Atlantic Redfish on the Decline?

Chris Dollar at the Annapolis Gazette, East Coast states to address red drum decline 

Coastal states from Florida to Maryland have scheduled hearings to gather public input from anglers and other stakeholders on a new addendum to the fishery management plan for red drum, one of the most popular game fish in the Chesapeake Bay and along the mid-Atlantic coast.

The Draft Addendum considers several changes to the management programs in the southern region (South Carolina to Florida) and northern region (New Jersey to North Carolina) in response to the findings of the 2024 Red Drum Benchmark Stock Assessment and Peer Review Report presented to the Atlantic States Marine Commission, the intra-state body that oversees management of red drum and other.

Some states have opted to host the hearings in-person, others will be conducted via webinar or in a hybrid format. Maryland Department of Natural Resources and Potomac River Fisheries Commission will jointly hold their public meeting from 5-7 p.m. Sept. 18 at the Calvert Library in Prince Frederick. Webinar instructions can be found on DNR’s website.

Virginia anglers and anyone who simply cares about the management of bluefish in all of the bay’s waters, can either tune in online or attend in person the Virginia Marine Resources Commission’s hybrid meeting scheduled for 6-8 p.m. Sept.17. Interested in weighing in but unable to participate in your state’s scheduled hearing? No worries, you can participate in any of the virtual or hybrid hearings.

For some background, the recreational fishery is responsible for an increasing proportion of northern stock removals through time, accounting for greater than 90% of annual removals over the last 10 years, according to the ASMFC experts. The analysis reports that these removals are increasingly represented by dead discards, averaging 37% of annual recreational removals over the last ten years.

Relative abundance in 2019, 2021 and 2022 was lower than observed in other recent years and similar to the abundances observed in the late-2000s and early-2010s. The upshot is, according to the assessment, there appears to be an overall trend of “stable to decreasing recruitment outside of the exceptionally strong 1991-, 1993-, and 2018-year classes.”

It seems a little curious to me. Redfish have been a lot more common in the Chesapeake Bay in recent years, compared to the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s. I've always suspected that more reds were coming into the Bay because populations in the Atlantic were expanding in response to conservation efforts. Some have even claimed reds are part of the reason for recent declines in Blue Crab populations. But, this suggests to me that the Atlantic population of reds is on the edge of being overfished? 

The Wombat has Rule Five Sunday: The End of Summer up and garnering clicks at The Other McCain.