On Wednesday, 8/7/25, the ASMFC’s Striped Bass Board discussed Draft Addendum III to Amendment VII regarding striped bass. After over five hours of deliberation, a few changes to the document were made and the final addendum will be released for public comment in late August. The dates for public comment have not yet been established, but once the document is released public comments will probably be accepted until early October. The Board will meet again in October to decide which options in the addendum will become mandated.
The Board intends to restore our striper stocks by 2029. In order to do that, further restrictions will be required. At their meeting, the board voted in favor of including a 12% reduction in mortality in the addendum which would give the stocks a 50% chance of being rebuilt by 2029. They voted to remove the option for an 18% reduction that would have given them a 60% chance. By an 8-6 vote, the option for a 0% reduction for the commercial sector was also removed from the addendum. Surprisingly though, NJ voted against the motion to remove that option, despite the fact that we do not allow commercial fishing for stripers in our state. Our bonus bass program’s quota is derived from our old commercial quota but we only harvest a small fraction. Therefore, our state seemingly is in favor of putting all the burden of rebuilding our stocks on the recreational fishermen.
Since we already have a very narrow slot of 28-31” for stripers in the ocean, about the only thing that can be done to reduce mortality is to establish seasons. The big questions that will be answered in October is when the closures will be and whether they will include no targeting. We are probably looking at a closure of at least a month if no targeting is included. If the C&R is allowed to continue the closure will be significantly longer than a month. C&R mortality accounts for 40-50% of the total removals each year, so it seems that the C&R guys should not get a free pass. All striper fishermen should have to chip in to rebuild our stocks. However, where possible, any no targeting closures should occur when there are other species to fish for. We certainly don’t want to hurt the local tackle stores that depend on striper fishermen when there is little else to fish for.
There are a number of other options that will be considered as well including regulations for Chesapeake Bay, special regulations for the for-hire fleet, a standard way to measure striped bass and tagging at the point of harvest for commercial fishermen.
