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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 34 Number 2
October 2006
NMFS rejects bid to reopen federal waters to striped bass fishing
SILVER SPRING, MD – In a decision many commercial fishermen will find disappointing if not galling, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Director Bill Hogarth has said “no” to a proposal to reopen federal waters to striped bass fishing.
NMFS closed the area known as the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) from three to 200 miles offshore in 1990 to both recreational and commercial striped bass fishing in support of a rebuilding plan adopted by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC).
But by 1995, striped bass populations were declared fully rebuilt and commercial fishermen, particularly from Massachusetts, began lobbying the feds to reopen the EEZ.
They argued that since hard quotas strictly controlled their fishery, it didn’t matter where they fished and that reopening the area would allow fishermen to convert striper bycatch in other fisheries from discards into landings that could be counted against the quota.
In April 2003, ASMFC formally asked NMFS to consider a reopening of federal waters. After conducting nine public hearings in November and December of that year, the issue went quiet.
Then in April of this year, following another stock assessment confirming the healthy status of the resource, NMFS restarted the scoping process and asked for additional public comment on reopening the EEZ to striped bass fishing.
And opposition from sport fishing groups overwhelmed commercial fishermen’s support for the proposal.
Sport pressure
In an announcement of its decision to maintain the federal waters closure, NMFS pointed out that even though the annual cap on catches would have remained the same regardless of whether the fish were caught in nearshore or offshore waters, “the majority of those who commented believed that reopening offshore fisheries would result in higher catches.”
Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries Director Paul Diodati, who has long supported the EEZ reopening, had this to say about the NMFS decision.
“Although I don’t agree with Dr. Hogarth’s conclusion that it would be imprudent to open the EEZ at this time, I understand the tremendous difficulty placed on him in making this decision,” Diodati said. “Nevertheless, I will continue to advocate for Massachusetts striped bass fishermen to have lawful access to their traditional fishing grounds.”
Writing in the Garden State Seafood Association’s (GSSA) Fishing Industry Update, GSSA Communications Director Nils Stolpe commented on the apparent political nature of the decision.
“It is truly unfortunate that NMFS, the federal agency that is charged with managing our fisheries beyond states’ waters, can come to important decisions like this in such an admittedly ‘unscientific’ fashion,” he said.
Lorelei Stevens
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