Gone Fishing

The sixty-sixth Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby begins this weekend, and for the next month an annual transformation of sorts will take place on the Vineyard that is at once subtle and distinct. Fishermen of every age, gender and income bracket will line the shores and be out in boats in pursuit of striped bass, bluefish, bonito and false albacore. The venerable fishing contest is synonymous with fall and also the Island way of life. For the next four weeks hundreds of Islanders will reshape their daily work and routines around the tides. Dinner may be sandwiches and a thermos of coffee packed alongside a box of lures for an early evening out on the jetties, casting for the big one.

Pickup trucks and SUVs loaded with saltwater casting rods, waders and tackle boxes are a common sight on the ferries to the Island. Many fishermen plan their annual vacations around the derby in September and October as the fish begin to run in the cooling salt water around the Vineyard. These fishermen are the unsung economic engine of the fall season here. Many rent houses and spend significant amounts of money in local stores, tackle shops and restaurants. They are a welcome sight and a natural fit for the Island. They also are well tuned to Island values; many have been coming for years and are ardent saltwater conservationists, concerned about protecting the resource.

As the derby opens for another year, there is widespread concern about the fisheries, especially when it comes to stripers. A drastic decline in striped bass stocks was documented this year: From 2006 to 2010 the catch of small stripers declined by some seventy-five per cent, according to the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission reported a sixty-six per cent decline in recreational catch from 2006 to 2009. But veteran Island fishermen don’t need state and federal reports to tell them what they see on the water every day. “It’s really scary . . . it’s like a staircase going all the way down,” Cooper Gilkes 3rd told the Gazette this spring, describing the decline in stripers.

Environmental stresses, a bacterial disease in the Chesapeake Bay spawning grounds for striped bass, dramatic declines in bait fish populations including menhaden, and the ruinous work of large trawlers scooping up everything in their path at sea are all factors in this complicated, still-unfolding story. Fisheries managers and government regulators are considering added protection measures, including tightening the rules for taking bass, and a growing group of recreational fishermen are strongly pushing for striped bass to be restricted to game fish status in the commonwealth. A bill in the state legislature to ban the commercial harvest of striped bass failed last year.

Mr. Gilkes, a longtime tackle shop owner and respected voice on the waterfront here, would like to see the bill pass and would like to see stricter rules for recreational bass fishing as well; he suggests a return to a minimum size of 36 inches from the current 28-inch rule and a limit of one fish per day per fisherman.

Coop said it best: “It’s mind-boggling that we could get to this point with everybody watching.”

Calls for eliminating bass from the derby were muted this year, and quite apart from the joy we get from the annual tradition there are of course broader economic reasons to keep the derby alive and growing. But there’s no doubt that the fishery is in peril, and we await with interest an updated assessment from the keenest judges, the derby fishermen themselves.