FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, FEBRUARY 5, 2008
PRESS CONTACT, TINA BERGER 202/289-6400

Striped Bass Stock Assessment Indicates Healthy Stock
Female Spawning Stock Biomass Remains High


Scientific advice presented to the Commission's Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board indicates that striped bass management under Amendment 6 to the Interstate Plan continues to be a success. The benchmark stock assessment, recently endorsed by an independent panel of fishery scientists, concluded that striped bass are not overfished and overfishing in not occurring. The assessment estimates that the resource remains at a high level with spawning stock biomass (SSB) at 55 million pounds, well above the SSB target and threshold levels of 38.6 and 30.9 million pounds, respectively. Estimates of juvenile abundance showed several years of strong recruitment, with the 2003 cohort being the strongest in the time series. The statistical catch at age (SCA) model used by the Striped Bass Technical Committee estimated the 2006 fishing mortality rate on age 8-11 fish to be F=0.31, which is below the Amendment 6 fishing mortality threshold of 0.41. Retrospective analysis of the SCA model, as well as tag-based estimates of fishing mortality presented in the assessment, indicate that the 2006 fishing mortality is also below the Amendment 6 target of 0.30.




Total striped bass harvest (commercial and recreational) in 2006 was estimated at 3.82 million fish, a 46 percent increase from 2002 (prior to the implementation of Amendment 6). Commercial harvest (1.05 million fish) was dominated by Maryland's commercial fisheries, which made up 62 percent of the total commercial landings by number in 2006. Commercial discards in 2006 were estimated at 216,753 fish. Recreational harvest (2.77 million fish) and discard losses (2.07 million fish) accounted for 79 percent of total fishery removals in 2006. Maryland recreational fisheries harvested 24 percent of total recreational landings in number, followed by Virginia (22 percent), New Jersey (18 percent), Massachusetts (12 percent), and New York (11 percent).

The Peer Review Panel endorsed the use of the SCA model for producing SSB and fishing mortality estimates that can be judged against the current biological reference points. The new model is a significant departure from the virtual population analysis that has been used to assess striped bass stock status since 1997. It is an aged-based model that projects the population numbers-at-age forward through time, rather than backwards, given model estimates of recruitment and age-specific total mortality. Additional tag-based results from the catch-equation method support the SCA model’s results that striped bass are not overfished.

Based on advice of the Technical Committee, the Board maintained the states' management programs at status quo. The Technical Committee will continue to monitor the status of the stock and refine stock assessment methodology as necessary. The next stock assessment update will be conducted in 2009.

Copies of the stock assessment will be available on the Commission website (Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission under Breaking News) by mid-February. For more information, please contact Nichola Meserve, Fisheries Management Plan Coordinator, at (202)289-6400 or .


###

PR08-03


*************************
Tina Berger
Public Affairs Specialist
Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission
1444 I Street. NW, Sixth Floor
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: (202)289-6400
FAX: (202)289-6051
Email: tberger@asmfc.org
Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission

ASMFC Vision: Healthy, self-sustaining populations of all Atlantic coast fish species or successful restoration well in progress by the year 2015.

This is good news, thanks for the information.

I take it that this is only for Coastal fish and not including data from the Bay?

Recreational harvest (2.77 million fish) and discard losses (2.07 million fish) accounted for 79 percent of total fishery removals in 2006.

Ken,
Is there anything we can read into the statistically signifficant "discard losses" figure? What is means (if any) to reduce that number? Thanks for all the info.
Sharp hooks and tight lines.
Dave

This should include bay and ocean fish. They bay is where they get their juvenile abundance figures from.

What the catch and release mortality means is that if you don't want to kill any, we should not go fishing. I think that it is Mass. and maybe NY too who's release mortality is estimated at higher than our catch.

All of these are estimates. They estimate how many we catch, how many we let go, and how many of those die. None of these are hard numbers. They pick a mortality number based on an average of a number of studies done where striped bass are caught, transported to holding tanks (mostly fresh water) and observed to see if they die. Based on these studies, they use an 8% figure.

None of these studies duplicate what is happening here in cold, salty water. We can all decide what to do to help decrease release mortality. You can choose to quit fishing after you have caught your limit. You can handle the fish as little as possible, keep them in the water as much as possible and release them as soon as possible. Bringing them in the boat, hanging them on a scale, measuring them, and then posing for the "hero" photo probably is not the best way to handle them. I expect that we are going to find that these winter-time fish are actually pretty hardy.

Probably helps to hold them into the current and let water pass over their gills before releasing them. Just dropping them in the water is probably not a good idea. Thanks for the info Ken. Keep it coming.

Pete

I`m curious !!! By what scale did the estimate of 2.77 million fish
caught by rec. fisherman in 2006... Looks like this is a case of
"Cooking the Books" to me to get the comm. boys a bigger slice
of the quota!!! that would be that 1.385 million fisherman caught
a limit of 2 fish each. These figures add up, but the probabilty
of this happening I find hard to believe!!! Mybe the figures should
not be estimated and actually studied by other means. The weather
factor and season restrictions really make these estimates, IMHO. way
off base!!!!!!!!!

Capt.Skid

I would say that these numbers are why commercial fisherman now get tags for lbs instead of numbers of fish. Helps cut down on smaller dead fish being thrown back to save the tags for bigger fish. Glad they went to lbs instead of staying with numbers.

How do you propose measuring the recreational harvest?
If you have a really good idea, I'm sure VMRC would be happy to hear it. Maybe you could churn a thesis out of it.
Remember, it has to be cost-effective, and it needs to have a sufficiently random frame to conduct statistical analysis.

The current estimates, as I understand them, are mostly based on intercept surveys.

I'm not a scientist or a statistician, but I don't think we should "kill the messenger", as it were.

certainly the mortality rate of these fish tagged bt Mr. Neill and crew here recently can easily be determined... all were caught tagged and released...lets keep an eye open for those floating tags as they begin to come up...