CSMA Striped Bass- A Put and Too ManyTake Fishery

Why are we concerned?

PCBs are known as a “probable carcinogen,” or likely to cause cancer in humans. PCBs build up in your body fat and remain there over time.

Possible Health Effects of PCBs in Children and Infants:

• Developmental issues in children whose mothers were exposed during pregnancy
• Lower birth weights
• Weaker immune systems

Possible Health Effects of PCBs in Adults:

• Low-level exposure: airway irritation, stomach upset, depression, tiredness
• High-level exposure: chloracne (rash similar to severe acne)
• Cancer

For those too young to remember Buck Ward owner of Ward Transformer Company, or not living in NC at the time

http://raleighpublicrecord.org/news/2009/05/14/toxic-clean-up-continues-near-rdu/

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/counties/wake-county/article10027130.htm

http://sph.unc.edu/files/2015/08/SRP_Soil-Still-Toxic-25-years-later.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_County_PCB_Landfill

"At this time, the division does not recommend implementing immediate management measures. The role of fishing mortality, stock status, reference points, and allocation issues are most appropriately addressed through the upcoming, expedited review of the fishery management plan, and work on this has already begun in close coordination with the Wildlife Resources Commission."

(Side Note:  "close coordination with the Wildlife Resources Commission"  The first that the WRC heard of the two linked documents was when I call them on Wednesday.  The WRC supports immediate action up to an including closing the CSMA to commercial harvest and limiting all gill netting within key areas of the Neuse to control "cryptic" mortality.)

If it wasn't NCDMF (we're different) this would be unbelievable.  As it is, it's more status quo to protect commercial gill netting interests and jobs at the division which are based on a smoke and mirrors game of "managing" overcapacity and unsustainable fishing.

http://1drv.ms/b/s!ArHvxdSx-xlqgU-HVcFInHXaleVF

Overall Project Summary
Overall, 84.5% of the striped bass collected in the Bay, Neuse, Pamlico, and Pungo Rivers were stocked fish of a hatchery origin. These fish were produced by 19 different mothers across five year classes, beginning with the 2010 year class which was the first genetically trackable year class. The ‘wild’ striped bass (15.5% of catch) were not restricted to the largest fish collected. Unfortunately, as a result of both the similar size distributions of cultured and ‘wild’ fish and the lack of a unique genetic signature of the ‘wild’ fish, we are not able to determine if the ‘wild’ fish are from older, genetically non-trackable year classes or represent true wild recruitment.

• Match the proposed 2017 WRC rule change increasing the recreational minimum size limit to 26"
• Close all commercial harvest of striped bass in the CSMA.
• Prohibit all gill net fishing in the Neuse(Minnesott Beach/Cherry Branch) and Pamlico(Bayview/Aurora) rivers at the ferry lines to the inland water boundaries.
• Require full-time gill net attendance in all remaining CSMA waters.

"Must be immediately adjacent to the net (either in a vessel, in the water or on shore) and immediately available to work the net and no more than 100 yards from the net at all times (not in a building or structure)."

"Proclamation authority allows NCDMF to implement timely responses (i.e.,within 48 hours) that may provide increased protection of sea turtles, for example appropriate restrictions may include gear or area restrictions, attendance requirements, modifications in observer coverage, increased enforcement, or a combination of these and other restrictions. The need for additional management measures or better direction of resources will be determined by NCDMF in consultation with NMFS."  Adaptive Management and Mitigation Measures, ITP 16230

"In addition to the adaptive management activities described above, NCDMF must ensure (i.e. issue a proclamation) that all commercial and recreational fishermen report all incidental captures of sea turtle to NCDMF and require that fisherman follow the requirements listed below for the safe handling, resuscitation and disposition of any incidentally captured turtles."

"NCDMF will monitor six primary management units in inshore waters as described in the conservation plan. NCDMF will monitor at least 7% (with a goal of 10%) of large mesh (≥4.0 ISM) gillnet trips in each area during each of 3 seasons (i.e., spring, summer, fall) as defined in the conservation plan."

I sent this almost a year ago and the only thing that has happened since then is that the DMF has continued to stall while fighting to protect commercial harvest.   They even wasted some money determining that the WRC is right.

Nothing has changed - commercial fishermen can still kill as many as they want as long as they only report 25,000 pounds.  No lawsuits, no bills, no petition for rule change - just another year of stocked fish being slaughtered.

Feel free to steal this and send it to whoever you want.  If you find someone who cares, that would be great - and a surprise.

April 8, 2016

Dear MFC Commissioners,                                       

I am writing this letter to ask you to take immediate action to stop the commercial harvest of striped bass in the Central Southern Management Area (CSMA).  The three river systems in the CMSA (Tar/Pamlico, Neuse, and Cape Fear) are stocked each year with striped bass by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (WRC).  Harvest of striped bass in the Cape Fear river is already closed in order to establish a breeding population that will be self-sustaining.  Farther north in the CSMA, the Edenton National Fish Hatchery supplies the WRC with approximately 100,000 phase II fish (150-250 mm) each year for both the Tar/Pamlico and Neuse river systems (1,2).  Like the Cape Fear striped bass program, these stockings have a goal of re-establishing a natural breeding population that is self-sustaining.  Unfortunately, this project is failing due to overfishing by commercial fishermen.  

Not only does the WRC stock these fish, but they have also conducted cutting edge scientific experiments aimed at understating the populations.  What they have found is disturbing.  Genetic marking studies by the WRC have shown that at least 93 to 97% of fish in the Neuse and Tar/Pamlico rivers are derived from hatchery stocks and that very little, if any, natural breeding is occurring (1,2).  This finding is very troubling, but these particular populations of striped bass offer a unique opportunity that is quite rare in the complicated world of marine fisheries management.  While most marine species are difficult to assess, a known number of phase II fish is added to the respective rivers each year.  Natural mortality of these older fish has been well-studied so an accurate range of mortality rates can be used when evaluating the population.  In addition, these fish don’t emigrate.  They stay within the river system in which they were stocked and swim upstream each year during a set season, passing through relatively small sections of water where they can be routinely sampled.  Finally, a very limited recreational harvest is monitored via surveys while commercial harvest, which is limited to a yearly TAC of 25,000 pounds, is reported on trip tickets.  In essence, the only unknowns in this system are the number of fish killed and discarded by commercial gillnetters, the commercial gillnet harvest that is not sold, and illegal harvest.  Using all of this information, the WRC was able to complete a virtual population analysis (1).  This analysis indicated that “cryptic mortality” was greater than the reported recreational and commercial harvest.  Using even the highest known natural mortality rate in this analysis could not lessen this cryptic mortality to a level that would allow it to be explained (1).  Considering this, the most likely explanation for the cryptic mortality of CMSA striped bass is that it derives from illegal and underreported commercial harvest, dead discards from gillnets, and ghost fishing gear (1).  Taken together, the results of many years of studies on this fish population along with their recent genetic analysis have led the WRC to conclude that long term recruitment overfishing is occurring and that the stock would improve if this exploitation decreased (1).  Since recreational harvest is minimal, this can only be achieved by stopping the commercial harvest of CMSA striped bass.  Without stopping the commercial harvest of these fish, the joint effort of the WRC and the National Marine Fisheries Service to re-establish a self-sustaining population of striped bass in the Tar/Pamlico and Neuse river systems will continue to fail.

Now some will say that stopping this harvest will cause great hardship.  However, that is not the case.   At most, stopping the commercial striped bass harvest in all CMSA waters will eliminate the legal sale of 25,000 pounds of striped bass each year.  From 2005 to 2014, the average annual commercial harvest of striped bass from the CMSA was 23,623 pounds [only 168 commercial fishermen reported a striped bass sale in 2013, which is the latest available data (3)].  The CMSA striped bass harvest is on average, only 15% of the yearly harvest taken from internal waters in North Carolina, with the other 85% coming from the Albemarle Sound Management Area (ASMA) and Roanoke River Management Area (RRMA).  In 2014, the reported commercial harvest from the CMSA was 25,085 pounds and this had a value of $68,607.  This works out to an average of about $400 per commercial fishermen if about 168 fishermen reported sales in 2014 as was the case in 2013.  The cost of stocking these fish is estimated to be approximately $600,000.  These amazing numbers lead prudent people to ask a simple question - why does one state agency allow the harvest and sale of fish that cost other agencies nearly 10 fold more to stock?  And this stocking is occurring to try to re-establish a breeding population of this species!!  This just makes no sense, and that is why I am asking you to do the right thing and put an immediate stop to commercial harvest of striped bass in the CSMA. 

Thank you,

Bakesta

Literature Cited

1.  Rachels, K.T., and B. R. Ricks. 2015. Neuse river striped bass monitoring programs, populations dynamics, and recovery strategies. Federal aid in sport fish restoration project F-108. North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission Inland Fisheries Division. Raleigh, NC.

2.  Rundle, K.R. 2015. Striped bass fisheries and monitoring programs in the Tar river, North Carolina-2014. Federal aid in sport fish restoration project F-108. North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission Inland Fisheries Division. Raleigh, NC. 3.  2013. 

3.  Amendment 1 to the North Carolina Estuarine Striped Bass Fishery Management Plan.   Prepared By The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries and North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission with assistance from the Albemarle/Roanoke and Central Southern Management Area Fishery Management Plan Advisory Committees.  North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources, North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries. Morehead City, NC. page 144.