[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 18]
[Senate]
[Page 26575]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                 ATLANTIC STRIPED BASS CONSERVATION ACT

  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, I rise today in support of a provision in 
H.R. 2903, the Atlantic Striped Bass Conservation Act. This legislation 
authorizes a population study of Atlantic striped bass to determine if 
there is sufficient diversity in year classes to ensure successful 
recruitment and healthy stocks for continued commercial and 
recreational fishing.
  The Atlantic striped bass is considered one of the success stories in 
recent fisheries management. Striped bass stocks along the Atlantic 
coast experienced precipitous declines during the 1970s and early 
1980s. This decline was attributed to the increase in the number of 
recreational and commercial fishermen, and the use of increasingly 
efficient gear. Because the decline was widespread and encompassed 
multiple jurisdictions, recovery efforts were delegated to the Atlantic 
States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) under the authority of the 
Striped Bass Conservation Act of 1984, and later the Atlantic Coastal 
Fisheries Cooperative Act of 1993. The ASMFC consists of coastal member 
states from Maine to Florida.
  In an effort to rebuild striped bass stocks, the ASMFC halted both 
commercial and recreational fishing for striped bass beginning in the 
mid- 1980s. The ASMFC began to allow limited recreational and 
commercial fishing for striped bass in the early 1990s, when striped 
bass began to show signs of recovery. Today even though stock abundance 
remains high, cautious vigilance of coast-wide fisheries performance 
and its impact on resource conditions should continue to be a primary 
task of the ASMFC.
  The Atlantic Striped Bass, or stripers as they are known in the Bay 
state, are the number one recreational fishery in Massachusetts. In 
1999 recreational fishermen caught 4.7 million stripers in the Bay 
state, this represents 33 percent of all stripers caught along the East 
coast from North Carolina to Maine. While most states allow anglers to 
keep two fish, Massachusetts allows anglers one fish, so that even 
though 33 percent of all stripers are caught in Massachusetts, only 10 
percent of the recreational landings occur in Massachusetts. The 
difference between caught and landed fish is fish caught and released. 
Massachusetts has a small commercial fishery for the striped bass as 
well. In 1999 commercial fishermen landed 40,000 stripers, which 
represented 4 percent of the commercial harvest on the East coast.
  These figures do not even begin to represent what stripers mean to 
our economy. In a 1996 US Fish and Wildlife Service survey the agency 
estimated that 886,000 anglers spent 10.7 million days fishing for 
striped bass in salt water during 1996. Average expenditures for all 
Atlantic Coast saltwater trips were about $800 per angler in 1996, for 
a total estimated annual expenditure in this fishery of $762 million.
  Stripers are an anadromous fish that frequents brackish waters and 
depends on a healthy estuarine ecosystem for its survival. As such, it 
is affected by non-point source pollution and habitat loss and 
degradation, more so than an offshore fish. I am very concerned that 
without a national program to identify and reduce sources of non-point 
pollution, that eventually our striper stocks will again crash as they 
did in the 1970s. On two occasions the United States Senate has passed 
S. 1534, the Coastal Zone Management Act of 2000. This bill authorizes 
states to apply for funding that specifically targets non-point 
pollution, and in turn help striped bass populations. Mr. President, 
the sound policies of S. 1534 will help the striped bass.

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