Press Statement

The Maryland Board of Public Works approved the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF)’s donation of Holly Beach Farm to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the agency announced yesterday.

Holly Beach Farm is an extremely unique, ecologically valuable, 293-acre waterfront property in Anne Arundel County. CBF had stewarded the property for over two decades for environmental education and habitat conservation. It will soon be transferred to DNR for future protection, restoration, and access.

In response to the Board of Public Works approval, Hilary Harp Falk, CBF’s President and CEO, stated:

“Over the last twenty years, with generous support from donors and like-minded organizations, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation has had the privilege of stewarding its part of Holly Beach Farm through significant investment in maintenance, restoration, and educational programming. We are so pleased that the State of Maryland has stepped forward with its tremendous resources to continue the conservation and management of this special natural area. We thank the Gately family for preserving this jewel of the Chesapeake and the Moore administration for their continued leadership in protecting, and making accessible, Maryland’s tremendous natural resources.”

Bipartisan legislation to extend programs essential to Bay restoration and other regional conservation efforts across the country cleared the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee today by unanimous voice vote. 

The America’s Conservation Enhancement (ACE) Reauthorization Act would extend and set funding levels through fiscal year 2030 for the EPA Chesapeake Bay Program, the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Chesapeake Watershed Investments for Landscape Defense (WILD) grant program, and the National Park Service’s Chesapeake Gateways program.

The bill, introduced by Committee Chairman Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Ranking Member Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), would also extend the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s ability to administer the Chesapeake Bay Program’s three grant programs and the Chesapeake WILD grants. 

Chesapeake Bay Foundation Federal (CBF) Direct Keisha Sedlack issued the following statement: 

“CBF is encouraged by the vote to send the ACE Reauthorization Act to the Senate floor. We hope the committee’s broad backing for protecting precious natural resources like the Chesapeake Bay  ecosystem signals this legislation will enjoy similar support among all senators.   

“The bill would help ensure federal partners in the cleanup can continue to provide robust support for initiatives that improve water quality, reduce polluted runoff, restore essential wildlife habitat, and introduce more people to the wonders of the Bay ecosystem. 

“CBF is grateful to Chairman Carper and Ranking Member Capito for their bipartisan commitment to reauthorizing the ACE Act and thank committee members Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and John Fetterman (D-Pa.) for voting for the bill. We now call on House Bay champions to keep their companion legislation moving forward as well.” 

Explore examples of projects funded by these programs from the six Bay states and DC. 

Chesapeake Bay Watershed Task Force Co-Chairs Reps. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), Bobby Scott (D-Va.), and John Sarbanes (D-Md.) have introduced a trio of bills to reauthorize three federal programs essential to restoring the Bay and its tributaries, conserving wildlife habitat, and boosting public access to this national treasure. 

The bills are similar to the Bay-related provisions in the America’s Conservation Enhancement (ACE) Reauthorization Act introduced in the Senate last month. The bipartisan ACE Reauthorization Act would extend conservation programs nationwide.

The three-bill House package would extend the Chesapeake Bay Program, Chesapeake WILD grants, and the Chesapeake Gateways program from fiscal year 2025 through fiscal year 2030.

EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program would be reauthorized at $100 million annually. The Program, which coordinates the multi-agency federal-state cleanup partnership, is currently funded at $92 million.  

Roughly two-thirds of its annual budget goes to grant programs that leverage local matching dollars to fund projects to control polluted runoff from urban, suburban, agricultural lands; restore streams, wetlands, and riparian buffers, establish oyster reefs, protect forests, and reconnect local waterways for fish passage. 

The Chesapeake Watershed Investments for Landscape Defense (WILD) matching grant program would be renewed at $15 million annually. It was created in 2020 in the original ACE Act to support wildlife habitat conservation projects and provide technical and planning help to local partners. It is administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and currently funded at $8 million. 

Finally, the legislation would extend the National Park Service’s Chesapeake Gateways and Water Trails Network and Chesapeake Gateways Grants and Assistance program at $6 million annually, double the level of $3 million annually. 

The Chesapeake Gateways Program helps preserve and enhance access to public lands, historic sites, trails, parks, wildlife refuges, and museums in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Delaware, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C. 

Together the Chesapeake Bay Program, Chesapeake WILD grants, and the Chesapeake Gateways Program have funded numerous projects in the six Bay states and the District of Columbia. See list below for examples. 

Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) Federal Director Keisha Sedlacek issued the following statement: 

“CBF is excited to see bipartisan momentum building to extend federal programs that improve water quality, wildlife habitat, and public access to the Bay and its tributaries. 

“EPA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Park Service are essential partners in the multi-state, multi-agency Bay restoration effort. They provide federal dollars to fund local conservation projects across the six Bay states and the District of Columbia. 

“We are entering a new phase in the Bay cleanup. These bills are an important step toward ensuring our federal partners have the tools they need to meet the coming challenges. CBF thanks Reps. Rob Wittman, Bobby Scott, and John Sarbanes for their leadership and urges the House to act quickly on this important Bay legislation.” 

See list of examples below:

Maryland

• $75,000 Chesapeake WILD grant to Baltimore Green Space, which will provide $30,600 in matching funds, to engage underserved communities to expand habitat for imperiled pollinators and gather data on bumble bees as an indicator species across 12 properties in Baltimore City.
• $445,400 Chesapeake Bay Program grant to the Chesapeake Conservancy, which will put up $392,700 in matching funds, to support community-led conservation crews in Baltimore City, Prince Georges County, and Howard County in planting trees, restoring native habitats, and other projects chosen by the communities.
• $150,000 Chesapeake Gateways grant to Baltimore County to support a Spanish-speaking Park Ranger and develop Spanish-language signage and informational materials at Marshy Point Nature Center and Loch Raven Fishing Center.

Pennsylvania

• $546,500 Chesapeake WILD grant to Ruffed Grouse Society, which will provide $611,700 in matching funds, to improve 1,600 acres of ruffed grouse habitat along the Kittatinny Ridge in central Pennsylvania.
• $75,000 Chesapeake Bay Program grant to the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, which would put up $75,000, to work with members of the Dairy Farmers of America to complete six agricultural conservation plans to help improve water quality in south-central Pennsylvania.
• $150,000 Chesapeake Gateways grant to the Susquehanna National Heritage Area to create an education center and heritage park focused on the area’s role in the Underground Railroad and the Civil War.

Virginia

• $750,000 Chesapeake WILD grant to the Rappahannock Tribe of Virginia, which will provide $2.85 million in matching funds, to acquire 700 acres of ancestral lands along the Rappahannock River and apply the tribe’s traditional stewardship practices to reforesting the land and improving biodiversity. 
• $252,500 Chesapeake Bay Program grant to Trout Unlimited, which will put up $90,000 in matching funds, to bolster eastern brook trout populations in the Upper North Fork of the Shenandoah River.
• $149,500 Chesapeake Gateways grant to the James River Association to develop curriculum and teacher resources to connect fifth-grade students in 21 Hampton City elementary schools to nature and the city’s Native American and African American culture. 

West Virginia

• $275,900 Chesapeake WILD grant to the Cacapon and Lost Rivers Land Trust, which will provide $1.38 million in matching funds, to work with hunt clubs to protect 1,000 acres of critical habitat for Eastern brook trout, freshwater mussels, several endangered species, and 60 other species of greatest conservation need.
• $500,000 Chesapeake Bay Program grant to Trout Unlimited, which will contribute $409,500 in matching funds, to reconnect one and half miles of brook trout habitat and another mile of streamside forest habitat in the Spruce Knob Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area. 
• $110,000 Chesapeake Gateways grant to the Jefferson County Parks and Recreation Commission to develop a master plan for Moulton Park and its 82-acre expansion that includes recreation and public access, native species protection, soil conservation, and forest regeneration.

Delaware

• $50,000 Chesapeake Bay Program grant to the Nanticoke Watershed Alliance to develop a stormwater management strategy to meet Delaware’s pollution-reduction goals in the Nanticoke River watershed.
• $177,600 Chesapeake Bay Program grant to Delaware Wild Lands, which will provide $130,600 in matching funds to restore 25 acres of native forest and meadow habitat and nearly half a mile of streamside habitat in the Great Cypress Swamp.

New York

• $73,700 Chesapeake WILD grant to the Research Foundation for the State University of New York (SUNY) on behalf of SUNY-Oneonta to develop a plan to evaluate potential habitats needed to rebuild brook floater mussel populations in the Susquehanna River.
• $140,600 Chesapeake Bay Program grant to Trout Unlimited, which will provide $70,000 in matching funds, to open 2.8 miles of high-quality brook trout habitat in the Wylie Brook watershed.

Washington, D.C. 

• $180,000 Chesapeake Bay Program grant to the D.C. Department of Energy and Environment, which would provide $16,300 in matching funds, to engage local environmental justice communities in planning, preparing, and financing sanitary sewage system corrections to reduce discharges sewer system overflows in the Anacostia River watershed.
• $147,600 Chesapeake Gateways grant to the Friends of the National Arboretum to involve diverse local communities in the Anacostia River watershed in volunteer opportunities at the Arboretum. 

Important programs that fund Bay restoration and recovery work were spared from budget cuts in the fiscal year 2024 appropriations deal the House of Representatives passed today by a vote of 339-85. 

The six-bill package would fund EPA, the Interior Department, the Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Army Corps Engineers, among other agencies, through the end of fiscal 2024. It still must pass the Senate and be signed into law by President Biden to take effect.

EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program, which coordinates the sprawling federal-state partnership to clean up the Bay and its waterways, would continue to be funded at $92 million through the end of fiscal 2024. About two-thirds of the Program’s annual budget funds grants for local cleanup projects in the six Bay states and the District of Columbia.

The Chesapeake Watershed Investments for Landscape Defense (WILD) grant program would have its current funded level of $8 million extended through the rest of fiscal 2024. Administered by the Fish and Wildlife Service, this competitive grant program supports community-led initiatives to restore and conserve fish and wildlife habitat across the Bay’s 64,000 square-mile watershed. 

The budget deal would also keep Army Corps of Engineers funding for large-scale oyster recovery efforts in Maryland and Virginia at $6.45 million. Both states are on track to finish projects restoring native oyster populations in 11 Bay tributaries (five in Maryland and six in Virginia) by the 2025 deadline set in the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement. 

In a win for Bay fisheries, USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service would get $500,000 to control invasive blue catfish that are wreaking havoc on native species in the Bay. The department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service would get up to $1 million to inspect wild-caught invasive blue catfish.

USDA’s Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program is slated to receive $3 million for grants to wild-caught catfish processors, to make it easier to bring these fish to market. The deal also includes language encouraging the federal government to purchase wild-caught catfish. 

Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) Federal Director Keisha Sedlacek issued the following statement: 

“CBF is glad to see important programs that improve water quality, protect wildlife habitat, and support oyster restoration in the Bay and its tributaries spared from detrimental funding cuts. The Bay states are entering a new phase of the cleanup effort. Chesapeake Bay restoration programs need reliable funding from federal partners to tackle the challenges to come. 

“We are also pleased Congress recognized the urgent need to control invasive blue catfish before they overwhelm the native fisheries that anchor our region’s economy and culture. 

“CBF appreciates the hard work negotiating this legislation by lawmakers including House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Appropriations Chairwoman Kay Granger (R-Tex.), House Appropriations Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Senate Appropriations Ranking Member Susan Collins (R-Maine), and House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Andy Harris (R-Md.).”  

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on Feb. 21 from states and industry groups trying to stop EPA from implementing its “Good Neighbor” rule. The rule requires upwind states to control ozone pollution that crosses state lines, which prevents downwind states from complying with federal air quality standards. 

Nitrogen oxides (NOx), a key ingredient in ozone pollution, contribute roughly one-third of nitrogen pollution degrading water quality in the Bay and its tributaries. Better known as smog, ground-level ozone is also a dangerous pollutant that is especially harmful to children, senior citizens, and people with heart and lung conditions. 

Air pollution from anywhere in the Bay’s 570,000 square-mile airshed ultimately endangers the health of the Bay, its waterways, and the more than 18 million people living in the Bay watershed. The airshed stretches from South Carolina north to Canada, and as far west as Indiana. 

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) is represented by Earthjustice, and part of a coalition of environmental and public health groups that has been working to defend the Good Neighbor rule since it came out in June 2023.  

Ariel Solaski, CBF Director of Litigation, issued this statement about the case: 

“The health of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem and the people living in its watershed depends on clean air. This assault on the EPA’s Good Neighbor Plan puts public health at risk and undermines the progress being made restoring the Bay and its tributaries.” 

Legislation introduced in the Senate today would renew several federal programs essential to restoring the Bay and increasing public access to this natural wonder.  

The Bay-related provisions are part of a larger bill to reauthorize the America’s Conservation Enhancement (ACE) Act. The historic, bipartisan conservation law was enacted in 2020.  

The America’s Conservation Enhancement (ACE) Reauthorization Act would extend and renew  funding for: 

• the EPA Chesapeake Bay Program, which coordinates the federal-state partnership to clean up the Bay and its tributaries, at $100 million annually through fiscal year 2030. The Program is currently funded at $92 million. 
• the Chesapeake Watershed Investments for Landscape Defense (WILD) matching grant program at $15 million annually. The program was created in the 2020 law and is currently funded at $8 million. It is administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 
• the National Park Service’s Chesapeake Bay Gateways and Water Trails program at its current annual funding level of $3 million for the next five years. The program works with state and local partners to promote access to a network of historic sites, trails, parks, wildlife refuges, and museums across the watershed.  
• the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), a competitive grant program that supports local communities’ efforts to clean up and restore waterways and wildlife habitat. 

Projects recently funded by these programs include restoring ancestral lands of Virginia’s Upper Mattaponi Indian Tribe; converting a contaminated lot in East Baltimore into a community-friendly urban garden; helping the Lebanon County, Pa., Conservation District develop water quality improvement plans for the Little Swatara and Swatara Creek watersheds; and improving eastern brook trout populations in West Virginia’s Spruce Knob Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area. 

The bill was introduced by Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Tom Carper (D-Del.), ranking member Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), and Bay state Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). 

CBF Federal Director Keisha Sedlacek issued the following statement:

“The Chesapeake Bay Foundation welcomes the Committee’s timely bill to renew the America’s Conservation Enhancement Act. This historic law supports several federal programs crucial to restoring the Bay, its waterways, its fisheries, and its wildlife. 

“EPA, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation are key partners in the federal-state Bay cleanup effort. As we enter the next phase of the partnership, it is essential they have the critical authority the bill would provide to help Bay states meet the challenges of the future. 

“CBF enthusiastically endorses this important legislation. We urge the Committee to act on it quickly and call on Bay champions in the House to act as well.”  

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) issued the following statement from Pennsylvania Executive Director Julia Krall, in response to Governor Josh Shapiro’s $48.3 billion General Fund budget proposal for fiscal year 2024-25.

As a final budget continues to take shape in the coming months, CBF is specifically calling for funding that could extend the Agricultural Conservation Assistance Program (ACAP), passed by the Pennsylvania legislature and signed by former Governor Tom Wolf in 2022.

The ACAP cost-share is part of the new Clean Streams Fund (CSF), with a comprehensive spending package of $220 million from the federal American Rescue Plan. The CSF dedicated $154 million to ACAP as investments to be passed through conservation districts and authorized conservation partners for local agricultural practices to reduce pollution to local rivers and streams.

The design of the legislation that created ACAP was a collaborative effort between CBF, the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, and the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences. The CSF and ACAP were introduced by State Senator Gene Yaw (R-Lycoming).

In response to Governor Shapiro’s General Fund budget proposal for fiscal year 2024-25, Ms. Krall said:

“The final General Fund budget that reaches the Governor’s desk needs to include funding that will extend the Agricultural Conservation Assistance Program (ACAP) that is helping family farmers design and install conservation practices that keep soils and nutrients on the farm and out of the water.

“CBF is concerned that ACAP might dissolve if the initial investment of $154 million in federal American Rescue Plan funds through the Clean Streams Fund are spent by the end of 2026 and not replenished. It would be a horrible loss of opportunity and momentum for meeting Pennsylvania’s clean water goals.

“The ACAP cost-share is working. According to the State Conservation Commission in December, 66 conservation districts signed ACAP agreements and roughly $151 million has been committed to the critical work. 

“Additional funding in the 2024-25 General Fund budget would extend ACAP and allow it to seamlessly enter a new phase.  

“Increased and sustained investments of financial and technical resources in ACAP are essential to help farmers reduce pollution from agriculture. The health, economic wellbeing, and quality of life of all Pennsylvanians depend on it.”

Chesapeake Bay Foundation Supports Analysis Backed by Diverse Stakeholders

Following opposition by Virginia’s industrial menhaden fishery, the Commonwealth is facing yet another delay in letting science answer one of the Chesapeake Bay’s most longstanding and controversial questions.  

The House of Delegates Studies Subcommittee unanimously pushed consideration of House Bill 19 into next year. HB 19, introduced by Delegate R. Lee Ware, would have funded a robust study of the population of menhaden—the small, silvery fish that’s a crucial part of the larger Chesapeake Bay food web and the target of Omega Protein, one of the largest fisheries on the Atlantic Coast. 

The subcommittee’s vote halts progress following months-long, state-directed efforts by a broad group of stakeholders to study the health of one of the Bay’s most essential creatures.  

Omega Protein previously backed the development of a scientific framework for a local menhaden population study. But as the 2024 legislative session progressed, the company’s lobbying efforts paved the way for lawmakers to punt funding the study into next year. 

Omega Protein, a Canadian company, and their affiliate Ocean Harvesters take tens of thousands of metric tons of menhaden annually from the Chesapeake and Virginia’s ocean waters to grind up for industrial uses in what’s called a reduction fishery. 

During last year’s General Assembly session, Omega’s lobbying helped significantly weaken a Senate bill calling for a comprehensive menhaden study. Lawmakers from both parties instead passed legislation charging the Virginia Institute of Marine Science with developing a process to understand the factors that may be impacting the local menhaden population. Omega Protein backed that legislation. 

Over the summer, without additional funding, staff from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and Virginia Marine Resources Commission gathered a diverse coalition including Omega Protein, Chesapeake Bay Foundation and others, that produced nine consensus recommendations on what should be included in a menhaden study.  

HB 19 would have funded that research and help resolve pressing questions shared by anglers and scientists: What’s the health of the Chesapeake Bay’s menhaden population and how are factors such as climate change and industrial fishing affecting menhaden?  

Menhaden serve as a nutrient-rich food for a variety of creatures including osprey, striped bass, and whales. 

Anglers, conservationists and scientists have long been concerned that the scale of the fishery concentrated in the Chesapeake Bay could lead to a lack of sufficient menhaden, causing ripple effects throughout the food chain for commercially and recreationally important species such as striped bass, bluefish, and weakfish.  

Virginia is the only state along the Atlantic Coast to still allow reduction fishing for menhaden in its waters. All other states have banned the practice. 

The Bay’s population has been suffering from low menhaden recruitment for over 20 years, meaning fewer young fish survive to adulthood. In addition, many of the Bay’s historically iconic species are moving northward as the Bay’s waters warm. 

Currently, annual limits on menhaden are based on data on the coastwide population, counting fish from New England to the Carolinas. That does not take into account potential concerns many have expressed here in the Chesapeake Bay region. More local data is vitally needed.  

Chesapeake Bay Foundation Virginia Executive Director Chris Moore issued the following statement.

“This is supremely disappointing. 

“In the Virginia Way, representatives from the conservation community, Omega Protein, and VIMS hammered out an agreement last year on how to proceed to develop more science on menhaden in both a timely and cost-effective manner. Omega’s lack of support for funding the study is unfortunately not the Virginia Way.  

“The lack of a menhaden study leaves far too many questions unanswered and far too many of the Commonwealth’s resources expended over the last year wasted. The bill simply asks the General Assembly to start the work of funding the consensus- based research recommendations. By opposing funding for these important research questions, Omega Protein once again proves they are not acting in good faith for the Chesapeake Bay, but rather only for their own pockets.   

“Decision makers need more data to make science-backed and sound decisions to ensure a robust population of menhaden for generations to come.” 

After 38 years of distinguished public service, including more than 20 years in Congress, U.S. Rep. C.A. “Dutch” Ruppersberger announced he will not seek reelection when his current term ends in January 2025. 

Chesapeake Bay Foundation Vice President for Environmental Protection and Restoration Alison Prost issued this statement:

“Representative Ruppersberger has been a stalwart champion of the Chesapeake Bay cleanup. As a senior member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, Representative Ruppersberger has been instrumental in helping direct millions of dollars to local projects to restore and conserve the Bay and its fisheries. 

“Whether securing funds to restore oysters in the Bay or upgrade Baltimore’s troubled Back River sewage treatment plant, Rep Ruppersberger has worked tirelessly to benefit the Bay, its waterways, and the people of Maryland’s second congressional district.

“The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is deeply grateful for Representative Ruppersberger’s dedication to revitalizing the economic engine and natural wonder we all hold so dear.”

Commercial and Recreational Fisheries Changes Coming to Address Low Fish Numbers

Aiming to rebuild the East Coast’s striped bass population, an Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) panel yesterday approved an update to its fisheries management plan. The action, known as Addendum II, was designed to reduce striped bass mortality through changes in recreational and commercial fisheries for all Atlantic Coast states. This follows an ASMFC emergency action last year that decreased the maximum size limit in the recreational fishery to 31 inches.

Notably, the final version of the plan approved by ASMFC includes:

• Recreational fishery changes, including the following:
  • In the Chesapeake Bay, a one-fish limit and a slot limit only allowing fish between 19 inches and 24 inches to be kept;  
  • For fisheries along the Atlantic Coast, a one-fish limit and a slot limit only allowing fish between 28 inches and 31 inches to be kept; 
• A 7 percent reduction in the commercial harvest quotas;
• The ability for the Board to quickly implement new conservation measures if the upcoming stock assessment shows the need for such action; and, 
• Both the commercial and recreational measures in the Addendum must be implemented by May 1, 2024.

The Atlantic striped bass population has struggled in recent years due to a several factors, including fishing above sustainable levels, water quality and habitat challenges, and climate change. 

Poor striped bass reproduction is also a major concern. Last year, surveys in key nursery areas along much of the Atlantic Coast showed low numbers of juvenile striped bass. This indicates that there will be fewer large fish in the future for reproduction of the species, as well as fewer fish for anglers to catch. 

The 2023 survey of juvenile striped bass in the Chesapeake Bay showed numbers far below average in Maryland for the fifth year in a row, as well as below average numbers in Virginia. Surveys last year in New York’s Hudson River, another striped bass nursery area, showed juvenile striped bass numbers near an all-time low since the survey began in the mid-1980s. 

CBF Maryland Executive Director Allison Colden issued the following statement. 

“The low numbers of young striped bass were an alarm bell for immediate action. From the Chesapeake to the Hudson, last year’s scarcity of juvenile striped bass mean spawning fish will be rare in years to come. To ensure a viable fishery in the future, enough of today’s large striped bass must survive to reproduce.

“The ASMFC’s striped bass fisheries management plan update takes important action toward achieving the fishing rate target in 2024. This is a critical step to ensuring rebuilding of the population by 2029 remains on track. 

“The recreational fishery reductions are expected to achieve necessary striped bass population levels. But the Board stopped short of implementing the recommended 14.5 percent reduction for commercial fisheries, opting instead to reduce commercial quotas by 7 percent. 

“It is now up to East Coast states to institute additional limits to protect spawning striped bass and limit fishing during the hottest months when fish are most vulnerable. Moving quickly to implement the new ASMFC management measures, as well as adopting additional summer fishery closures currently being considered by Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources, are the most important next steps.”