Island fishermen expressed disappointment with federal fishing regulators after they declined to enact stronger protections last week for the struggling striped bass stock.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission met on Dec. 16 to consider new commercial and recreational regulations to safeguard stripers, which have not been meeting the commission’s recovery goals and remain overfished.

But, after hours of discussion, the commission’s striped bass board voted to keep the existing rules in place while considering more options to be enacted in 2026.

Several Island fishermen felt the decision was misguided and could hurt the species.

“I think that the ASMFC not taking action at this juncture is completely irresponsible,” said Brice Contessa, an Edgartown fishing captain. “What they did now by taking no action is despicable.”

There was overwhelming support from the public for tighter restrictions. Nearly 3,000 comments from across the eastern seaboard advocated for the commission to do something. About 500 comments called for the status quo.

Board members from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine and New Hampshire formed a coalition around new restrictions to help the struggling stripers that would have gone into effect in 2025.

Nichola Meserve, a fishery policy analyst with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, called for there to be closures on the striped bass fishery at certain times of the year in different regions in order to cut down on fishing deaths. Ms. Meserve also requested that commercial quotas be dropped by nine per cent.

“I think this provides something that people can understand and have some equity behind it,” said Cheri Patterson, the New Hampshire board member.

Other board members were against the idea because they wished to have more data on how the 2024 rules would play out over the course of another year, and the proposal failed by an 11-4 vote.

“We understand that many will be disappointed in the board’s decision to initiate an addendum versus taking immediate action,” Megan Ware, the board chair from Maine said in a statement after the meeting. “However, after deliberating for more than three hours about the path forward, the board came to the conclusion that the best course of action is to proceed with an addendum which will allow for clarity on 2024 removals and additional analyses.”

Striped bass came to the brink of extinction in the 1980s and efforts to rebuild the stock have been going for years. The most recent plan, enacted in 2019, sought to have the species in a stronger position by 2029.

A recent report from the commission showed that the possibility of the commission meeting its 2029 goals has fallen below 50 per cent, triggering the new review.

The last strong class of striped bass was in 2018, and now, almost seven years later, the fish is starting to grow into the harvestable size. Several Island fishermen worried that with no changes to fishing rules, that class could be wiped out in the coming years, whittling away at the species even more.

“They need to do something, but they haven’t done anything,” said Jaime Boyle, a Vineyard fisherman and a board member with the American Saltwater Guides Association.

Nelson Sigelman, an outdoors writer and Vineyard fisherman, wrote to the commission saying that the striped bass is at the core of the Island’s fishing culture He urged the commission to implement a no-take policy for recreational and commercial fishermen for as long as it takes to rebuild the fishery.

“The history of fisheries management is a tale of half-measures taken to appease various interest groups who all want a slice of a diminishing pie,” he wrote. “Tough action is put off every year, and the pie gets smaller.”

The commission said keeping the status quo would give it more time to consider a wider range of options for the fishery. On the recreational side, the commission will consider season and size limits across the Atlantic coast. The commission set itself a deadline of October 2025 to come up with a plan, with implementation set for 2026.