A Monday public meeting on the 2007 spring trophy striper season brought out conservationists, recreational fishermen, charter boat captains, biologists and Department of Natural Resources administrators. The meeting was held at the Annapolis Tawes State Office Building, headquarters for the Maryland DNR.
It was perhaps good that more anglers were not present ? the conference room was crowded. And opinions were bouncing around the meeting like Ping-Pong balls tossed into a tile bathroom.
The strong opinions belied the simple purpose of the meeting, announced as “Past performance of Maryland?s spring striped bass seasons and a discussion of the spring 2007 striped bass season.”
After being opened by DNR biologist Marty Gary, fisheries chief Howard King noted this was not a time for debate or discussion of “planing boards, numbers of lines or sizes of fish.” These have been among the considerations for knocking back the numbers of fish available to Maryland anglers in spring 2007.
The “paybacks” would be because Maryland caught too many big (read: trophy) stripers the past two seasons. The numbers of allowable fish are controlled by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. Allotmentsin 2005 and 2006 were 35,944 and 41,000 fish, but we caught 65,664 and 66,000, respectively.
The meeting was a public opinion precursor for the January ASMFC meeting to approve or reject King?s pitch for Maryland?s spring striper season. The conference took a sharp turn early on when King said he?d like to suggest that ASMFC reject the Maryland quota system. No other state has a quota system.
This would not result in open, free-for-all Maryland catches, since regulations would apply to control catches and prevent overfishing.
Regulations “would be similar to the past year,” King said.
An engaging and spirited presentation by DNR statistician Linda Barker traced the history of the spring striper season, quota calculations, harvest calculations, factors affecting harvest and projection calculations.
Emphatically noted by the charter boat captains were the log books kept to provide data to the DNR and the fact that no other state requires this of their fleets.
Of high distaste among most are the facts that we are being penalized for over-catches of 30,000 (2005) and 25,000 (2006) stripers, while catches in nearby Virginia reached 360,000 in November/December (2004), primarily around the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.
By the meeting?s end, the three advisory boards assembled with their commissioners ? Sport Fish Advisory Commission, Tidal Fisheries Advisory Commission and the Ad Hoc Striped Bass Committee ? and voted unanimously to approve King?s idea of hitting ASMFC with the “no quota” idea come January.
Yep, planing boards, size limits, numbers of lines and such are still to be decided upon. Onward and upward, but stay tuned. It should be an interesting winter … and spring.
C. Boyd Pfeiffer is an internationally known sportsman and award-winning writer on fishing, hunting, and the outdoors, and is currently working on his 25th book. He can be reached at [email protected].
