Quote:
|
Is catching a big fish during spawning skll?
|
Striped bass fishing is tightly regulated in the Chesapeake Bay and tributaries such as the Potomac. Seasons and size limits are set to protect the populations. In the Potomac during the 60, 60 and 70s they were commercially harvested and fished to the point that the spawning fish never made it up to DC. Also there was an issue pf the chlorinated discharges of multiple sewage treatment plants and the powerplant. Following the moratorium on all fishing for striped bass in the 80's the populations rebounded and we now have striped bass spawning in the DC. Also in the 80's and 90's all chlorine discharges were neutralized first.
Striped bass in the Chesapeake Bay seems to be limited more by forage fish availability than brood females. The lack of any reasonable and sensible controls on commercial harvesting of menhaden has caused the striped bass to eat themselves out of house and home. This has caused them to turn to secondary food sources such as blue crabs and that has caused secondary ramifications in that species.
None of the above is meant to be insulting or argumentative. Your concern is reasonable and the wholesale slaughter of the brood females that used to occur is exactly what caused the problem in the first place.