April 18, 2015 — Recreational striped bass fishing will be limited to "one fish at 28 inches" per day in 2015, while recreational cod fishing banned in Gulf of Maine Management Area.
MarineFisheries announced it has adopted a one-fish recreational bag limit for striped bass in 2015. While it has reduced the limit from two fish, MarineFisheries is retaining the recreational minimum size limit at 28 inches. This bag limit reduction to one fish per day was undertaken to reduce recreational harvest in Massachusetts by at least 25 percent, as required by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s interstate management plan. Massachusetts’ commercial quota has also been reduced by 25 percent. The new one-fish limit applies to private anglers and those aboard for-hire vessels.
The change has the best chance of achieving the 25 percent harvest reduction, is easiest to understand, encourages compliance, and simplifies enforcement, stated MarineFisheries. The universal rule also removes any negative perceptions about benefits from a “dual-standard” allowed to for-hire patrons. Anglers in Massachusetts will operate under the same rules as those in our neighboring states in 2015, as New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut have also adopted “one-fish at 28 inches” minimum rules for recreationally caught striped bass.
Marine Fisheries also has taken emergency action to immediately reduce the commercial and recreational harvest of Gulf of Maine, therefore, until further notice, recreational fishermen (both private and aboard for-hire vessels) may not retain or land any cod taken from the Gulf of Maine (GOM) Management Area, which includes all state-waters within Cape Cod Bay and Massachusetts Bay north to the Massachusetts/New Hampshire border.
Read the full story from the New Bedford Standard-Times