There baaaaaack! Huge schools of bunker have once again flooded into Peconic Bay in astounding numbers. Now, as big, nasty blues and ravenous stripers head deep into the bay, they are likely to seal thousands upon thousands of the big, silvery baitfish up inside Peconic River. That scenario in the past has played a part in huge fish kills immediately behind downtown Riverhead.
In an effort to prevent or at least lessen the chances of a huge die off, Riverhead Town has contracted with local commercial anglers to remove as many of the bunker as possible. So far, over 350,000 pounds have been netted. That’s just a drop in the bucket when you consider the DEC estimates there are between 5- and 20-million bunker currently swimming in the Peconic estuary. As incentive to the bunker haulers, who usually get about 10 cents a pound for their catch, the DEC and Riverhead Town are each chipping in an additional 2 cents a pound to bring the total up to 14 cents per pound. The town hopes to have 25,000 pounds of bunker removed daily.
Some anglers have complained that striper fishing has faded since the netting program began. That may be due to the removal procedure, a mahogany tide that has begun to develop in the area, the bass departing the river waters as temperatures warm, or any combination of these factors.
In addition to a press release issued on May 20, the DEC provided the following statement to On The Water Magazine when asked about the potential by-catch of striped bass:
“The catch has been almost 100 percent bunker. The operators are all commercially licensed to take food fish, therefore any legal fish in-season can be legally taken. However, as these operators are set up for bunker, non-target species have been released on the rare occasion they are caught.”
What do you think? Will thinning the herds help or should Riverhead and the DEC let nature run its course?
Why not just clear the dead from the shore instead of netting live ones? Live ones aren’t the problem. They did it in Braintree a few years back and worked well.
What would we do with rotten fish?
crabbers can use as bait. or catfish bait. im a commercial crabber/fisherlady an we did this with manhaden in SC.
That happened in the Thames last year, way worse, whole schools were dropping dead.
The problem doesn’t go away with decreasing the number of bunker in the bay , decreasing the number actually
Causes more algae to a accumulate- bunker are filter feeders . It’s the same problem that cause the declined in eel grass and scallop populations …. Celtic
System , fertilizer and sewage dumping .
The town of Riverhead continues to
Allow residentcial apartment complex along the river and bay to increase the problem will only continue to worsen .
They don’t mention the by catch kill of resident spawned juvenile stripers 9-10
Inch that school with the bunker schools
I invite anyone who thinks we are hurting a single stripedbass to come out on the boat and see for yourself. There is zero mortality of any fish including bunker. Until we take them out of the water and put them on the boat. Obviously, all fish other than bunker are returned to the water unharmed. My email is caldwell691@gmail.com. Please contact me if you want to come out for a bunker harvest and see for yourself.
So who are these “fishermen” feeding their catch too? FOOD FISH? China won’t import that from here!