Article by Larry Jock
West Ocean City Ramp to Close for 4 Months
According to John Tuston, Director of Public Works for Worcester County, the Public Boat Ramp in West Ocean City is projected to be closed for renovations from February 2011 through May 2011.
With a $600,000 grant from the federal government and $200,000 from Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources, bids are being solicited to remove and replace the concrete ramps, replace the finger piers with floating piers and replace the bulkhead surrounding the ramp. The floating piers will eliminate the problem of submerged piers during extreme high tides.
According to Tuston, monies became available in November 2010. The department considered delaying the project until the fall of 2011, but was concerned with the affect the ramp closure would have on striper fishermen.
DE and MD Anglers Exempt from Registry Fees
Delaware and Maryland anglers are exempt from a new federal saltwater fishing registration fee that will take effect on Jan. 1, 2011, since the states established their own free saltwater angler registries.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently announced that the fee for anglers registering with the National Saltwater Angler Registry will be $15 for non-exempt anglers, spear fishers and for-hire fishing vessels, as authorized by a 2006 federal law enacted to aid NOAA in assessing the health of fish and the economic contributions of anglers.
Delaware and Maryland are part of a group of 22 states out of 24 coastal states that opted to create its own registry to satisfy the federal requirements and earn exempt status.
2010 Striped Bass Survey Shows Below Average Reproduction
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced that the 2010 Young of the Year Striped Bass Survey is 5.6, below the long-term average of 11.6. While this is the third consecutive year of below average striped bass production in Maryland’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay, the population remains above the management action trigger set by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC). Likewise, the number of adults in the Atlantic coast population and levels of fishing are well within healthy limits as set by the ASMFC management framework.
DNR biologists point out that variation in annual spawning success is normal because striped bass reproduction is influenced by many factors including water temperature, winter snowfall, spring flow rates, and prevailing weather conditions.
”We are carefully monitoring the juvenile striped bass situation,” said Thomas O’Connell, Director of DNR’s Fisheries Service. “As stewards of the primary nursery area for Atlantic striped bass, it is our responsibility to protect this essential habitat and work with our state and federal partners along the Atlantic coast to ensure that spawning striped bass are adequately protected, and ASMFC management benchmarks continue to be achieved.”
DNR biologists have used the same techniques to monitor the reproductive success of striped bass and other species in Maryland’s portion of Chesapeake Bay annually since 1954. Twenty-two survey sites are located in the four major spawning systems: Choptank, Potomac, and Nanticoke rivers, and the Upper Bay. Biologists visit each site monthly from July through September, collecting fish samples with two sweeps of a 100-foot beach seine.
During this year’s survey, biologists identified more than 37,000 fish of 50 different species, including 737 young-of-year striped bass. Other findings of note were an increase in the number of juvenile spot. This important forage species and popular target for recreational anglers is at the highest level since 2005.
NOAA Announces Action Agenda for Recreational Saltwater Fisheries
NOAA has released the Recreational Saltwater Fisheries Action Agenda, a national plan to address the complex issues facing marine recreational fisheries. The plan will improve science and stewardship and build a stronger partnership with the recreational community. It is a direct outcome of input received from recreational fishermen during the April 2010 Recreational Saltwater Fishing Summit organized by NOAA.
The Action Agenda includes a set of broad national goals, while focusing immediate attention on five priority issues:
•ensuring balanced recreational representation in the management process.
•more fully integrating recreational fishing values into the NOAA mission and culture.
•improving data on recreational fishing and fisheries.
•addressing recreational interests in NOAA’s catch share policy.
•supporting cooperative research and monitoring.
“The Action Agenda is the roadmap for us to fulfill our commitments made during NOAA’s Recreational Fishing Summit,” said Eric Schwaab, NOAA assistant administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service. “We know it is the strength of our actions that matter in the end, and we are committed to moving forward aggressively.”
Schwaab also announced that NOAA will provide a $276,000 grant to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to help give recreational fishermen conservation information. A portion of the national grant will support a collaborative workshop in spring 2011 to examine how best to reduce barotrauma – the injury to deepwater fish when pulled to the surface rapidly – in recreational fisheries, in order to improve survival of fish caught and then released.
ASMFC Rejects Commercial Striped Bass Quota Increase
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASFMC) rejected a proposed increase in commercial striped bass quota. According to FishingUnited.com, the final vote of 10-4-1 in favor of status quo was supported by Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Sources indicated that states supporting measures to increase the commercial harvest of striped bass included North Carolina, Delaware, Rhode Island and New York.
"We're pleased that there's no commercial increase, but as we've said all along there was no need for any increase in either the commercial or recreational sector, not when there are so many questions with regard to the illegal and unreported harvest we know to be taking place in federal waters," said Jim Donofrio Executive Director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA). Donofrio cited evidence from federal enforcement authorities over the past two seasons of a number of striped bass harvest violations in federal waters off North Carolina in January and February when big breeding size fish are staging several miles off Carolina's Outer Banks. Donofrio notes that it's illegal for any striped bass to be harvested outside of 3 miles from shore, whether commercial or recreational.
