Bay Journal

Topics: Fisheries

Anglers who live for hooking a feisty striped bass are going to have fewer chances to do it in 2020 — and probably for at least a year or two afterward.

Prompted by a scientific finding that the East Coast’s most prized finfish are in trouble, Maryland, Virginia and the Potomac River are all moving to adopt new catch restrictions aimed at stemming the species’ decline.

But many anglers are complaining about the complexity, fairness and even the adequacy of the cutbacks under consideration, which range from a quota tuck of less than 2% for commercial fishermen in Maryland to a 24% reduction in fish removed by recreational anglers in Virginia.

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Timothy B. Wheeler & Jeremy Cox
January 21, 2020
Fisheries,Politics + Policy
0 Comments

Targeting male crabs for harvest may put a squeeze on reproduction

It turns out there could be a price to pay for eating all those “jimmies.” Scientists at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center have found that the focus of Chesapeake Bay commercial and recreational crabbers on catching male...

Timothy B. Wheeler
January 08, 2020
Fisheries
0 Comments

Climate change in spotlight as MD, VA lawmakers convene

Maryland and Virginia lawmakers are gearing up for renewed debate in the coming weeks over renewable energy and how their states should deal with the looming threats of climate change. With both states’ annual legislative sessions starting...

Tim Wheeler, Jeremy Cox & Whitney Pipkin
January 06, 2020
Climate Change,Fisheries,Politics + Policy,Pollution
0 Comments

Virginia menhaden fishery threatened with moratorium

Virginia faces a threatened shutdown of its large commercial fishery for Atlantic menhaden after federal officials found the state had allowed too many of the commercially and ecologically important fish to be taken from the Chesapeake Bay. In a...

Timothy B. Wheeler
December 20, 2019
Fisheries,Politics + Policy
1 Comment

Fisheries: Archives

Oyster farms make slight improvement in water quality

It’s easy to demonstrate the filtering prowess of oysters by placing them in a small aquarium and filling it with algae-clouded water. Within a few hours, as time-lapse YouTube videos show, the glass tank is nearly crystal clear....

Timothy B. Wheeler
December 10, 2019
Fisheries
2 Comments

Report says 4 of 6 Bay states cut funding, staff for top agencies handling pollution

Four of 6 states in the Chesapeake Bay region cut funding or staff to their main pollution control agency over the last 10 years, says a report released today by the Environmental Integrity Project. Environmental agencies in Pennsylvania,...

Ad Crable
December 05, 2019
Fisheries,Politics + Policy,Pollution
0 Comments

Young-of-year rockfish surveys have mixed news

Striped bass, whose population has been in decline for a decade and a half, suffered from another poor year of reproduction in Maryland, though the news was better in Virginia. Maryland’s annual young-of-year index was just 3.4,...

Karl Blankenship
December 02, 2019
Fisheries
0 Comments

Striped bass decline spurs new look at mycobacteria

When Wolfgang Vogelbein peered at striped bass sores through a microscope 22 years ago, he knew he was looking at something very different than what was grabbing headlines at the time. Pfiesteria piscicida — the so-called “cell...

Karl Blankenship
November 05, 2019
Fisheries
1 Comment

East Coast fishery managers order 18% cut in striped bass harvest

Acting to stem serious declines in the striped bass population, East Coast fishery managers have ordered an 18% harvest reduction for the coming year. How that will be done in the Chesapeake Bay remains to be seen. The Atlantic States Marine...

Timothy B. Wheeler
November 01, 2019
Fisheries,Politics + Policy
0 Comments

Action against Virginia pending for violating menhaden catch limit in the Chesapeake Bay

Note: This article was updated on Nov. 1, 2019, to include more information about the commission's vote and its possible consequences. Harvests of Atlantic menhaden in Virginia waters risk being shut down after a fishing fleet...

Timothy B. Wheeler
October 29, 2019
Fisheries,Politics + Policy
5 Comments

Can bacteria help restore the Chesapeake Bay’s oysters?

Ryan Hoover teaches sculpture making at the Maryland Institute College of Art. So, why is he developing a product that could help oysters grow in the Chesapeake Bay? “That’s a fine question,” he said, laughing. The answer...

Jeremy Cox
October 16, 2019
Fisheries
4 Comments

Low salinity wallops oysters in Chesapeake

The rains have finally let up, but they’ve dealt a serious blow to the Chesapeake Bay’s oysters — and to the people who make a living harvesting, cultivating or restoring them. Oysters need at least a little salt in their...

Jeremy Cox & Timothy B. Wheeler
October 03, 2019
Fisheries,Politics + Policy
2 Comments

Rare Chesapeake logperch get first release into Lower Susquehanna stream

Just a few miles from where they were first discovered in 1842, about 100 globally rare Chesapeake logperch, raised in captivity, were released with great fanfare Sept. 27 into a tributary of the Susquehanna River in Lancaster County, PA. A...

Ad Crable
September 30, 2019
Fisheries
1 Comment

Groups work to stop brook trout from being the fish that got away

About 100 days a year, you will find Michael Garrigan by himself with a fly rod, sneaking along small mountain streams hoping to catch and hold, just for a few seconds, a small trout widely revered as the jewel of freshwater fish. It’s...

Ad Crable
September 27, 2019
Fisheries
8 Comments

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