Maryland fisheries briefing: striped bass juvenile decline, strong adult biomass; oysters and invasive catfish shape management agenda

Secretary Kurtz briefed the Environment and Transportation Committee on the state of Maryland fisheries, saying managers see “high biomass for our adult spawners” of striped bass even as juvenile indices remain weak and new science is needed to guide next-year management decisions.

The briefing explained why survey design matters and how past mistakes inform current practice. “A lot of it can be traced back to the collapse of the Atlantic cod fishery in 1992,” Kurtz said, describing how overreliance on harvest data rather than broad scientific surveys contributed to a catastrophic collapse that cost jobs and ecology. The department performs 33 surveys statewide and staffs year-round fieldwork to track species across the Susquehanna Flats, Tangier Sound, the Atlantic approaches and the Potomac.

The nut graf: managers face competing signals that complicate short-term decisions and interstate coordination. At the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) and other regional bodies, Maryland must align state interests with coastwide rules; that alignment is a driver of recent motions on sector separation and of ongoing science work intended to produce peer-reviewed data usable at ASMFC.

On striped bass, Kurtz said…