Striped bass have become a focus of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) Natural Resource department as it continues to study the decline of the herring population.
Island fishermen harvested around 2,500 fewer bushels this year, though local scallopers and fishmongers say it wasn’t all bad news for the fishery, as a lower harvest on- and off-Island prevented the precipitous drop in scallop prices that occurred last year.
Vineyard Wind parent company Avangrid announced the opening of applications for its fisheries compensation fund, a pot of money available to fishermen who have operated in waters where 62 offshore wind turbines are currently being constructed.
Federal regulators took steps to bring the striped bass population back from the brink last month when the Atlantic State Marine Fisheries Commission voted to approve restrictions on the size of fish recreational fishermen are allowed to keep.
As the harvesting season for bay scallops gets underway, Island fishermen and shellfish wholesalers are readying themselves for their annual gamble in a fishery with a reputation for uncertainty.
On Sunday at 12:01 a.m., anglers will head to moonlit beaches and offshore Island waters — as they have every September since 1946 — when the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby gets underway.
The commercial striped bass fishing season has ended early in Massachusetts, after the state Division of Marine Fisheries projected the annual quota for the fish was reached last week.
