one fisheries jurisdiction understands the memo on the striper decline..........

[toadfinger]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...=.538f6aca7390

[Mark]

Thank you for posting.

I especially enjoyed reader comments. So many opinions; so many looking at others as the cause; so few answers.

The "Washington Post" article is the second article I've seen in recent days citing new estimates that C&R mortality for stripers is nearly 50%.

The April "Fishing and Hunting Journal" has a centerfold two page article that explores the topic of declining stripers in depth. Indeed, it's why I started the "What if..." thread. That article mentioned C&R mortality estimates in 2017 were 48%, or 3.4 million stripers died after being tossed back into the water. These estimates are much higher than previously thought. I have no idea how the numbers originate. However, many of us have seen large numbers of floaters covering a particular area of water during our outings. Perhaps fisheries scientists saw them too and made extrapolations.

The C&R mortality metric used by catch management officials in the past was 9%. That's a very big difference from the new estimate.

Changes are surely coming. They have to.

[belairfishing]

Mark,

Like you , I would be interested in seeing the science/data behind that mortality rate conclusion.

I don't really keep trophy fish (mostly because I don't catch big ones!) but I still don't have an understanding of why someone would want to keep a fish that big. I think the data shows the slot limit has been a good thing over the years, right? But the trophy limit has to change if the science is good.

Steve