considering season closures and/or size limit changes for the recreational fishery. This meeting is from 6 to 8pm – you can attend in person at the Little Creek Hunter Education Training Center in Dover or virtually at this link.
Additional information from DNREC:
Specifically for Maryland鈥檚 Chesapeake Bay recreational fishery, the addendum also proposes changing the recreational baseline season to simplify Maryland鈥檚 Chesapeake Bay regulations, which could improve compliance and enforcement, and to re-align fishing access based on stakeholder input and mortality rates for released stripers.
For commercial tagging, the current fishery management plan (FMP) allows states to choose whether to tag commercially harvested fish at the point of harvest or point of sale. To address concerns that waiting to tag harvested fish until the point of sale could increase the risk of illegal harvest, the draft addendum considers requiring commercial tagging at the point of harvest or first point of landing, with both proposals intended to improve enforcement and compliance.
There is also concern that inconsistent methods of measuring the total length of striped bass for compliance with size limits undermines the intended conservation, consistency and enforceability of coastwide size limits. To address the concern, the ASMFC鈥檚 draft addendum to the FMP considers coastwide requirements for defining total length for both sectors.