Regulators have done little to protect bay population
By Candus Thomson- The Baltimore Sun
Ten ugly truths to ponder as you take part in the spring striped bass fishing season — enjoy it while it lasts.
Fact: In 2001, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission approved management objectives and benchmarks to protect the Atlantic menhaden, a small fish that lives in the Chesapeake Bay and along the Atlantic Coast that filters water and is a major food source for striped bass and other important fish and bird species.
Fact: Nine years later, the regulatory group has done a lot of posturing and not much protecting.
Fact: The most recent menhaden stock assessment indicates the mortality rate is flirting with the threshold of overfishing and has crossed the line at least three, but likely four, times in the past decade.
Fact: Not once since 1980 have regulators managed to hit the mortality target, or goal. Not even the 1988 Orioles could match that 0-29 record.
Fact: Scientists acknowledge that despite more than $5 million in research grants and an increase in the amount of information they have on the menhaden population along the Eastern Seaboard, they still can't offer an assessment for the Chesapeake Bay and don't know when they might accomplish the task.
Fact: The number of eggs produced each year is well above the target, but the number of egg-producing fish has declined substantially since 1980. Fishing mortality is low in sexually immature menhaden (1-3 years old), but the mortality rate in older fish is well above the ASMFC benchmark.
Fact: Maryland, the spawning ground and nursery for 75 percent of East Coast striped bass, does not allow commercial menhaden fishing in its portion of the bay. In Virginia, menhaden are the only saltwater fish regulated by state lawmakers. The Virginia Marine Resources Commission handles everything else. Two bills filed last session to eliminate the exception died quickly.
Fact: In November, the ASMFC caved in to Virginia and extended a five-year cap on commercial menhaden fishing in the Chesapeake Bay by not one year, but three. The extension was granted a year before it was set to expire and just months before the stock assessment was due.
Fact: As Virginia's attorney general, Bob McDonnell — now governor — wrote a 2006 opinion saying the ASMFC had no legal standing to cap the harvest of menhaden by the commercial fleet of Omega Protein based in that state and that Virginia was not bound to comply with it. Omega, the only player in the bay, gave McDonnell a total of $29,744 in campaign money and $62,000 to key state lawmakers.
Fact: Monday is the first day Omega Protein's steamer fleet — directed by spotter planes — is allowed by Virginia to begin netting entire schools of menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay to be processed into heart-healthy fish oil pills.
Pitiful. So now what?
The ASMFC is meeting this week in Northern Virginia, and Wednesday afternoon it will take up the menhaden issue for the one billionth time. If the commission follows its well-worn script, anything Maryland proposes will be opposed by Virginia while the rest of the "regulators" la-di-da their way to cocktail hour.
In ASMFC talk, that would be Option 1, status quo. Will that be straight up or on the rocks, Mr. Commissioner?
Clearly, someone will have to force the issue.
Recreational fishing groups, such as the Maryland Saltwater Sportfishermen's Association and Coastal Conservation Association Maryland, have promised to be there.
"We're seeing a significant decline in the health of striped bass. They are getting sick, and they are malnourished. A well-fed striped bass is more resistant to disease," said MSSA executive director Dave Smith, who believes ASMFC is dragging its feet.
"They're moving too slowly. They're not making decisions. They're deferring to Virginia too much," said Smith, ticking off the problems. "All we want is for them to hit their stock target levels. Why have them if you're not going to even try honoring them?"
Indeed, by ASMFC's most recent calculations, menhaden were overfished in 1999, 2002 and 2006. Scientists and numbers crunchers believe overfishing occurred in 2008 as well.
CCA-Maryland's Scott McGuire said the new stock assessment "is the first opportunity to demonstrate that there is a problem."
We've got eyebrows fully raised," McGuire said. "Hopefully, it will push the issue forward."
The agenda shows the ASMFC has carved out just two hours and 45 minutes from the four-day meeting for menhaden. After being briefed on the stock assessment, the commissioners have set aside 25 minutes to "consider whether a change in the management plan should be initiated" before 5:30 p.m. adjournment and happy hour.
Maryland will need eight of the 17 ASMFC votes to begin revising the way it looks at menhaden, protects the spawning stock and brings the commercial harvest in line with the mortality target.
It isn't just a bay issue anymore. Here's hoping the vote isn't a cliffhanger
Flounder fishing season extended; 'keeper' size made bigger
By Candus Thomson - Baltimore Sun reporter
Bowing to public sentiment, state fisheries managers have agreed to give coastal anglers a longer summer flounder season this year in return for making the minimum size of a "keeper" fish slightly bigger.
Under emergency regulations being proposed this week by the Department of Natural Resources, anglers on the coast and the Chesapeake Bay will be allowed to fish from April 17 to Nov. 22, keep three fish daily, with a minimum size of 19 inches. The proposal was unanimously endorsed Monday night by the Sport Fish Advisory Commission.
Fisheries Service director Tom O'Connell said he and his staff had misread the sentiments of Ocean City anglers and fishing industry representatives when they had proposed a shorter season and a half-inch shorter minimum size. Biologists feared that with other fish species off limits or on a reduced season this year to protect dwindling numbers, anglers would turn to flounder and Maryland would exceed its annual quota set by federal regulators.
"We've exceeded our harvest for several years and we're trying to get back on the right side of things," O'Connell said. "We're trying to make a prudent decision so we don't put ourselves in a bad situation next year."
But at a February meeting, fisheries biologists and managers of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the regulatory board that sets many of the rules and quotas for many Eastern Seaboard species, approved both proposals.
O'Connell cautioned that while DNR was backing the longer season, it reserved the right to end it before Nov. 22 if early monitoring data showed Maryland anglers were catching too many fish. Also, he said, the agency will be keeping tabs on catch information from northern states to see how the season is playing out. Maryland's flounder quota this year is 75,000 fish.
Meanwhile, O'Connell said the commercial yellow perch season has been closed on the Chester River and the upper Chesapeake Bay after quotas in both areas were exceeded.
Recreational and conservation groups have fought for years to ban or restrict commercial yellow perch fishing, saying nets stretched across bay tributaries where the fish spawn were reducing the population. In 2008, the General Assembly approved tighter restrictions on watermen, which took effect in January 2009. Watermen are required to obtain a yellow perch harvest permit and to tag and report their daily catch to provide greater accountability and improve harvest data.
But despite those safeguards, catch numbers this year exceeded DNR's targets.
In the upper bay, watermen were allowed to take 39,949 pounds of yellow perch, but landed 49,629 pounds. The Chester River quota of 7,800 pounds was exceeded by nearly 1,000 pounds.
FOX 5 Investigates: Fish Oil
By TISHA THOMPSON - myfoxdc
Part 1
Part 2
Fish oil supplements. They’re supposed to be a quick and easy way to improve your health. But a FOX 5 Investigation shows you how these little pills are causing a big controversy about the future of the Chesapeake Bay.
Click for Complete Story
License, which needs General Assembly approval, would end free fishing on Atlantic and on coastal bays behind Ocean City
State officials want to implement a comprehensive $15 saltwater fishing license starting next year to bring Maryland into compliance with federal law and keep revenue here that otherwise would be funneled to Washington.
The license proposal, which is expected to be introduced in General Assembly as early as Friday, would end free fishing for anglers on the Atlantic Ocean and on the coastal bays behind Ocean City.
In addition, the bill would: increase the length of short-term licenses from five to seven days; establish a free registry for anglers fishing from pleasure boats, waterfront property owners and their immediate family fishing from their property and individuals fishing in a free fishing area; create reciprocal fees for non-resident tidal licenses; and authorize a commercial pier fishing license.
Finally, the bill maintains residential recreational fishing license prices established by the General Assembly in 2007 but scheduled to sunset later this year.
Fisheries Service Director Tom O'Connell said that in light of the economy and the state's desire to promote fishing opportunities it would be counterproductive to raise prices. For the sake of simplicity, the agency also opted not to have separate saltwater licenses for the coast and the Chesapeake Bay. The same thinking went into extending the length of the short-term licenses.
"For the coastal bay community and families vacationing at Deep Creek Lake, this gives them the opportunity to fish for a whole week at the same cost," O'Connell said.
The bill is in response to a law, passed by Congress and signed by then-President George W. Bush, that requires an annual census of saltwater anglers to provide a more accurate picture of the type and the number of fish being caught to prevent overfishing. For the eight coastal states--including Maryland--that lack a comprehensive saltwater license, a free National Saltwater Angler Registry is providing a one-year transition period. As a result, millions of anglers must go online (countmyfish.noaa.gov) or call 888-674-7411 to register before they fish.
But next year the national registry, administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is expected to cost anglers $20 to $30. That money will go to the U.S. Treasury.
Later this year, Maryland will be switching to a new computer system to handle licensing and boat registrations, and officials hope to have permission from state lawmakers to implement the new license on Jan. 1. Revenue from a Maryland saltwater license would stay in state.
National Saltwater Angler Registry
OCEAN CITY - In the most sweeping change for Maryland anglers in 25 years, tens of thousands of residents and vacationers who fish in the Chesapeake Bay or wet a line in the Atlantic Ocean or its coastal bays will be required to register with the federal government.
The National Saltwater Angler Registry, authorized by Congress, is a new tool for scientists to get a better handle on the numbers of recreational anglers and migratory fish caught - part of their effort to protect species and rebuild dwindling stocks.
At 4 a.m. Friday, telephone operators at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are set to begin issuing registration numbers to anglers in eight coastal states - including Maryland - whose licenses lack details the federal government requires. Online sign-up is available at countmyfish.noaa.gov.
The national registry is free in the inaugural season, but registration in 2011 and beyond could cost as much as $25.
For Chesapeake anglers, especially those fishing for striped bass, the registry adds a step to the annual ritual of getting ready for a new season that includes buying a license and cleaning off the tackle box. But anglers in Ocean City and on Assateague Island fear it marks the beginning of the end of free fishing.
This week, Maryland Department of Natural Resources biologists started fanning out to tackle shops and fishing clubs to spread the word and explain the registry. So far, the reaction is mixed.
"I think it stinks because it's Mother Nature out there and they're going to charge for it?" said Cindy Sullivan, who works at Bucks Place on the road to Assateague Island. "It's going to be another way for the government to stick a hand in our pockets."
But just down the road, John Henry, a commercial fisherman who owns a bait and tackle shop bearing his name, was a little more philosophical.
"We need to conserve and we need to have better data so we know what we're doing. I think people will be OK with it if it'll help the resource and help them keep catching fish," he said.
For three decades, the NOAA and other fisheries management agencies relied on information collected through the Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey. Staff waited dockside or visited piers and jetties to interview anglers and count and measure their catches. They also randomly called people listed in phone books, hoping to connect with someone who fished.
There was only one problem: MRFSS - or Mur-fiss, as scientists and fishermen alike call it - was designed to provide an annual coast-wide assessment of fish populations, not the kind of information policy makers and managers needed to set seasons and catch totals. As a result, MRFSS numbers were widely mocked and challenged by fisheries officials in coastal states and those in the recreational fishing industry.
"We've been living a nightmare," said Martin Gary, assistant director of Maryland's Fisheries Service. "Sea bass and amberjack seasons closed this year with no warning and we were told we exceeded our flounder quota based on MRFSS."
In 2006, the National Research Council, a scientific panel that advises Congress, confirmed suspicions, noting "serious flaws" and "inadequate analysis methods" in MRFSS. Its recommendation to overhaul the system resulted in the creation of the registry.
The new system creates "a phone book of fishermen" that will allow the NOAA to collect timely information by interviewing anglers about the number and type of fish they caught and where they caught them, said Gordon Colvin, who spearheaded the NOAA program.
Anglers registering will be asked to provide their names, dates of birth, addresses, telephone numbers and the states where they expect to fish. They will receive a confirmation number that will allow them begin fishing immediately. A wallet-sized registration card will arrive in the mail in about 30 days.
"Most people, once you talk to them, can accept the fact that there's a need to get better data than running your finger down the Manhattan phone book and picking out names," said Colvin, who expects to register between three million and six million anglers this year. "What we're doing is starting with an empty book that we hope to fill over time."
Fifteen coastal states have saltwater licenses and NOAA anticipates that the eight remaining coastal states will come up with their own registration systems and take over the process. Already, New Hampshire and Massachusetts have approved licenses to take effect in 2011. Legislation has been proposed in Virginia to bring its saltwater license into compliance.
Maryland officials are working to account for anglers exempted from buying a saltwater license, including those on the Atlantic Coast.
But replacing or modifying the Bay Sport License, created in 1985, will require General Assembly action next session. If the legislature approves the license, any money raised in 2011 and beyond would stay in state. If lawmakers reject the proposal, registry fees paid by Maryland anglers would go to the federal government.
"The whole process is necessary. A license is necessary," said Budd Heim, president of the 300-member Atlantic Chapter of the Maryland Saltwater Sportfishermen's Association. You go somewhere else and you have to have a license. What's so different about Maryland?"
The new rules
What: National Saltwater Angler Registry
Who: Maryland anglers who fish in tidal waters, including the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries
When: Beginning Jan. 1
Cost: Free for 2010
Exemptions: Anglers under 16; anglers on charter boats or head boats; anglers with Highly Migratory Species permits
How: Call 1-888-674-7411, 4 a.m.-midnight or via or via www.countmyfish.nooa.gov
Let's not harass stripers; future may depend on it
By Candus Thomson- The Baltimore Sun
As meetings go, Monday night's open house about proposed regulations to protect striped bass was a head scratcher.
Members of the group with "conservation" in its name were saying very unconservationlike things. So were other recreational anglers.
Essentially, they want to continue to harass, unencumbered by rules, egg-laden female striped bass as they swim to their spawning grounds in the upper Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries in March and April.
Harass is a harsh word, I know. The dictionary says the word means: "to trouble, worry or torment." So harass is exactly the right word.
Here's what happens. A boat spiked with a dozen or so fishing rods slowly trolls the water. When a huge fish strikes, the angler reels it in, most likely hauls it over the gunwales in a net, poses for pictures and then dumps the fish back over the side.
That's catch-and-release, Maryland style.
The Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Service will be proposing regulations Tuesday to slow - not halt - the practice. Recreational anglers in favor of retaining the "preseason season" say it doesn't harm the fish and are willing to take a chance with the future. Charter boat captains want to err on the side of conservation.
A compromise is possible if everyone isn't so dug in and in love with the sound of his own voice - more on that in a minute. Protecting the fish should be the bottom line here.
Female striped bass cruise the Eastern seaboard all year, working their way from the Carolinas to New England, stopping in the Chesapeake on their way north each spring to spawn. Seventy-five percent of the striped bass on the East Coast start their lives here, making Maryland the most important stop in the life cycle.
For that reason, the Department of Natural Resources doesn't allow recreational anglers to catch and keep stripers until the third Saturday in April. Before the season starts, however, an area near the mouth of the Susquehanna River called The Flats has been established to allow catch-and-release fishing.
But anglers with cabin fever have started going out on the main stem of the bay early to knock the rust off their skills and get their boats ready for the opening Saturday in April. The practice has been growing in recent years, though the numbers used by the Fisheries Service are somewhat fuzzy.
One thing is certain: The agency's annual Young-of-the-Year census of year-old stripers that dates to the 1950s shows that the bay in recent years has not been a hospitable nursery.
Exercising caution, the Fisheries Service proposal most likely will eliminate the use of bait and certain kinds of hooks that cause deep wounds, limit the number of rods on each boat to six and reduce the number of fishing days each week to three from March 1 until the third Saturday in April.
To allow fishing to continue unabated, biologist Lynn Fegley says, "would be irresponsible."
It also would draw the attention of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which sets Maryland's striped bass quota and has a history of challenging the state's management policies. (If you have any doubts about regional interest, read a story in last Sunday's Maine Sunday Telegram titled, "As Chesapeake Bay Goes ... So Goes Maine's Striped Bass Population" at pressherald.mainetoday.com.)
But closer to home, there are state lawmakers who would be more than happy to legislatively close the striped bass season until late April or May and claim the title of conservationist.
Here's a compromise: Drop the cap on the number of fishing days each week in favor of a ban on lifting the fish into the boat. It's better for the fish ( Florida does it with tarpon), and it's easily enforceable.
The Sport Fish Advisory Commission gets those harsh political realities and last month voted to back new regulations.
Coastal Conservation Association Maryland likes the status quo, a strange position for an organization that successfully pushed for a yellow perch conservation law to ensure that those fish reached their spawning ground unmolested by commercial nets. Maryland Saltwater Sportfishermen's Association is part of the "us, too," chorus.
No one knows whether catching pre-spawn striped bass stresses them so that they don't spawn or to the point that the eggs are not viable. But one look at the YOY survey makes you wonder if something bad is happening on our watch.
"We are concerned about the stock status," acknowledges Tom O'Connell, Fisheries Service director.
If Maryland curbs its fishing appetite, the worst thing that could happen is that we have more fish in years to come.
What's wrong with that?
Search may be last for Md. fish not seen in 2 decades
By Timothy B. Wheeler - Baltimore Sun reporter
Last call for the Maryland darter. The elusive little fish, one of the rarest in the world, hasn't been seen in 21 years. Now, government and university biologists are teaming up for one more, perhaps final search for it in Harford County, where it's never been spotted more than sporadically since it was first noticed almost a century ago in a fast-flowing creek near Havre de Grace.
Named for the only state in which it's ever been found, this bottom-feeding member of the perch family has been seen in just three creeks off the lower Susquehanna River. No one has spied more than a handful of them at any one time since the 1960s. Repeated efforts to locate them in the past two decades have come up empty-handed.
But biologists say they're going to give it one more go, and at least some believe there's a chance they'll still find it, using new gear and searching for in at least one new place - the lower Susquehanna itself.
"It provides a little bit of hope that, hey, here's a new gear that's never been used before, let's pull it around in the river and see if by chance we pick it up," says Jay Kilian, a fisheries biologist with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
If it does turn up again, the find would be the biological equivalent of the Holy Grail, the rediscovery of something special that so many have searched for in vain - and all but written off as lost forever.
The darter was first spotted in 1912 by a pair of biologists collecting fish in Swan Creek, and a year later officially identified as a new species, Etheostoma sellare. It wasn't seen again until 1962, when some graduate students found another in Gasheys Run, a tributary to Swan Creek. About the same time, a bunch were found in Deer Creek, near where it empties into the Susquehanna.
Iconic journalist was Evening Sun's outdoors editor for 37 years, connected with generations of nature enthusiasts through print, radio and TV; 'We've lost a great guy. He was a legend'
By Candus Thomson - The Baltimore Sun
Bill Burton, who fished with presidents, Baltimore Colts and Orioles, told generations of Maryland anglers where the big ones were biting and was commissioned an Admiral of the Chesapeake by one governor, died early Monday morning. He was 82 and the cause of death was cancer.
A Pasadena resident, Burton was for 37 years the outdoors editor of the Evening Sun before taking a buyout in 1992. He continued to write for the Bay Weekly and The Capital in Annapolis until his second retirement in late June.
"It's a sad day. We've lost a great guy. He was a legend," said Brooks Robinson, the Orioles Hall of Fame third baseman who fished and hunted with Burton for many years.
A World War II veteran, Burton took up outdoors reporting and writing after doctors told him his injuries would restrict him to a desk job. A multimedia reporter decades before it came into vogue, he also did fishing reports on the radio and for WMAR-TV in addition to his Evening Sun duties. He was the editor of numerous regional hunting and fishing magazines and was a founding member of the Mason-Dixon Outdoors' Writers Association. In April, he was inducted into the Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association Hall of Fame.
"If you have something to do tomorrow, you probably won't die today," Burton once said in explaining his long career in print, radio and TV.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski called Burton "a first-rate reporter ... adviser and friend. I leaned on him often for sage political and Bay advice.
"Bill Burton has enriched the lives of so many," said Mikulski, who also fished with Burton every year. "He's been a one-man environmental movement, bringing joy and appreciation for the Bay to every reader who's picked up his column. To those lucky enough to call him a friend, he's brought endless mirth, mischief and wisdom. His legacy as an old-school journalist, environmentalist and sage Bay advocate will live on now and forever in Maryland lore."
Last month, the Board of Public Works approved a proposal by Gov. Martin O'Malley and the Department of Natural Resources to rename the Choptank River Fishing Pier in Burton's honor. In 1986, Burton had used his column to lobby for saving the structure, which carried U.S. 50 over the river, after a new span opened.
In a statement, O'Malley called Burton "an iconic figure in Maryland's outdoor history."
"The Bill Burton Fishing Pier State Park is a small but appropriate tribute to his life's work, and I'm pleased we were able to make the dedication while Bill was still with us," the governor said.
Burton loved to tell people he was a native Vermonter, born while fellow Vermonter Calvin Coolidge was president. The Coolidge part was true. In fact he was born in Providence, R.I., and ran away from home after his father wouldn't let him join the Navy. Determined to enlist in the Royal Canadian Air Force, he stopped in Vermont to say goodbye to an aunt, who convinced him to stay in Vermont to finish high school before enlisting.
He joined the Seabees and became an underwater demolition expert, serving in the Pacific Theater. While training for the invasion of Japan, the Americans dropped atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, ending the war.
After contracting rheumatic fever that damaged his heart valves, Burton received an honorable discharge. He returned home to Arlington, Vt., and attended Goddard College on the G.I. Bill. He became editor of the school paper and took a job with a Montpelier radio station to pay the bills.
He wrote for Rhode Island's Woonsocket Call and Providence Journal, the Springfield Union in western Massachusetts, Vermont's Bennington Banner and then the North Adams Transcript in western Massachusetts, where he met Ernest Imhoff, who was later managing editor of the Evening Sun. Then it was off to Alaska to be police reporter and outdoors columnist for the Anchorage Times.
Tiring of life in the frozen north, Burton worked his way back to civilization, stopping in Nebraska for a stint as managing editor of a semi-weekly, Plattsmouth Journal. It wasn't long until the Evening Sun came calling and Burton moved to Maryland.
"All I had to do was write six columns a week, do a fishing report, go where I wanted -- within reason -- with all mileage and expenses paid," Burton explained while on a fishing trip two years ago. "Basically I was fishing and hunting for a living."
In the mid 1960s, Evening Sun management convinced him to grow a beard "for a woodsier look," for television fishing reports and feature work, Burton recalled. The beard and his signature pipe remained for the rest of his life.
"He had more friends than anyone I knew, and they didn't have to be hunters or fishermen," said Imhoff.
With retirement from the Evening Sun came an invitation from President George H.W. Bush to go fishing. (His first presidential fishing trip was with Dwight Eisenhower on a trout stream near Gettysburg).
Sitting on a low-slung bass boat in the Potomac River, Bush urged Burton to come out of retirement.
He got a job teaching writing at Anne Arundel Community College and then went back to writing for other publications.
"He worshiped at the altar of daily life and he took us there with him," said Bay Weekly publisher Sandra Olivetti Martin, who edited Burton's columns.
Last fall, Burton wrote his own epitaph: "I've lived my life as I wanted, to the fullest, and have no regrets though time has worn me down."
And then he signed off the way he always did: "Enough said."
Burton is survived by his wife of 42 years, Lois; five daughters, Elizabeth Steere and Kathy Wientraub, both of Mapleville, R.I., Mary Snizek of Harrisville, R.I., Ellen Lyon of Pascoag, R.I. and Heather Boughey of Pasadena; a son, W. Joel Burton Jr. of San Francisco; 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Services will be held at 11 a.m. on Aug. 22 at Jenkins Memorial Church, 133 Riviera Drive, Pasadena. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Gibson Island Country School Library, 5191 Mountain Road, Pasadena, 21122.
Two New Maryland State Record Sharks Caught Off Ocean City
Ocean City, MD – Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced that anglers broke two state records in the 2009 Ocean City Shark Tournament. The first was a 642-pound thresher shark caught by Brent Applegit of Golden, Colo., and Jim Hughes of Ocean City, Md. caught the second, an 876-pound mako shark.
Applegit's catch broke the previous record of 613 pounds set by Don Lorden in 2003. It was his first shark catch. He and his brother were spending the Father’s Day weekend with their dad, an Ocean Pines resident. Hughes landed his mako shark, and shattered the old record of 766 pounds set by Frank Gaither in 1984. The shark was so large that Hughes needed a larger boat to haul it back to the Ocean City docks.
"These records are evidence of the great fishing opportunities Maryland has to offer,” said Governor Martin O’Malley. “You don’t need to catch sharks in the ocean, but everyone should enjoy a day of fishing in Maryland's waters."
The 2009 Maryland Fishing Challenge is a great opportunity to do just that, and more. Designed to promote recreational fishing in Maryland, recognize angler efforts and inspire environmental stewardship, the challenge began Friday, May 29th and runs through Labor Day, September 7, 2009. In May, DNR released specially tagged striped bass – one genuine Diamond Jim and 49 imposters – into the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Diamond Jim is worth $10,000 and his imposters $500. This Wednesday, July 1, fifty more tagged fish will be released at an event in Baltimore, and the new Diamond Jim will be worth $20,000, while the uncaught one will become another imposter. To learn more about the 2009 Maryland Fishing Challenge, visit http://dnr.maryland.gov/fishingchallenge/.
New Maryland State Record Striped Bass
Gary Smith caught this 57 lb 4 oz, 30 inch girth and 53 inches long, record breaking striper off the Assateague surf early in the morning on Saturday May 6th.
Piscatorial Quiz
Test your piscatorial knowledge, do you know what these terms mean?
Ocean City, MD – Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced that anglers broke two state records in the 2009 Ocean City Shark Tournament. The first was a 642-pound thresher shark caught by Brent Applegit of Golden, Colo., and Jim Hughes of Ocean City, Md. caught the second, an 876-pound mako shark.
