OUTDOORS COMMENTARY
By CAPT. CHRIS D. DOLLAR | cdollarchesapeake@gmail.com
February 25, 2024
Last month, I was sitting in the back of a nondescript hotel ballroom in Arlington, Virginia, waiting for the main event to begin.
The artificial light made my head thump as I thumbed through a 16-page brochure with a beautiful illustration of two stripers inhaling menhaden over a grass flat on the front cover. Entitled “Atlantic Coastal Striped Bass: Road to Recovery,” it was printed in 1989.
It was part of a large folder given to me several years ago by Bill Goldsborough, who spent five decades as Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s main fisheries scientist. He tracked everything—from crabs and oysters to menhaden and rockfish at state, regional and federal levels. Reading through the papers, letters, news clipping and white papers is like a trip through some piscatorial themed “Twilight Zone.” Weirdly, much remains the same over the past four decade
The main event on this particular winter’s day was, of course, the 2024 winter meeting of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s striped bass board. After hours of back-and-forth, they approved an addendum to the striper’s Interstate Fishery Management Plan. The goal being, as it was 35 years ago, to rebuild the population of this marquee fish. Coastal states are required to develop their plans by March and implement them by May 1. Earlier this month, the “emergency regulations” put forth by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources were approved by the state’s legislative committee that oversees that process.
The Chesapeake Bay recreational regulations, which also includes for-hire charter boats and guides, are set at one fish per day with a 19- to 24-inch slot limit. The ocean recreational fishery is a 28- to 31-inch slot limit, also with one rockfish per day per angler. Regulators cut the overall commercial fishery (Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay) by 7%. The state is also considering extending the summer closure through Aug. 7, and closing the commercial hook-and-line season during the same time.
As rockfish numbers have dwindled, especially of large fish, more and more anglers and professional guides have embraced catch-and-release fishing during colder months.
But that's not all that has changed since 1989. Technology has made the learning curve for new anglers almost non-existent. We’re past the speculation phase that climate change is warming bay and coastal waters, and likely negatively influencing suitable habitat as well as impacting migration patterns and spawning outcomes for striped bass. To what extent is still in question, however.
There’s also the thorny question of whether there’s enough menhaden available in the Chesapeake Bay for stripers and other marine animals to eat. Frustratingly, that research will have to wait for at least several more years because Virginia legislators—likely encouraged by lobbyists of the industrial purse seine fishery—decided to punt on funding a multi-year, much-needed study that would help answer the longstanding question of what effect localized depleting of this key forage fish is having on the bay’s ecosystem.
By banning rockfishing from April 1 to May 15 in Maryland’s portion of the Chesapeake, the Maryland DNR has rightly shuttered the “spring trophy season.” A bit too little too late from where I sit, but I’ll take it. Yet, with this same action they’ve unnecessarily hamstrung a growing and important segment of the fishing public that has embraced a “Let ’Em Go” to “Let ’Em Grow!” ethos.
Maryland DNR’s reluctance to fully promote this style of fishing is puzzling. Captain Travis Long, who operates “Schooled Up Fishing Charters,” is a prime example of the relatively new guard of bay guides who have fully embraced catch-and-release striper fishing during colder months. More importantly, so have their customers. Long says the April closure “not only (restricts) public access to this resource but is also devastating local businesses.” He adds that Maryland could become a premier destination for catch-and-release striper fishing.
Add to all of this that last weekend, a forum was held on Maryland’s Eastern Shore at which dozens of watermen, state legislators and tourism officials voiced their strong opposition to Maryland’s new rockfish rules. There is way too much to unpack on the potential implications of this meeting, so I’ll defer comment to another column.
What I’d like to know is where Gov. Wes Moore comes down on all this? If you know, please fill me in because I haven’t a clue. I do know where his DNR staff fishery biologists weigh in: Yes, they’re adhering to the ASMFC mandate at least in spirit, but they also voted against it last month. And they continue to push for separation for the for-hire sector, which in my mind is a mistake. You cannot unring that bell.
I fondly—naïvely is probably more accurate—recall my sweet spot of rockfishing during the 2000s. But that’s in the rearview mirror. Today, I gladly return to the water nearly all rockfish I catch in exchange for more fish to catch. I’ve also argued for many years that we must accept a new 21st century fisheries paradigm, not just for stripers but numerous marine species.
Here’s the sad part: The rebound of rockfish was once heralded as a shining example of human’s ability to bring a species back from the brink, and rightly so. Now, that legacy is tarnished. Whether we can restore this storied gamefish to its rightful place as America’s gamefish is today very much still in question.