February 19, 2019 — Striped bass, a summertime favorite with fishermen and diners, has joined the ranks of New England’s overfished species.
A summary from the Feb. 6 meeting of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board stated that a computer population model revealed the species was overfished in 2017 and that fishermen were still catching too many fish to sustain the population.
The report is part of a scheduled deeper, peer-reviewed analysis by the commission and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries. Known as a benchmark assessment, it incorporates new information and gives fishery managers a more accurate picture of the status of a fish stock than an annual assessment. It’s a reality check, and while it isn’t official, the result of the striped bass assessment will likely be the same as the draft version when the final report is issued at their next meeting April 30, said Michael Armstrong, chairman of the striped bass board and an assistant director at the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries.
Declaring the species overfished does not mean a return to the 1980s, Armstrong said, when a coastwide moratorium was instituted after striped bass stocks collapsed due to overfishing and degraded environmental conditions, particularly in spawning areas.
“The sky is not falling,” he said. “Stocks don’t fall overnight.”
Even though recent species barometers have indicated a downturn in population, the stock remains at levels far above what they were nearly 40 years ago.
Read the full story from the Cape Cod Times at the New Bedford Standard-Times