After agreeing earlier this fall that beleaguered Atlantic striped bass may be urgently in need of additional protection, East Coast fishery managers have chosen instead to take more time to “get it right” before imposing new fishing restrictions.

Meeting in Arlington, VA, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s striped bass management board voted against ordering immediate cuts in recreational and commercial catch, despite pleas to do so from conservationists and many sports anglers.

Rather, amid disagreement over the most equitable way to impose coastwide reductions, the board opted to launch a nearly year-long process of methodically developing new rules for managing the prized finfish, to take effect in 2026.

Mike Luisi, a fishery manager with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and a member of the board, defended the delay. It gives time to address the problems besetting striped bass “holistically and comprehensively,” he said, while balancing the economic impacts of new restrictions with the need to safeguard the fish population.

Maryland’s charter fishing industry has been particularly hard-hit by cuts imposed in 2024, which reduced the number of striped bass their clients could land from two to one per trip. Their members and a watermen’s group filed suit against the Atlantic States commission, so far without success, though an appeal is pending.

Conservationists and sports anglers expressed frustration with the outcome of the meeting. Stripers Forever, a Massachusetts-based group, said the board had “voted to ‘kick the can down the road’ again.”

Striped bass are found in the Atlantic from Maine to the Carolinas, but the Chesapeake Bay, where they’re also called rockfish, is the primary spawning and nursery ground for 70% to 90% of the entire stock. The coastwide population is currently struggling to recover from years of being overfished. Reproduction in the Bay has been poor in Maryland waters for six straight years and for the past two years in Virginia, juvenile fish surveys indicate.

The board decided in October to hold a special session after being informed that, despite catch reductions already imposed to rebuild the stock, the odds of succeeding by their goal had slipped below 50%. Adding to the urgency is an expected surge in the 2025 catch when the last bumper crop of striped bass spawned in the Bay is expected to reach legally catchable size.

Of more than 4,000 public comments received before the December meeting, the vast majority wanted the board to act now. Commenters differed, though, on what should be done.

Maryland and Virginia conduct annual seine surveys of key striped bass nursery areas to count and measure the juvenile fish. The number collected per net haul is an indicator of the year's reproductive success for the popular migratory finfish. (Chesapeake Bay Foundation)

Meanwhile, with voluntary angler surveys indicating the catch this year has been lower than expected, the board’s fisheries experts modified their projections, saying more cutbacks might not be needed to stay on track, or they still might need to reduce harvest by up to 14%. The experts said their projections were clouded by uncertainties, including how anglers would respond to catch restrictions under consideration.

Arguing immediate action was nevertheless warranted, a board member from Massachusetts moved to require a 9% cut with a variety of recreational fishery closures and size limits to be imposed along the coast and in the Bay.

But support for that weakened as board members debated specifics, especially after the majority voted not to cut the commercial catch quota by the same percentage. Some had insisted on equal recreational and commercial cuts.

Robert T. Brown, president of the Maryland Watermen’s Association and a member of the board, argued that commercial harvesters already are suffering from previously ordered catch cuts, and he noted that sports anglers account for the bulk of the striped bass taken each year from the population, including those that die from catch and release.

“We need to take time to do this right,” Brown said.

Complicating the board's task, they had agreed to consider only two types of recreational restrictions: adjusting the legally catchable size or closing the fishery for weeks at a time, possibly including a ban on catch-and-release. Though Maryland has closed its season to protect spawning in early spring and banned catch-and-release briefly in summer when hot weather stresses the fish, other states lack experience with such measures.

Striped bass play an important role as a top predator in the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem, and they are popular with anglers, too.

Dave Harp

Taking the more deliberative approach would provide a clearer picture of the 2024 catch, enable the board to weigh more conservation measures and give the public more chance to be heard, board members said.

David Sikorski, Maryland director of the sports angling Coastal Conservation Association and another board member, acknowledged the challenge.

“The striped bass population abundance and fisheries vary up and down the coast, and [this] meeting highlights how difficult coastwide fisheries are to manage in times like these,” he said on social media.

But Chris Moore, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s executive director, called the delay “unfortunate” given the troubling run of weak reproduction in the Bay.

“Striped bass are experiencing a host of stressors, from degraded habitat due to climate change to invasive predators such as blue catfish,” Moore said in a statement after the meeting. “These challenges will make it even harder for striped bass to rebound like they have in the past. Lack of action is disappointing and a missed opportunity to help ensure we meet the rebuilding deadline for this iconic species.”

Under the addendum process, any proposed fishing rule changes would be put out for public comment sometime in late summer, with the board’s decision to come in the fall and enactment of any changes in 2026.