It's no mystery that Striped bass fishing in northeast U.S. waters is in trouble. It's been on a steady decline for the past ten years. I have been keeping personal records of stripers I have caught as a purely recreational angler as well as records of stripers caught aboard my boat as a charter captain. The numbers are down, way down. What are the reasons for this steady and precipitous decline? Depending upon who you talk to or what you read, the reasons span a broad spectrum:

• Recreational fishing mortality

• Poaching by both recreational and commercial anglers

• Commercial fishing culling the catch to take only the largest fish, i.e. pulling from the population the breeders, and injuring in the process (ultimately killing) smaller fish by poor handling

• Inadequate enforcement by regulatory authorities of laws that govern the size and numbers of legal fish

• Lack of sufficient forage i.e. overfishing of the primary forage species of striped bass such as menhaden

• Changes in the climate that affect water temperature

• The spread of mycobacteriosis, a disease that severely affects the health of striped bass in their primary nursery, Chesapeake Bay.

The list goes on.

In Rhode Island as in nearby Massachusetts and Connecticut we are at a crossroads as respects the opportunity to have some effect on reversing this alarming trend of a striped bass decline, some would argue decimation. If I had it my way, I would implement a complete across the board moratorium on killing striped bass. I would afford them the protected status of a game fish, something that the organization Stripers Forever (https://www.stripersforever.org/) has been advocating for many years. I can personally accomplish that for my charter business by adopting a total catch and release policy for stripers which I actually put in place beginning in 2014 that will again be in force for the 2015 season. Fact is, for my business (www.SkinnyWaterChartersRI.com), 100% of my fly fishing charter guests have always practiced catch and release for stripers and probably 95% of my light tackle guests, same thing.... let'em go.

That apparently is too radical a position for virtually 100% of the charter fleet to ever sign up for, who claim that affording the opportunity for their guests to harvest stripers is the make or break proposition for the livelihood of their business. Likewise, it apparently is also too radical a position for the vast majority of recreational anglers to endorse. So at least for the near to mid-term, stripers will continue to die for all the reasons I've enumerated.

The crossroad reference I made earlier has to do with the current opportunity for the public to weigh-in with the state regulators to attempt to season their thinking as they finalize their respective state regulations that affect striped bass harvests. In Rhode Island the two individuals that have this responsibility are Janet Coit (janet.coit@dem.ri.gov) who is the Director of the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management and her assistant, Peter Duhamel (peter.duhamel@dem.ri.gov). They are considering several options, one of which will become the final rule for Rhode Island striped bass fishing for 2015 and beyond. Each of us has the opportunity to voice our concern to these officials to influence their final decision. (You do not need to be a Rhode Island resident to voice your recommendation).

My recommendation of the several that have been presented is referred to as "Option 1: One striper greater than 28" for all of recreational fisherman." (This includes guests aboard any charter boat).

Peter Jenkins, the owner of The Saltwater Edge (http://www.saltwateredge.com/), a personal friend and advocate of striped bass conservation, has authored an excellent blog on his website that succinctly summarizes the opportunity and value proposition of attempting to influence the decision by the DEM regulators. Please follow the following link to Peter's blog to better understand the opportunity, and how you can voice your opinion/vote to these officials (http://www.saltwateredge.com/blog/). The Rhode Island DEM has set a deadline of February 25 (this coming Wednesday) to have your recommendation considered in their final decision.

Thanks for your time in reading this post and hopefully for your email to both of these officials casting your vote.

Jim