Let?s say you are boat fishing, happily chumming away, and everyone on board has their legal limit of two stripers ? 18 to 28 inches, or one that length and one that is more than 28 inches. Everyone keeps on fishing ? legally ? carefully releasing fish as they are caught.
Suddenly, you catch a striper jauntily sporting a bright green tag with a toll-free number (866-845-3379). It says, “Reward for return of whole fish” that is followed by a tag number starting with an “M” or a “V.” What do you do? You keep the fish, that?s what. Keep the tag in the striper, and call the number. Natural Resources Police won?t bother you, according to Sgt. Ken Turner.
Ordinarily, a DNR officer would cite you big for exceeding the limit. In this case, he will smile, compliment you, maybe even pat you on the back. That?s because the toll-free number gets you to biologists who are collecting stripers. There is a regulatory exemption for these tagged fish, regardless of size or numbers. Heck, you can keep all stripers with bright green tags. There?s a $20 reward for keeping fish on ice (don?t freeze) and a $5 reward if you lost the tag or mistakenly cut it and released the fish.
The stripers are part of a long-term survey on mycobacteriosis, a fish disease that can be transmitted to humans. It is found in 150 species worldwide, but here it is mostly seen in stripers.It has been around historically, according to DNR fish-health biologist Mark Matsche. Since the 1990s, it has reached epidemic proportions in the Chesapeake Bay, where up to 60 percent of stripers are infected.
Not much is known about mycobacteriosis. Does it kill fish? Can they recover? Should you eat stripers? Will Bay striper populations crash? Is it dangerous to people? Is it getting worse? Or better?
“The list of what we don?t know is longer than the list of what we do know,” said Matsche about the disease that causes lesions in older fish.
The current and most popular theory, according Charles Poukish of the Maryland Department of the Environment, is multiple causes, including low water quality, low oxygen in the water, insufficient forage for stripers, high water-surface temperatures, Bay dead zones and pollution.
The Virginia Institute of Marine Science started its survey in the fall of 2005 and has tagged more than 6,000 stripers, with its study to continue through 2008. The just-started Maryland survey will continue through 2009, using 2,000 tags.
“I would love it if we have to buy more tags,” said Matsche enthusiastically, on plans to get tags into as many stripers as possible. He expects about 10 percent returns of tag information.
Studies, necropsies (fish autopsies) and cultures from the tagged, recaptured fish will reveal more about mycobacteriosis. The DNR, along with VIMS, should learn how it affects the Bay, what it is doing and will do to stripers, and how it will affect Bay striper fishing.
C. Boyd Pfeiffer is an internationally known sportsman and award-winning writer on fishing, hunting, and the outdoors. He can be reached at [email protected].
