Maryland fisheries briefing: striped bass juveniles lag despite robust adults; officials push for more science and regional coordination

Secretary Kurtz told the Environment and Transportation Committee on Oct. 27, 2025, that Maryland’s fisheries show mixed signals and require more and better science to guide management decisions. The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) plans joint committees, peer‑reviewed workshops and pilot programs to refine surveys and prepare for management actions next year.

The briefing emphasized why survey design matters, tracing modern fisheries monitoring practices to the 1992 Atlantic cod collapse and the lesson that relying on harvest data alone can mask population declines. “That overreliance on that type of science really created a scenario where it appeared that there were twice as many fish in the water as there were,” Secretary Kurtz said, describing the economic and ecological impacts of that moratorium and the need for survey‑based science now.

The most immediate concern discussed was striped bass. DNR reported high adult biomass and low fishing mortality — signs of a strong population of large, trophy fish — but persistent declines in the juvenile index for recent years. Kurtz said multiple, age‑class‑specific surveys are used to avoid missing cohorts, and that some surveys (for example, a gill net survey in 2022) identified three‑year‑old fish that did not appear in the juvenile index. Kurtz said Maryland has convened a joint striped bass…