Welcome to our weekly column in which a topic of interest, piece of news, relevant opinion, or general request for feedback is presented. We’ll offer the topic du jour and accompanying question, and you have the opportunity to respond with your thoughts.
Simply fill out the form below. A collection of each week’s responses will appear in the following week’s column. To read last week’s responses on "Civilian Police Accountability Boards", click here.
Publisher reserves the right to edit responses for clarity and publish online and/or in our print publications.
Please let us know your thoughts!
This week’s Feedback Friday topic is:
Ethics & Controversy of Maryland’s Striped Bass Trophy Season
Diehard anglers already know it—Maryland’s striped bass season resumes/opens this Sunday, May 1st. And the season’s size and creel limits aren’t without controversy. After the monthlong April moratorium of any striper fishing—even catch and release is prohibited—the season re-opens with anglers allowed to fish for trophy size fish in the main stem of the Chesapeake Bay, keeping one fish per angler/per day, for the first two weeks of May. Minimum size of each fish caught and kept must be 35 inches.
This happens to be the size of a spawning striped bass—about a 10-year-old fish with plenty of years left to continue reproduction. And by the time you read this, much of the migratory striped bass population that ascends the Chesapeake Bay to spawn each spring will have done so and have begun their return journey to sea, northward along the Atlantic coast.
So, what’s wrong with the two-week trophy season? In a word…everything. This fishery is re-experiencing the most dramatic declines in year-over-year reproduction and population since the early 1980s. In early May, when stripers make their return trip to sea, there will be thousands of anglers attempting to intercept and keep these trophy breeders. To keep a trophy breeder is extremely detrimental to the overall fishery. Striped bass need our help.
Thankfully, ethical anglers have caught on and will do the right thing by releasing the trophy breeders as safely as possible for the greater good of the striper fishery. And for that we thank them. There are even striped bass tournaments that have taken cue and follow strict catch/photograph/release rules. The Annual Boatyard Bar & Grill Opening Day “Catch & Release” Rockfish Tournament is leading the way. This is proper and must continue to gain acceptance within the angling community—especially striped bass anglers—if we want to truly save the bay’s species.
Having a trophy catch and keep season is not helping. It’s hurting. Shutting down April to allow the striped bass spawn to occur uninterrupted, only to reopen the season for anglers to keep these trophy breeders makes no sense. In my opinion, either shut down April and May altogether or make both months open to catch and release fishing only. A third option could be to impose a slot for keeper striped bass during the entirety of the season—19 to 27 inches; anything under and over gets released.
I’m certain there are many other options. I’m not a fisheries biologist, but I don’t have to be to tell you that Maryland’s current regulations are not benefitting the Atlantic striped bass fishery.
What do you think about Maryland’s Striped Bass Trophy Season?
Please share your thoughts by filling out this form. Today’s responses—and all future Feedback Friday responses—will be published in our Monday newsletters after the weekend. AND, several responses from recent topics will appear in our upcoming print magazines!
