In an effort to protect one of the last large classes of fish now reaching breeding age, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission dropped the recreational maximum keeper size limit for a striped bass from 35 inches to 31.
The quiet demise of the tuna industry was in evidence last week when the 278-metric ton seasonal quota was reached early. Market prices were reported to have plummeted to a record-breaking low.
Commercial striped bass season opened on Sunday with mixed reviews from fishermen. Fishmongers, however, are happy to have the desirable fish in stock again for the Island’s many interested customers.
Striped bass is a highly regulated fishery, especially on the commercial side. Last year the season come to a quick end on August 9 when fishermen reached their allowable catch about a month after the season opened.
The National Marine Fisheries Service and the New England Fishery
Management Council (NEFMC) have come under harsh attack from a number of
different environmental organizations for not having done enough to
protect fish stocks.
The Atlantic codfish, once the most important fish in the waters of southeastern New England, is on the verge of collapse. Conservation measures that have restricted fishermen throughout the Northeast over the last three decades may have only delayed an inevitable long-term death march for the cod, scientists and fisheries managers say.
While fishermen continue to harvest cod, scientists report that cod stocks are so depleted on Georges Bank there may not be enough fish left to bring about recovery, unless drastic measures are taken to protect the female population.
The Vineyard bay scallop season is underway and the news is mostly good for local consumers and commercial fishermen alike. Chilmark is having one of its best seasons in years; Edgartown is having one of its worst. Oak Bluffs and Tisbury are doing fine and on Monday another banner year is set to open in Aquinnah.
A research paper published in last Friday’s journal Science concludes that while fish stocks remain threatened by overfishing, collaboration among scientists and fisheries managers can reverse the trend.
Boris Worm, a marine ecologist with Dalhousie University in Halifax and other scientists published a report in 2006 citing evidence that if current trends continued, all commercially harvestable fish would be gone by 2048.
The Friday report in Science takes an entirely different view.
A renewed effort to restrict striped bass to game fish status in Massachusetts is dividing recreational and commercial fishermen.
Legislation was filed on Beacon Hill last month that would ban the commercial sale of wild striped bass in the commonwealth and also place stricter limits on the recreational fishery.
The commercial striped bass season ended last Monday and Alec Gale of West Tisbury said it was the worst season he has seen in the six years he has been hauling fish to the mainland for the local anglers. “It was a slow season, and it wasn’t because of overfishing,” Mr. Gale said. “I think it was a lack of bait and the warm water temperature.”
