Tuesday, December 26, 2023

Not a good sign (and climate change is involved)

 



Rockfish aka striped bass, is one of the important sportfishes in the Chesapeake Bay and the coastal Atlantic Ocean. And I've seen some nice fishing contests featuring rockfish.

They're fun to catch, especially the big ones. But the more people keep doing that, the more the prime breeding stock gets reduced.

So this doesn't make me happy at all. 

As rockfish population shrinks, Maryland shortens the fishing season
The stock of Maryland’s state fish, also known as the striped bass, is troublingly low along the Atlantic coast

And what, aside from popularity, do you think part of the problem might be?

" “We need the colder winter,” said Michael Luisi, associate director for tidal and coastal management and science for the Department of Natural Resources. “We need a snow melt in the spring that produces the right water quality and conditions in the bay.”

Good guess. 


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