Dave Harp
Things are looking up a bit for the beleaguered striped bass. With anglers under tighter catch limits the last few years, fishing pressure has eased enough on the popular migratory fish that no further curbs are needed for now, a new study has concluded.
An updated stock assessment presented Monday to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission found that the fish are no longer experiencing overfishing, but the number of spawning females remains below sustainable levels.
Striped bass, also known as rockfish, are one of the most sought-after sport and commercial fish in the Chesapeake Bay and along the Mid-Atlantic Coast.
The last assessment in 2018 found striped bass were being overfished coastwide and that numbers of adult female fish had fallen far below the threshold for sustaining the population.
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