Like salmon, striped bass are travelers – making their way into Virginia waterways each spring to spawn. Eggs hatch, and a few years later – as young adults – fish head back to the open ocean. Come summer, they migrate north to New England, where the water is cooler. Lately, fishermen have complained that they aren’t catching as many striped bass, and scientists like Chris Moore have been looking into that issue.
“Virginia and Maryland both have what they call a Young of the Year survey," he explains. "What they basically do is pull nets along the shoreline in locations where they’ve been pulling these same nets for years. They measure those fish, count them, and that’s one of our first indicators as to what is the population going to look like in future years.”
Moore is a senior scientist with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. He cites a number of possible reasons for a sharp decline in the population of striped bass: disease, poor water quality and overfishing. He calls for new limits on which fish can be caught and when.
“We have, over the last couple of years reduced the catch of striped bass, changed the size limits to protect those larger spawning fish. We also got rid of our trophy season when people would go out and catch very large fish in the spring.”
Moore also cites a possible lack of food for striped bass – like the tiny, oil-rich fish called menhaden. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is now considering other ways to save striped bass during the 2024 season and is requesting public comments on its proposals.
Directions on how to share your views are here: https://asmfc.org/uploads/file/653159e0PR28_AtlStripedBassDraftAddenumII_PublicComment.pdf
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
