Guest Opinion: Make Striped Bass A Gamefish

Part V of a Multi-Part Series:

Part I: Are Striper Regulations Really Working?
Part II: Threats to the Striper Population
Part III: Ask an Expert: How are Stripers Managed?
Part IV: Ask an Expert: What is Gamefish Status?
Part V: Guest Opinion: Make Striped Bass a Gamefish

by Mike Spinney

In the late 1970s and early ‘80s, red drum populations all along the U.S. Gulf Coast teetered on the brink of disaster. Instigated by Chef Paul Prudhomme’s blackened redfish, which put a previously undesirable fish on menus across the country, red drum were pummeled by a one-two punch of poor conservation awareness and relentless commercial fishing pressure (including a great deal of poaching). As a result, the popular sport fish was disappearing from Corpus Christi to Cape Coral.

Concerned anglers in Texas banded together and worked with state lawmakers to craft and enact legislation designed to protect their beloved redfish from further exploitation. Those efforts succeeded in 1981 when the Redfish Bill was passed in the Lone Star State, outlawing commercial fishing and putting in place a number of recreational restrictions that gave redfish the chance to replenish their numbers. From that early legislative victory and the dramatic recovery of red drum along the Texas coast, similar laws were passed Gulf-wide.

More than three decades later, no one questions the success of granting gamefish protection to redfish. A thriving sportfishing industry now exists where once the fish’s future was in doubt. Studies show that hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs are generated each year by redfish anglers who travel to the Gulf Coast by the thousands to cast bait, lures, and flies in hopes of hooking the venerated fighters. And the lessons learned from the conservation and economic successes resulting from the protection of redfish have been applied to other species in the Gulf as well.

More recently, Florida has taken the lead in using the gamefish designation as a management tool for ensuring that popular saltwater species are utilized for the maximum public benefit. Snook, bonefish and tarpon have been protected under the game fish umbrella, the latter two of which were even afforded “catch-and-release only” status in June of this year. Along with redfish, all four species are the focus of a vital sport fishing industry that generates hundreds of millions of tourism dollars for Florida, fueling an economic engine that employs tens of thousands of Floridians.

Given the fisheries conservation success enjoyed by the Gulf States, the question must be put to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) and, more specifically, state fisheries managers from North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts: why not replicate what has been achieved in the Gulf States by protecting striped bass along the entirety of its Atlantic coastal range and enjoy the fruits of a robust recreational fishery here as well?

You see, in spite of the ongoing debate about the health or future of wild striped bass along the Atlantic Seaboard, the primary argument against managing striped bass as a gamefish relies on the issue of fairness. Proponents of a commercial striped bass harvest say it’s not fair to deny commercial fishermen the ability to earn a living from the taking of striped bass and therefore, by extension, deny the public access to striped bass for their plates.

But if the issue truly is one of fairness, why do we continue to manage striped bass as a primarily commercial resource when the vast majority of people who enjoy a benefit from striped bass are recreational anglers—and those who are employed because of money spent by recreational anglers?

The North Carolina legislature recently rebuffed House Bill 983 that would have designated estuarine striped bass (as well as red drum and spotted sea trout) as a gamefish in that state. The fairness argument was used to great effect in order to depict the issue as one of the plight of hardworking commercial fishermen versus greedy, wealthy, elitist anglers. But a study by the Gentner Consulting Group comparing the economics of commercial and recreational fishing for these species found overwhelmingly in favor of the recreational fishery. According to the Genter study, recreational fishing supports more than 1,200 jobs and $131 million in economic activity, while the commercial fishery for accounted for only 67 jobs and $3.2 million.

A similar coast-wide study in 2005 by Southwick Associates (a study commissioned by Stripers Forever) found that, at $6.6 billion, the total economic impact of recreational striped bass fishing was more than 26 times greater than for commercial fishing. What’s more, the study projected that the economics would increase by $2 billion if striped bass were afforded game fish protection—far more than making up for commercial striped bass fishing’s $250 million.

The experience of red drum in the Gulf States; snook, tarpon, and bonefish in Florida; the Gentner and Southwick studies on the economics of striped bass fishing; and every other case where wild fish and game have been protected from commercial exploitation, the outcome is crystal clear: whether it’s economics, conservation, or simply making a resource available to the most people for maximum enjoyment, gamefish is the way to go.

The problem is, even given the overwhelming numbers in favor of recreational economics and participation, because there is a nominal commercial fishery for striped bass remaining in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, commercial interests dictate policy set forth through the ASMFC. Even when forward-thinking conservation measures are enacted in one state, the overall effect is minimized as fish that survive their migration through the protected waters off Cape May, may well be plucked permanently from the waters off Cape Cod.

As with the commercial and recreational moratorium that was instituted in the ‘80s, protecting striped bass through gamefish designation would not only ensure consistent conservation throughout the fish’s entire migratory range, but would also accommodate rapid response to crises such as the recent spawning failure in Chesapeake Bay. Ending the commercial fishery for striped bass would also deal a crippling blow to poachers who supply the black market with illegal stripers.

If the goal is to “promote and protect” striped bass for the maximum public benefit, the lessons of history and logic are clear: designating stripers as a gamefish is the only fair solution. The numbers are overwhelmingly in favor of giving the millions of recreational anglers—and the billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs they support—this one species as its own.