December 10, 2019 — At the close of last month, New Jersey submitted a range of striped bass conservation equivalency measures to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, or ASMFC, for review.
Just what those options were, Larry Hajna, a spokesman for the Department of Environmental Protection, didn’t disclose.
The ASMFC recommended states adopt a one-fish bag limit and a 28- to 35-inch recreational limit for ocean fisheries in order to reduce the coastwide harvest by 18 percent. This was on the ASFMC’s findings that striped bass are being overfished.
However, states are free to develop their own option as long as it achieves the required reduction.
Hajan said the ASMFC’s Striped Bass Technical Committee will review the measures and whatever options it approves will be made public and presented to N.J.’s Marine Fisheries Council.