Atlantic Striped Bass

Currently, Atlantic striped bass is managed under Amendment 7 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP, 2022), which consolidates Amendment 6 and its associated addenda into a single document. Amendment 7 establishes new requirements for the following components of the FMP: management triggers, conservation equivalency, additional measures to address recreational release mortality, and the stock rebuilding plan. This Amendment builds upon the Addendum VI to Amendment 6 action to address overfishing and initiate rebuilding in response to the overfished finding from the last stock assessment, requiring the Board to rebuild the stock by 2029. Amendment 7 strengthens the Commission’s ability to reach the rebuilding goal by implementing a more conservative recruitment trigger, providing more formal guidance around uncertainty in the conservation equivalency process, and implementing measures intended to increase the chance of survival after a striped bass is released alive in the recreational fishery. All provisions of Amendment 7 are effective May 5, 2022 except for gear restrictions. States were required to implement new gear restrictions by January 1, 2023.

Amendment 7 also maintains the same recreational and commercial measures specified in Addendum VI to Amendment 6, which were implemented in 2020. As such, all approved Addendum VI conservation equivalency programs and state implementation plans are maintained until such measures are changed in the future.  

Addendum I to Amendment 7 was approved in May 2023 to allow for voluntary ocean commercial quota transfers contingent on stock status. When the stock is overfished, no quota transfers will be allowed. When the stock is not overfished, the Board can decide every one to two years whether it will allow voluntary transfers of ocean commercial quota. The Board can also set criteria for allowable transfers, including a limit on how much and when quota can be transferred in a given year, and the eligibility of state to request a transfer based on its landings.

In May 2023, the Board approved an emergency action to change the recreational size limit in response to the unprecedented magnitude of 2022 recreational harvest, which was nearly double that of 2021, and new stock rebuilding projections, which estimated the probability of the spawning stock rebuilding to its biomass target by 2029 drops from 97% under the lower 2021 fishing mortality rate to less than 15% if the higher 2022 fishing mortality rate continues each year.

The Board implemented the emergency 31-inch maximum size limit for recreational fisheries to reduce harvest of the strong 2015-year class. The emergency action was effective until May 1 2024, at which point it was replaced by Addendum II to Amendment 7 measures, described below.

Addendum II to Amendment 7 was approved in January 2024 to reduce fishing mortality in 2024 and support stock rebuilding. For the ocean recreational fishery, the Addendum implements a 28” to 31” slot limit, 1-fish bag limit, and maintains 2022 season dates for all fishery participants; this maintains the same ocean recreational measures adopted under the 2023 emergency action. For the Chesapeake Bay recreational fishery, the Addendum implements a 19” to 24” slot limit, 1-fish bag limit, and maintains 2022 season dates for all fishery participants. For the commercial fishery, the Addendum reduces commercial quotas by 7% in both the ocean and Chesapeake Bay. To address concerns about recreational filleting allowances and compliance with recreational size limits, the Addendum establishes two requirements for states that authorize filleting of striped bass: racks must be retained and possession limited to no more than two fillets per legal fish. Finally, to enable an expedited response process to upcoming stock assessments, the Addendum establishes a mechanism allowing the Board to respond to a stock assessment via Board action if the stock is not projected to rebuild by 2029. All Addendum II measures were required to be implemented by the states no later than May 1, 2024.

Pending Action

In December 2024, at a special meeting, the Board initiated Draft Addendum III to consider recreational and commercial management measures for 2026 to support rebuilding the stock by 2029. Options will consider a range of reductions for the recreational and commercial fisheries. Recreational reductions will consider season and size limits that take into account regional differences, including no-harvest and no-targeting closures. Final action is planned for no later than October 2025 with implementation in early 2026.

The action responds to the results of the 2024 Stock Assessment Update, which indicates the resource remains overfished but is not experiencing overfishing. Short-term projections estimate an increase in fishing mortality in 2025 due to the above average 2018 year-class entering the current recreational ocean slot limit combined with the lack of strong year-classes behind it. This action is intended to increase the probability of rebuilding the stock by adjusting subsequent 2026 management measures to ensure the stock is on the necessary rebuilding trajectory.

At the meeting, the Board considered two possible paths forward. The first was to take immediate Board action to reduce fishing mortality in 2025. The second was a longer, more comprehensive process given one of the primary options being considered is seasonal closures, which represents a new management approach for the Board. Ultimately, the Board chose the second path by initiating an addendum that would provide the Board more time to develop a fuller suite of management options, allow for the incorporation of full 2024 fishery removals data, and afford the public with a more robust opportunity to provide input. The Board noted preliminary data indicate the current measures implemented through Addendum II are on track to reduce 2024 removals from 2023 and 2022 levels. The Board also recognized the importance of the thousands of public comments submitted for this meeting and the upcoming public input through the addendum process on 2026 management measures.

Management History

Increased fishing pressure in the 1970s, coupled with degradation and loss of habitat, led to stock collapse and stimulated the development of a cooperative interstate fisheries management plan (FMP). While a notable first step, the first FMP (1981) and Amendments 1 and 2 to the plan (1984) only provided recommendations on how to manage the resource. States could take voluntary actions under these management plans but there was no statutory requirement that ensured unified management actions by all the involved states. The passage of the Atlantic Striped Bass Conservation Act in 1984 (Striped Bass Act) changed this by requiring the states, through the Commission, to develop and implement management plans that included mandatory conservation measures. Amendment 3 (1985) was the first plan under the Striped Bass Act with such measures, including regulations to protect the 1982 year class, the first modestly-sized cohort for nearly a decade. Some states elected for an even more conservative approach and imposed a total moratorium to protect the 1982 year class. The Amendment contained a mechanism to relax fishery regulations based on a juvenile abundance index. The mechanism was triggered with the recruitment of the 1989 year class and led to the implementation of Amendment 4 (1989), which aimed to rebuild the resource rather than maximize yield. In 1995, with adoption of Amendment 5, the Commission declared Atlantic coastal striped bass stocks fully recovered.

Amendment 6 (2003) introduced a new set of biological reference points based on female spawning stock biomass (SSB), and a suite of management triggers based on the reference points. It also restored the commercial quota for the ocean fishery to 100% of average landings during the 1972-1979 historical period, and recreational fisheries were constrained by a 2-fish bag limit and a minimum size limit of 28 inches, except for the Chesapeake Bay fisheries, Albemarle-Roanoke (A/R) fisheries, and fisheries with approved conservation equivalency proposals. From 2007 to 2014, a series of four Addenda (I-IV) to Amendment 6 were implemented. These addenda addressed a range of issues, including implementation of a bycatch monitoring program, modifying the definition of recruitment failure, implementation of a mandatory commercial harvest tagging program, and establishing one set of F reference points for the coastal migratory population in all management areas. Addendum IV (2014) also formally deferred management of the A/R stock to the State of North Carolina, under the auspices of the Commission, since the A/R stock was deemed to contribute minimally to the coastal migratory population. 

In 2019, a new benchmark assessment which used updated recreational catch estimates, changed our understanding of stock status. The benchmark assessment found the stock to be overfished and experiencing overfishing. As a result, Addendum VI to Amendment 6 was initiated to end overfishing, and bring F to the target level in 2020. Specifically, the Addendum reduced all state commercial quotas by 18%, and implemented a 1-fish bag limit and a 28” to less than 35” recreational slot limit for ocean fisheries and a 1-fish bag limit and an 18” minimum size limit for Chesapeake Bay recreational fisheries. These measures were implemented in 2020 and designed to achieve at least an 18% reduction in total removals at the coastwide level. The Addendum maintained flexibility for states to pursue alternative regulations through conservation equivalency and the Board approved CE programs for multiple states. Since catch and release practices contribute significantly to overall fishing mortality, the Addendum mandated the use of circle hooks when fishing with bait to reduce release mortality in recreational striped bass fisheries.

As it considered its actions under Addendum VI, the Management Board also discussed the development of a new Amendment to the FMP, one that reflected our understanding of the resource and the fisheries that depend on it. This led to the development and approval of Amendment 7 in 2022. 

Atlantic striped bass (Morone saxatilis) are an estuarine species that can be found from Florida to Canada, although the stocks that the Commission manages range from Maine to North Carolina. A long-lived species (at least up to 30 years of age), striped bass typically spend the majority of their adult life in coastal estuaries or the ocean, migrating north and south seasonally and ascending to rivers to spawn in the spring.

Mature females (age six and older) produce large quantities of eggs, which are fertilized by mature males (age two and older) as they are released into riverine spawning areas. While developing, the fertilized eggs drift with the downstream currents and eventually hatch into larvae. After their arrival in the nursery areas, located in river deltas and the inland portions of coastal sounds and estuaries, they mature into juveniles. They remain in coastal sounds and estuaries for two to four years and then join the coastal migratory population in the Atlantic Ocean. In the ocean, fish tend to move north during the summer and south during the winter. Important wintering grounds for the mixed stocks are located from offshore New Jersey to North Carolina. With warming water temperatures in the spring, the mature adult fish migrate to riverine spawning areas to complete their life cycle. The majority of the coastal migratory stock originates in the Chesapeake Bay spawning areas, with significant contributions from the spawning grounds of the Hudson and Delaware Rivers.